It seems a long time
since the last real trip in Theodora in October last year, although
she has had a couple of outings since our last post in January, for
the habitation service and to have a water leak investigated. This
turned out to be as a result of a loose bolt on the track for the
sliding door and was not too eye-wateringly expensive to have fixed.
It will be reassuring to other IH owners to know that IH had not come
across this problem before – why us?
We have been a touch
envious of other motor-caravanners whose trips have continued
throughout the winter. However, as we
are unable to keep Theodora at home and are still working, it is not
as easy to up sticks at a moment's notice to take advantage of some
reasonable weather. Additionally John and I used some annual leave
recently to celebrate our 60th birthdays on a cruise.
Anyway, here we are in the Cotswolds on our first trip of 2014. We
are likely to spend quite a bit of time in this general area in the
near future as our son and daughter-in-law, who live on the south
side of Birmingham, have just had a baby boy, our first grandchild.
Easter Sunday, 20
April.
First stop – Burford. With hindsight, we could have
visited Blenheim Palace on our way here, but at £21 per person, it
seems a tad expensive, although we understand that the ticket is
valid for twelve months. I quote from the Caravan Club Site book:
“Burford is a beautiful, unspoilt Cotswold village with the warm,
honey-coloured stone buildings of the region”. We would certainly
agree with that.
The businesses in the main street are all
individual, and pubs, tea rooms etc abound. We chose to have some
refreshment at Huffkins, which has branches in other towns in the
area, including Stow on the Wold. The church is very pretty and
exuded the feeling of being in good use.
The tourist office offers
the usual plethora of leaflets relating to local attractions. Guided
walks are available on most days. Parking (free everywhere!): quite
by chance we came across five coach bays in Priory Lane, next to
which was a shorter bay, which was ideal for Theodora. There is also
the Riverside car park, which is accessible to motorhomes, although
there are no designated spaces. Street parking is also possible if
you are lucky. At the caravan site we learned that another car park
can be accessed from the roundabout on the A40, taking the exit
towards Cheltenham, then turning right into Tanners Lane. The car
park is on the right.
The Caravan Club Site,
which is of the usual high standard and particularly spacious, is
situated about 2.5 miles from the town but the road is friendly to
neither walkers nor cyclists. The only attraction which is truly
“local” is Cotswold Wildlife Park, which is immediately opposite
the site. Discounted tickets (£1.50 to £2.00 off, depending on
age) are available from the site. So although it is a lovely site,
we felt that its location would not entice us back.
Other attractions which
we noted for a future visit include:
World of Mechanical
Music, Northleach; Birdland Park and Gardens, Bourton on the Water;
Batsford Arboretum and
Wild Garden; Cotswold Falconry Centre, Batsford
Easter Monday – 21
April
After a cold night we
woke to a beautiful, cloudless blue sky so got our skates on and
decided to pay Burford another brief visit to take a few photographs.
We were going to try out the Tanners Lane car park, but it
appeared to have been taken over by a car boot sale, so we went on to
the Riverside car park, where we were able to park in one of the
perimeter spaces, overhanging the grass verge.
From Burford we drove
on to Stow on the Wold, all of 12 miles. From the web we had
established that motorhomes are allowed to park in coach bays in the
Maugersbury Road pay and display car park (GL54 1AQ). The Tourist
Office is combined with a small cafe downstairs and a Cricket Museum
upstairs, which John found very interesting (£3.50 charge, part of
which goes to charity). We picked up a leaflet outlining a short
walk around the town, which highlighted buildings of interest.
The
most difficult decision you will probably face in Stow on the Wold is
which pub or tea room to go to. There are MANY. From Stow we made
our way to the Caravan Club Site at Broadway (12 miles) and as it was
warm and sunny, decided to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing
outside. That is, until John decided to put on his shorts, which was
a signal for the sky to darken, hail stones to fall, followed by
thunder, lightning and torrential rain. What a change in a matter of
minutes!
Tuesday 22 April
A wet and dreary day
and the forecast promised little improvement. So we decided to
abandon our plans to ride on the Gloucestershire and Warwickshire
Railway and first of all investigated the site more carefully, which
has been established on some former railway land. The GWR is
currently fundraising to rebuild 5 bridges so that the line can be
extended from Laverton to Broadway. On the upper level of the site
in the old goods shed there is an exhibit of the unique horse-drawn
caravan built in 1884-5 by Bristol Wagon Works Company for the
celerated author and retired Royal Naval Surgeon, Dr William Gordon
Stables. The Wanderer took
its first major tour in the summer of 1885, travelling from Gordon
Stables' home at Twyford in Berks to Inverness. What an acheivement.
We then walked into Broadway (10 minutes) which seemed to us to be
less touristy than Burford or Stow on the Wold, but is a very
pleasant place, again with individual shops, such as the colourful Broadway Deli below,
and plenty of refreshment
opportunities. We can recommend the Market Pantry. For reference,
motorhomes can be parked in the long stay coach and car park on the
north side of the town. After a quick lunch in the 'van we visited
our grandson (and his parents!) before heading home.
