All Steamed up at Broadway

Mid-August and a few days at the Broadway CMC site. This was perhaps our 5th visit to the site over the years. Originally when booking in you drove through the Goods Shed at the top of the site to get into what was then a much smaller Club site. The Goods Shed is still there but all locked up during our visit. As the site developed and made larger a more conventional reception set up was built. The site has certainly matured over the years and the trees and hedges help break up the pitching areas.

The good weather that was forecast for our four-day stay did not materialise completely with mainly dull mornings and bright afternoons. When we walked into Broadway it was clear it was having no impact on visitor numbers! Trying to find somewhere for a coffee was proving to be a challenge. We walked up through the arcade towards the main parking area and opposite that was a coffee shop called “Guilt Trip”. We discovered this meant coffee and doughnuts!!! When in Rome! On our walk to and from the village we noticed that a new medical centra was being built on the fields that eventually meet the land the Club site is on. Although this is being built nearer the village I wonder if it is a signal for future development closer to the site? 

The Broadway site, to my calculation becomes the 4th Club site with easy access to a steam railway. The others being Ferry Meadows, Burrs Country Park, Cheltenham and now Broadway. Are there some I have missed, perhaps Haycroft? When we were last at Broadway the reconstruction of the railway station was underway. I think steam trains have been running for a while now, 2018, but have obviously been impacted by COVID. Broadway is the current northern terminal of the Gloucester Warwickshire Railway. You can travel the 14 miles to Cheltenham Racecourse at the other end of the line. Apparently, there is the option of extending the line a further 6 miles to Honeybourne and the national rail system. According to the website of the charity that runs the railway they don’t seem to be in a position to undertake that extension, at least in the short term. For now, the track bed is protected but as pressure on local authorities to rebuild weak bridges on the route that protection might not last for ever? There were certainly many people on the station enjoying seeing a steam train including lots of fascinated children. It is a sure sign of growing old that what was in childhood perfectly normal occurrence becomes a historical spectator sport!!!