There were no other guests on the site when we arrived, and no sign of the owners so we pitched on the first hardstanding, but were dismayed at the state of the place. Yes it was early March, and we'd had a lot of rain, but every pitch was surrounded by horrendous, deep, tyre tracks and mud, and quite honestly it looked like a Traveller site. The reason for this soon became clear- the hardstandings are simply not wide enough, and the layout means it is impossible to turn your car around without going over the grass.
Clearly in dry weather this would not have been a problem, but if a site is going to open year-round it should be fit for purpose, and this one is certainly not.
Another van arrived not long after us, they went on one of the pitches at the back but had to move, by 'walking' their van back down the track with their mover, as they were getting covered in mud every time they went outside their van. A motorhome arrived one day, drove in, took a look around, and promptly drove out again, but not until they had carved a huge furrow next to the tap, which meant our water hog became lagged with mud every time we filled up.
The owner finally turned up on the third morning, with a fact-sheet detailing places of interest and their bank details, he was very friendly and took my comments on board by saying he was planning to widen the hardstandings and cut back the overgrown leylandi hedges between the pitches later in the year. I suggested he also ensure there is sufficient hard ground to be able to turn vehicles without destroying the grass.
The site is set in a hollow so no views as such, apart from a sloping field visible to one side of the first pitch. The A40 is noisy continuously, it quietens down at night but huge HGV's use the road and these somehow sounded worse at night, thundering past. There is a high grassy dam forming part of a reservoir to one side of the site, a line of overgrown leylandi trees to another, and electricity pylons above the entrance road, so the general situation of the site is depressing, I thought.
Extreme caution needs to be taken when arriving or departing to/from the east, as the angle of the entrance road is acute, and the speed of the passing traffic presents a danger in my opinion.
This sadly is not somewhere we would ever visit again.
