The Little Roodee is a Car / Coach Car Park located just inside the City Walls next to the Grosvenor Bridge and allows Motorhome parking during the day and overnight parking.

The Little Roodee Cafe has toilet facilities and information leaflets and you can pick up the open top tour bus from the car park.

You can walk into Chester town centre or take a riverside walk.  If you’ve never been to Chester then you’ll enjoy the visit because it’s a lovely old town with some beautiful buildings and it has a strong Roman heritage like York and they are very proud of this.  You can actually take a guided walk with a Roman Centurian and the open top bus tour will entice you with all the Historic snippets to wet your appetite for more.

Here is a great little site that will tell you all about what Chester has to offer.

This kind of facility certainly seems to be on the increase at last and whenever I see one I’ll put it on the site.  If you hear of any others please let me know.

Related posts:

1. Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site; Part 2

The site is run to the clubs usual excellent standards but there were a couple of negative points I noticed when we were there a week ago.

• The first of which was that they only had one booking in point in reception so although there were two wardens on duty they could only book one person in at a time.

• The second was that although there are 217 pitches, and at this time of the year I would imagine these are full most of the time, I don’t consider the toilet amenities adequate for that number, especially when you consider the average number of people per pitch must be 3 at least.

This leads me on to a particular bugbear that I have with regard to the planning of toilet blocks by the Caravan Club.

Why is it that the Caravan Club insist on installing so many privacy cubicles at the expense of toilets and showers. One of the blocks at Cirencester Park has more privacy cubicles than toilets so whilst I had to queue for a toilet and then a shower the privacy cubicles were unused. Surely the Caravan Club needs to review it’s planning strategy and start equipping toilet blocks with what their customers want now and not what we may have wanted 30 years ago.  In any case, if you have a Motorhome or a Caravan then you have your own privacy cubicle anyway.  I also consider shared privacy cubicles as unhygenic and would never use one myself, let’s be honest and to the point, who knows what’s been washed in the basin prior to when you use it.

You also need to be careful with your choice of pitch at Cirencester Park if you like the sun because there is a lot of shade created by the trees in and around the site. Now obviously sun or shade can be a good thing depending on your requirements so you just need to be careful which pitch you choose so that you get what you want.

We also found the service road to the tennis courts, cricket club and the site had a lot of traffic and some of this was being driven way too fast, so you need to take care when walking on this road out of the site.

I do hope this post hasn’t come across as being negative in any way, it wasn’t meant to be I can assure you. I just thought I’d try to be a little constructive. Please let me know if you disagree or if you have similar views.

Related posts:

1. Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site; Part 2
2. Caravan Club vs Camping and Caravanning Club
3. Poolsbrook Caravan Club Site

There are a number of extremely positive aspects to a few days at Cirencester Park and here is my list of what I think are the best, and by the way, these are not in any particular order.

The site itself is very well laid out and if you choose carefully you can find a great pitch in the sun and one that is on the periphery of the site so that you don’t feel overcrowded.

It’s only a 15 minute walk to the town centre where you can find loads of interesting shops, an indoor market and an outdoor farmers market on a saturday, plenty of restaurants, pubs, a great museum and a lovely church etc.  If you walk out of the site up the drive you came down and turn left at the top you then follow the path into the town centre, easy peasy.

Incidentaly, across the road from the site you can follow the signs to the remains of the Roman Amphitheatre, but leave that for a morning visit on the day you leave.

After turning left after about a hundred yards you will see a gate on the left and this will take you into Cirencester Park which is a fabulous country walk with lots of hidden things to see – if you can find them of course.

If however you ignore the gate and keep going you will see a very attractive  Leisure Centre on the right, across the road, one that we haven’t used but I’m sure is very nice.

Just to the left of this leisure Centre you will see Waitrose which we did use and is a very nice shop with lots of goodies although it is a little expensive but there is a Tesco in the town if you prefer.

However you have decided to carry on into the town so you come to a left bend and if you follow this you will find;

• The main entrance to the Cirencester Park, very nice, looks oldy worldy, country houses etc.

• The open air swimming pool – that is if you keep going around the bend – not literally – but you will see it signposted down an alley/walkway.

Ignore the top two for another day and walk across the road and take the first right after going around this bend and you will see the Museum.  It’s a great museum, a bit like the Tardis, more that it seems, and you’ll find out all about the Roman history of Cirencester plus lots of other tit bits.  Cirencester is proud of it’s Roman heritage and claims to be the largest Roman Town in the UK – funny that cos I always thought York was but then I’m a Yorkist so would have.

