11th – 22nd August, Leisure and Recreation

BLADON CHAINS

Heading out to Oxfordshire the campsite is situated in the grounds of Blenheim Palace, not too far from home and turned out to be a lovely site within walking distance of Bladon village and Woodstock. We enjoyed an ‘Afternoon Prosecco Tea’ at The Marlborough Arms in Woodstock with lifelong friend Wendy and her husband John, a really decedent way to start our August Motorhome trip, time to relax and be together.

Visiting Blenheim Palace was also a highlight of our 4 night stay and although the weather was not marvellous we thoroughly enjoyed the day, starting in the stables, then a tour around some beautiful rooms with lavish decor and furniture. We used the QR codes and listened via our mobiles to the descriptions of the rooms and points of interest, such a clever way to have as much, or as little information that you want, and no paying for commentary on expensive handsets.

Touring the formal gardens and water terraces was lovely and the rose garden was a sheer delight, immaculate, full of colour and scent. There were sculptures and huge specimen trees as we continued our walk, plus a wonderful photographic exhibition displayed the images of the International Garden Photographer of the Year. After a picnic over looking the lake, rain stopped play for that day.

However we returned next day on our newly purchased Annual Pass. We enjoyed a long walk around the grounds, alongside the river and lake, through ancient woodland with 866 ancient oak trees, the highest number in Europe with some from Medieval times. We quietly watched a roe deer under the trees, mainly hidden by bracken, delicately stepping and feeding before disappearing further into the woods. Ravens honked loudly overhead and the sound of jays and crows added depth to the smaller song birds that filled the woodlands with sound.

The huge Column of Victory, 134 feet tall with the lead statue of the 1st Duke of Marlborough on top, looks down over the bridge and up towards the Palace. Our split visit over two days gave time for the different aspects of this lovely place.

A short visit to the Oxford Bus Museum, which also has the Morris Motors Museum, was very interesting with lots of exhibits varying from busses, cars, bicycles and even a tractor. It was weird to see things of our era now housed in a museum, we remembered bus drivers badges, money, bus ticket machines and uniforms. The old cars looked so small by today’s standards and bicycles looked heavy and clumsy, but in their era were no doubt valued by everyone.

PEMBRIDGE

Next campsite was at Pembridge, a wonderfully picturesque village on the ‘black and white’ villages trail near Leominster in north Herefordshire. Some of the houses lean at crazy angles, there are tiny windows of diamond leaded panes, raised front doorways accessed up stone steps from the pavement and numerous colourful floral displays.

The old church sits high up on a grassy mound and parts of it date from the 13th century. Next to it stands the separate bell tower with a wide stone base and wooden upper structure including a small spire. From the church grounds you look down over the village and it’s pretty houses lining the main street. There is a lovely old market hall dating from the early 16th century situated behind The New Inn. The village has a regular bus service which we made use of to visit nearby Leominster for lunch with friends, and later on during our visit we met up with family from nearby Shropshire to enjoy lunch at the Red Lion pub located in the heart of the village.

To see more of the ‘black and white’ villages, we embarked on a 5 mile walk across fields, following the River Arrow for a while to arrive in Eardisland where we had a 20 minute rest with cakes and water from the local shop. Continuing along a road to Shirl Heath we eventually picked up more field footpaths full of ripe wheat and barley, buzzards overhead and cattle under the trees, eventually making it to Kingsland in time for lunch at The Angel, after which the bus took us back to Pembridge.

MALVERN

After a very early rise and a scenic 37 mile drive, we met up with friends Mandy and Roy to travel in convoy and arrived at The Three County Showground, parking together in the almost empty motorhome & caravan area by 8am! Awnings duly put up amidst lots of chatter, we cooked a wonderful breakfast and opened a celebratory bottle of Prosecco.

The four day show is full of motorhomes, awnings and every conceivable type of accessory with food, bars, and entertainment on a theme of Country & Western music, clothes and dancing. After looking around at everything on offer and making a couple of small purchases, we spent a relaxing few hours before listening to the bands and watching the dancing.

There is always a trip on offer at these shows with busses every 15 minutes throughout the day, so a visit to Malvern helped fill an overcast and sometimes rainy day. As luck would have it, we didn’t get wet as we negotiated the steep streets, found an outdoor produce market in the grounds of the Great Malvern Priory and spotted a poster displaying details of a ‘gin tasting tour’. During an interesting chat over 45 minutes, the owner of the Malvern Cellar told us he sells alcohol made within the three counties of Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. There were racks stacked with a wide variety of beer, cider, perry, gin, vodka and wine; we had several gins to try and they all tasted different but our favourite was a Fox’s Kiln Rhubarb & Ginger from Gloucester Docks, so to keep us in the ‘spirit’, we bought a bottle!

During the show days we watched an historic re-enactment of a bank robbery, the judging of ‘the best dressed westerner’ and some line dancing, also listened to singers and enjoyed a few drinks.

With our friends Mandy and Roy we organised a Spanish tapas evening together with Chris’s brother Ian and wife Heather, each of us prepared dishes to share and eventually the sun came out too. The main Saturday night entertainment were tribute singers of Tammy Wynette, Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson which was loud and colourful, some songs we knew but others were new to us.

Our 12 nights away in August were great, special times catching up with family and friends, plus only two wet days out of twelve, so lucky. Next trip is to Wales, I hope it stays dry!