On the road again - 2014

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 60^th 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.