When you come out of the Museum, brain humming with as much information as you can take in in one day, turn left and you will come across a superb butcher in about 100 yards, here you can buy lots of cook in the oven or barbecue goodies, we’ve tried quite a few and they are gorgeous. Chicken with stuff, lamb with stuff, everything with stuff – lovely.

Once you’ve filled your backpack with all those goodies walk out of the butchers and turn left, walk to the top of the street and turn right, walk down here and turn left and you’ll see the church.

Please, please, please go into the church, you will not be disappointed.  Its very old, very interesting and very well worth an hour of your precious time.

Okay so now you want to eat your picnic lunch, well okay, walk into the church grounds and you can wander down to the river through the old grounds of a monastery.  There are various rocky signs of the old foundations.  So spend another hour of your day having a picnic by the river.

Then make your way back to the church and across the road you will see the indoor market.  This is a refurbished building and inside you will find many stalls with local crafts including one selling home made shopping bags that we found very attractive and indeed bought one.

When you’ve finished in the market head back outside, turn left and left again at the next street and a couple of hundred yards down on the left is a deli / cafe / restaurant that does some gorgeous food both to eat in and take away.

Now you can wander aimlessly looking in the shops and head back to the site for a rest and maybe a barbecue.

Related posts:

1. Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site; Part 1
2. Poolsbrook Caravan Club Site
3. Caravan Club vs Camping and Caravanning Club

Unfortunately Clarks no longer manufacture shoes in this country and so their old factory area has been converted into a huge shopping complex that is quite amazing and will keep you occupied for hours.

The address of the complex is;

Clarks Village, Street, Somerset, BA16 0BB.  The telephone number for enquiries is 01458 840 064.

There are over 90 famous names stores such as M&S, Coast, Next, Monsoon, Gap, Joules, Sony, Timberland, Jaeger, Nike, Fat Face and of course Clarks.  The deal is that these stores offer you up to 60% off the normal retail price of the goods on offer and we certainly found some bargains when we were there.

They’ve catered for other aspects as well with toilets, eating places such as Starbucks and Burger King and there are plenty of seats so that you can rest those weary feet.

There are 2 large pay car parks and a coach park and when we were there mid week there was no problem with the parking but of course it’s liable to be a different story if you go at the weekend.

If you head towards the Southleaze car park/coach parking, instead of turning left into this car park, continue along Southleaze Road and you will see the sign posts for the Caravan/Motorhome parking and Employee car park.  Its about a 5 minute walk from the centre and free of charge.  You can always give them a call first to double check availability.

Incidentally, there is also a shoe museum near to the Clarks headquarters but we didn’t realise it was there until we had left so we never got a chance to have a look.

It’s a great place to visit and if you want to check out the website first then click here.

Related posts:

1. Motorhome Overnight Parking in Chester

What I did want to say was that we’ve been very unlucky with the weather this year, when we’re home it seems to be sunny and when we’re away in the Motorhome it isn’t – well that’s how it seems anyway.  A good example of that this year was Wimbledon fortnight which was the best 2 weeks of the year to date and we spent it at home watching the tennis.  Mind you, the tennis was good.

This weekend was different and for the first time this year we were able to have a barbecue on Friday and Saturday evening and we sat under the awning on Saturday Night – what a treat.  It’s amazing how the little things in life make us feel so good.

Let’s hope the good weather lasts.

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1. The Western Motorhome Show

The Court House was built by William Clifton who purchased Barrington in 1552 from the Daubney family. The house is built to a typical Elizabethan E-shaped design in mellow stone.

William Strode, whose father acquired Barrington Court in 1625, added the Strode House in 1674. These were the original farm buildings and stables and now contain the restaurant and shop.

When Barrington was purchased by the National Trust in 1907 it was little more than a derelict shell. The purchase was very controversial at the time because it cost the NT a small fortune and they did not have the funds to restore it.

It was in 1920 that a solution came to hand and Barrington was leased to the Lyle family who had made their fortune with growing and refining sugar. This provided the means and the vision to create the estate that exists today.

The family employed the architects Forbes and Tate in the restoration and they designed the new stone buildings, which flank the avenues to the North of the Court.

The varied and enchanting garden at Barrington dates from the 1920’s. It is laid out in a series of contrasting ‘rooms’ inspired by a very grand design for the whole property prepared by the architects with planting suggestions from Gertrude Jekyll. Each ‘room’ is a separate colour and planting scheme and as you walk through them you can appreciate the work that has gone into their design.  The property was eventually returned to the National Trust by the Lyle family in 1991.

