Our final week away for this year and this time, we would be heading for Shropshire, seeking out the Severn Valley Railway.
A 7.00am start saw us heading off for the ‘van, which we duly collected and from their started to chew some motorway. Our one rest stop would not be the usual Ferrybridge, but Hartshead Moor due to our Westerly destination. This we found just off the M62, caravan parking is in with the lorries, so plenty of space to choose from. No Gregg’s here fr our bacon butty, but a Subway provided a bacon and egg ‘sub’, which did the trick. Although the staffing in the shop left a little to be desired, resulting in us being under-charged somewhat, £4 for two subs and two hot drinks, not bad at all, bargain!
Note to self, check Sat-nav a little more next time, as I had missed the fact that it was going to take us around Manchester, rather than my intended route of a straight West M62 onto the M6. Some minor delays, but we escaped without too much hassle. From there all was straight forward. The last leg to the campsite is via a 10 mile B road, and a very windy one at that, still makes it a little more interesting 😉
Pulled into the site and parked in arrival bay, which is a drive in, reverse out – interesting! Although there’s plenty of room so no problem. We were met by the owner’s dad who followed his instruction notepad to the tee so that we got booked in swiftly and accurately. Our pitch was number 6, the pitches here are all of a very good size and fully serviced. We soon were set-up along with our trusty Air Ace, got to say the more we use it the more impressed we are with it, pole awnings are history now for us! Tea time, TV time, the night swiftly went by as we began our Autumnal holiday break.
Sunday, the Severn Valley Railway was on the cards today, and as an added bonus, Tornado was going to be there as well, Christmas has come early! We found the site and ended up parking in the overflow car park, which was ideal and free. From here we headed to Bridgnorth station and purchased our tickets. Thimble and a copy of BRM would also be sourced from this lovely station. We caught Tornado at 12.35pm and headed into Kidderminster. From here we took a little trip around the station but decided to continue on Tornado back up North. We left Tornado at Arley station as I wanted to spend a little time here looking around, seeing how this was ‘Hatley’ station in ‘Oh Doctor Beeching!’. It was great to look around, and eventually just sit and take it all in before the next train arrived to take us back to Bridgnorth. Back at the site, we enjoyed tea and settled in for the evening.
Monday, a trip to Ludlow was in order, this time heading South on the B4364. This was a lovely town, with some gorgeous Tudor buildings. We walked around the castle perimeter, got a little shopping and then headed back to the site. We had a little walk around the site this evening, very nice site. Pitches well laid out, toilet block is 5 star, fully serviced pitches, you can’t go wrong here. The only slight issue I have is that the serviced pitches are marked as ‘brown’ waste friendly, but this is the exact same point where you fill your fresh water up. I don’t think the two should be together like this, as there is a perfectly good Elsan point on the site? Strange, never seen this before, but there you go.
Tuesday, back to Bridgnorth, but this time for the town itself. Again some lovely Tudor buildings and quirky little side-street shops. We saw the oldest and steepest funicular railway in the world, quite steep at a 33 degree incline! We soon made our way around the village and headed back for base. A couple of new films to watch along with tea and we were soon relaxing for the evening again.
Wednesday, no trips out in the car today, but a walk was planned! We heading out following breakfast, actually passing the owner ‘Lee’ with whom we had a brief chat. The walk somewhat deviated from the map as it had been altered in a couple of places, which we discovered by the way of some ‘faded’ signs on-route. We eventually made the walk, totalling approximately 3 miles, not bad. Back at the ‘van we indulged in some personal recreation time and once again let another day roll by in bliss.
Thursday, a quick trip back to Ludlow to fill the tug up and the rest of day was spent chilling on site once again. Friday arrived and the pack-up began. We were blessed with good weather all week, only today was it looking a little overcast. The return journey was a reasonable run, busy with the lorries and various bouts of roadworks on the M6 and A1, but nothing too serious. The ‘van was put back into storage, ready for our next outing in November.
- Date: 10th October 2015
- Nights: 6
- Pitch #6
- GPS: 52.432909, -2.590516
