Bladon Chains Caravan Club Site

We visited this site over October half term, taking our grandson with us for the 4 days we were there. We have used this site before in summer, as access to the south and it is well located if you are travelling from the north. A lovely stop in summer. Unfortunately the weather was mostly persistent rain and the site does not have enough hard standing places for vehicles. We also had to tackle cleaning the mud up every time we left and arrived back. We eventually were able to move to a hardstanding which made a big difference - I would agree that this site needs updating with more hard standing places and needs to close the grass areas out of summer months. The field was really boggy - this should not have been on offer or available. The pop-up did not bother us but I wondered why it was there... (pointless?). The site is in a lovely location for visiting Churchill's grave (history lesson for grandson...) and Blenheim Palace - but we had not booked and could not (thankfully) pay the £40 family ticket to go in - so we walked around Woodstock (beautiful little place) and found a local area museum with stories about local people / skeletons found in the area from Romans, etc / WW information / 007 memorabilia and details about SOE, etc - great for children and adults alike - we all enjoyed sending morse-code messages and sitting in the 'aircraft' listening to stories from soldiers (all Covid-19 standards met with alcohol wipes / gel, etc) - we all loved that and it was free! then lunch at the Blenheim Buttery - I would highly recommend this when we are all 'unlocked'. The site is relatively easy for buses to Oxford also - bit of a walk to and from the stops but if you are fit enough, it is a pleasure of a ride. The main complaint we all had (especially grandson) is the lack of phone coverage - we had 3 different phone networks and could not use the data to access internet - we usually like to link to our laptop. Not a chance - grandson will not return to Bladon Chains with us - we are under orders to find sites with good coverage if he is to join us! (out the mouth of babes...). We would return, however, because we love Woodstock.

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We booked for 4 nights over half term, but like the previous reviewer left after 2. We arrived bang on 1 pm, but were met with a choice of dismal, boggy, sloping pitches next to the main road. Awful. The next day we asked to move, onto a std pitch with awning- exactly as we had booked, but apparently these were reserved...really disappointed, as it appears that the rules are not the same for all. Motorhome have priority here! Had a miserable stay, fighting to keep the mud put the van and not looking forward to having to extract the van from the bog on departure. The grass pitches are not fit for use in October. Facilities were clean, but no shower curtain or bench to put clothes on in the shower cubicle, combined with all the mud made showering unpleasant too. There was also no hand sanitiser near the water points as we have witnessed at other sites. Only positive was the easy walk to Woodstock, Blenheim which was lovely, and the fish and chip van on Wednesday evening, which was good value, had a wide selection and served lovely food. The pop up site didn’t bother us, and actually looked no worse than the permanent club site. Please improve the pitches ! We ended up paying £109 to spend 2 nights in a bog, I would far rather not have bothered, a trip in the caravan is supposed to be a break, I imagine if you are lucky enough to pitch away from the road on a hard standing pitch it might be ok, but a avoid in school holidays or at weekends as you might end up in an expensive bog.

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Arrived for a 4 night break over half term with excitement and having experienced the fantastic charms of Chatsworth site, we were expecting more of the same. Unfortunately, it is nothing like Chatsworth and we left after 2 nights to find another independent site a few miles away that was fantastic. We arrived at 3pm and were directed to 2 available pitches that were hard standing and suitable for our 7.4 mtr motorhome. In fact, there was only one available so we pulled onto the pitch to find that there was no television signal for our satellite dish and that WiFi of any kind was non existent. I asked if there was another pitch available but only grass pitches were available but we could use the tv point near the power supply to plug into the back of our TV if we had a 20 mtr cable and we could feed it through the window in the MH ! We have no windows near the TV on that side of the van and it it is cold and wet, so that was a non starter plus we had no cable! So, we stayed put for the night watching a dvd. The following day we had decided to move pitches to a grass pitch if there was one suitable to get a TV signal to which the wardens agreed. We moved to the other end of the site where there were some flat grass pitches but a warden came to tell us we could not use it as they were closing down this part of the site for pitch maintenance! This was approx a 1/3 of the site, so we ended up on a sloping, muddy grass pitch but we could watch TV! We were also under the misapprehension that we could walk in the grounds of Blenheim with our dog without charge (not the gardens or house) but the tickets were actually £15 per person to get in to the grounds! The site is set alongside a busy and noisy road at one end and is obviously in need of substantial investment. The toilet/shower block is tired and not fit for purpose and only a couple of showers and one sink are in operation in the mens. Also, they were not clean, perhaps a reflection of the mud but not pleasant to use. The roads around the site are crumbling and 60-70% of the hard standing pitches are for under 5.5 mtr caravans or Motorhomes. The grass pitches are virtually unusable when wet and the mud gets everywhere. Why would you want to park an expensive caravan or motorhome on muddy grass and cover your pride and joy in mud inside and out?The wardens were not rude but did not reflect the courtesy and helpfulness of other CAMC sites that we have previously experienced. The site is not secure with no barriers and anyone can drive into the site. We gave up after 2 nights having paid for 4. We have moved to an independent site in Standlake for our last 2 nights which is outstanding and has fantastic facilities for less money. CAMC needs to up its game at Bladon and being next door to Blenheim is not sufficient reason to go there as it stands. We won’t be going back!

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Having read reviews on our way to the site we were concerned as they were not good. We were on the pop up site attached to Bladen Chains. The staff were friendly but professional, and gave us excellent information about the locality. The grass had been left slightly long, so that it did not descend into a mud bath. We had heavy rain during our stay, but due to the metal roads we were very happy with the state of the site. We were able to pull off the site with no problem without permanent 4x4 capability. The facilities were temporary, but of a very good quality with very good room in both the showers and toilets. We were more than happy also with the cleanliness of the facilities and the hand towels and soap were filled frequently. We at no time felt the necessity to use the facilities at Bladen Chains as the pop up facilities were of such good quality. The closeness to Blenheim Palace was amazing. We have had an excellent 4 days at this site. We will look for other pop up sites in the future.

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We went to Bladon chains because of its closeness to Blenheim palace. The toilet block was very dated and definitely needs some money spending on it. There was a pop up site right next to it and apparently they had their own facilities but you wouldn’t think so by the amount of people I saw trailing across from it. This made the wait even longer for the facilities and looking at the state of the floor after they had been in they should have stayed on their own site mud everywhere. If this is done by existing members then I despair of people. We won’t be visiting this site again until the toilet block is improved and definitely if there is a pop up site next to it.

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