The walled kitchen garden is magnificent and still used to provide produce for the restaurant whatever the season. It’s a lovely place to walk through and admire the various fruit trees and vegetables that are growing there.

The house contains no furniture so you can get a real feel for how it was in bygone years and fully appreciate Colonel Lyle’s skillful and sensitive restoration.

There is the usual NT shop which we always enjoy looking around and there is plenty to do and see and it’s another prime example of what the National Trust do best.

To find out more about Barrington click here.

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Most of the time we’re happy to either walk or to use public transport to somewhere specific but of course distance is a limiting factor with either of these modes of transport, especially the walking part.

Maybe, just maybe, the Caravan Club have come up with a solution.  They are offering a discounted car hire scheme from Enterprise Rent-A-Car.  Members can get 10% discount when hiring a car during their stay at a club site and the best part of this is that Enterprise will pick up and drop off to more than 80 club sites throughout England, Wales and Scotland.

The key points of this service are;

Good

• Free pick up and drop off service at more than 80 club sites
• Cars can be hired with a day’s notice for a minimum of 24 hours – 48 hours at weekends
• All cars are 6 months old or less
• You can drive up to 250 miles per day
• When you make the booking Enterprise will come and collect you from site, take you to the local office, complete the paperwork and off you go
• You return the car to the local office, complete the paperwork and then Enterprise takes you back to the site
• The minimum age limit is 23 or 25  years so I reckon we’re all covered
• Fully comprehensive insurance
• Breakdown recovery service

Bad

• You will need your driving licence and of course a credit card so they can take a £250 deposit in case you run off with the car, or wreck it somewhere, or drive through a bog and they have to clean it.  There’s no trust around nowadays!
• I don’t know how much it costs for a days hire so it may be prohibitive

If you want to make use of the service then ring 0870 350 3000 quoting reference 1UC0626 and your membership number.  Offices are open between 08.00 and 18.00 Mon – Fri and 9.00 and 12.00 on Saturday.

You can also log onto the club website to book if you’d prefer.

You need to check on the website to see if the site you are going to offers the service but here’s a summary;

• Cotswolds – 10 sites
• Cumbria – 3
• Devon and Cornwall – 9
• East Anglia – 8
• East Midlands – 1
• North East – 3
• North West – 4
• Peak District – 5
• Scotland – 4
• South East – 15
• South – 12
• Wales – 1
• West Midlands – 4
• Yorkshire – 6

If anyone decides to try the service or has already done so then please let us know and we’ll publish your thoughts.

Related posts:

1. Caravan Club vs Camping and Caravanning Club
2. Poolsbrook Caravan Club Site

We came from the South up the M1 and left at junction 29a and followed the Caravan Club directions only for the road to be closed due to reconstruction and I understand it will be closed for some time.  It will be worth checking with the site for the status of this.  There is a diversion route in place but we missed the signs so you need to keep an eye out for them as soon as you leave the motorway.  When we found the road closed I did a reroute on the TomTom and it directed us another way that was absolutely fine and so we found the site with no problems.  Maybe the Caravan Club should publicise this diversion on their website.

The key details for the site are;

• 86 pitches most of which are hardstanding
• 8 serviced pitches
• The usual laundry, veg prep areas etc
• Excellent toilet facilities
• TV reception is very poor although there are TV cable points in the electrical socket pillars
• A Motorhome service point that is very easy to use for a change
• The Pools Brook Country Park is a 2 minute walk

You can walk very easily to Staveley from the site in about 15 minutes and if you ask at reception they will give you the route.  The one thing I would say is that it is not a walk I would like to do in the dark but other than that it was fine.   Staveley is a small town that has a number of local shops but there were quite a few closed down and to be honest it didn’t feel a very inviting place.  There are some positives though because Staveley has a Morrisons, a bank, a couple of pubs and a very modern looking and very large leisure centre that has a swimming pool, gym cafe etc so all is not lost.

The Pools Brook Country Park is a 165 acre ex colliery that has been transformed into a country park with amenities such as a visitor centre, cafe and children’s play area.  There are lakes for fishing and extensive walks for cyclists and walkers to explore and the park connects to the Trans-Pennine Trail.  Chesterfield is about 5 miles down this trail and would be worth a visit.  We went down to the park and spent all afternoon walking around, watching the swans and geese, spotting some baby frogs and walking for miles eventually coming around in a circle to a viewing point from where you could see for miles.  We also had a bacon and egg bap at the cafe which was a real treat.

Nearby are some great places to visit such as Bolsover Castle,Hardwick Hall and Chatsworth House.

All in all we had a great time at Poolsbrook, we highly recommend it and we’ll certainly go back.

Related posts:

1. Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site; Part 1
2. Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site; Part 2
3. Caravan Club vs Camping and Caravanning Club

When you first arrive at the site you do get a very good impression, there are lots of trees, shrubs and grassy banks and the site has a mill stream running right through it.  There are a number of bridges over the stream which lead onto a number of small camping fields with the main camping area being towards the rear of the site.  It all makes for a very attractive site.

Getting there from the east on the M4 was not that easy and the site post code didn’t go down well with the Satnav.  The best thing is to follow the instructions from the web site and leave the M4 at junction 18, follow the A46 towards bath, making sure you stay left before the overpass and then stick to the A4 which keeps you out of Bath centre.  You need to keep heading towards Bristol and after what seems like an eternity you come to a roundabout with the Globe Inn.  From there turn left towards Newton St Loe and in about a mile turn left for the Newton Mill site.

The greeting at reception was very good, nice and friendly and we were given a map of the site and everything was explained in detail including where to get the bus into Bath – I’ll post separately about Bath.

The cost for 2 nights was £56 which did seem expensive but the site has a bar and restaurant and award winning loos so on the basis that you get what you pay for I didn’t whinge – I thought I’d reassess later.

Friday afternoon we had a stroll around the site to suss the place out and whilst we were keen to find a menu for the restaurant we didn’t so thought we’d just try it at opening time and hope for the best.  We didn’t feel like cooking after the journey and when a site has a bar/restaurant we can usually have a good time.

The restaurant opened at 6pm so off we trundled for a drink and hopefully some good food.  I’d like to say at this point that one of the great things about Motorhoming in France is the onsite bar/restaurant and we have never been disappointed.  As we usually use Caravan Club or Camping and Caravanning Club sites in the UK we don’t usually get the opportunity so we were looking forward to it.  There were lots of tables outside but the weather was a bit indifferent so we decided to sit inside.  Unfortunately it didn’t live up to our expectations, I had a local beer which was good and my better half had a glass of white wine which was like dishwater.  There were a number of tables to sit and eat at, no menus, but there was a blackboard with what I would call pub grub from 10 years ago and certainly not what you can get nowadays in pubs that call themselves restaurants.  Now to be fair we decided not to eat in because the place just didn’t feel inviting enough so I can’t criticize the food because I didn’t have any.

On Saturday we went into Bath for the day.  Getting the bus was easy enough although the footpath from the site is quite steep and on a wet day I would think it will be quite slippy so take care.

Sunday morning we went for a walk from the site along one of the footpaths.  You can walk into Bath along the riverbank and if you have bicycles then you can do the same or you can bike to Bristol.  You can also fish in the stream that runs through the site.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and we’ll certainly go back there because it’s perfectly positioned for a visit to Bath and we need to explore around the site a little more thoroughly.

Related posts:

1. Cirencester Park Caravan Club Site; Part 2

Now let me make a point here, I’m not a huge railway fan but I do appreciate the history around it and seeing how everything was built and of course the steam engines are truly magnificent.

The Steam Museum is dedicated to the Great Western Railway and is situated within the original GWR Swindon Railway Works factory, as is the shopping centre.  The whole area is exceptionally well laid out and there are lots of places to eat and relax.

The Steam Museum is very well signposted as you approach Swindon and is in Kemble Drive, SN2 2TA – the Satnav got us there with no problem.   The phone number is 01793 466637 and you can visit the web site by clicking here.

Here are some of the key things you will see when you visit;

• The introductory archive film with many stories from GWR workers

• The recreations of various parts of the railway works such as the moulding room and foundry and the carriage works

• You can get up very close to a huge steam engine and walk underneath it and this gives you the opportunity to realise just how magnificent it is

• There is a train driving simulator and an interactive signal box

• There’s also a platform with carriages and buffet

We meandered around the Steam Museum in a couple of hours but of course we could have spent much more time in there if we’d wanted to.  It certainly gives you a flavour for what life was like in the works and there is a great deal of information to look at and read so you can stay for as long as you need.

The balance of the Steam Museum alongside a shopping outlet works really well and there are lots of cafes to choose from so all tastes are catered for.  Go on, give it a go, you’ll really enjoy it.

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