Well, Sunday is our penultimate day at Newton Grove. Have to say we have had a wonderful stay at this site and a full 7 days off-grid. I’ll post another entry in the Caravan blog to summarise how we got on with the off-grid elements.
We think this is the nicest part of the Cotswolds. Very unspoilt and not one of the tourist honey pots like Bourton-on-the-Water. There are loads of lovely walks and an endless array of Cotswold stone pubs in which to while away the odd hour or two.
The off-grid stay has been a fraction of the price of staying on a Caravan and Motorhome club site and the remarkable thing is we probably enjoyed it more. No row upon row of endless white boxes each marking out their own bit of territory. We had a large 1 acre site (I’m guessing), with neighbours some considerable distance away. The situation is idyllic and the guy who runs it, John, a great host.
Not only that but Newton Grove has a trailer mounted solar unit from which you can replenish your battery and charge the laptop or toothbrush – but not supply the van… We also made use of the on-site picnic tables and on one evening, the Chimenea
We’ve already signed up to the Caravan and Motorhome Off-Grid Group which has a plethora of information about how to survive off-grid and where to find the best sites. it turns out that the one of the two guys who set this up is John, from Newton Grove and the group has 20k members. This site will be hard to beat!
Today (Monday) we head off to another town in the Cotswolds, just an hours drive away…
There are so many unspoilt, chocolate-box villages in this northern section of the Cotswolds. None more so than the village of Great Tew.
A 3 mile walk from our campsite at South Newington we arrived for lunch at the Falkland Arms in Great Tew right on opening time. We spent a good few hours watching the world go by before returning to the campsite for a well-earned evening BBQ. The minted lamb burgers from the specialty shop in Deddington were excellent.
The Falkland Arms, Great Tew
Views from the Falkland Arms
Heading down from Hill Farm towards South Newington
A short drive from Newton Grove is the Rousham Park House and Garden.
Tucked alonside the river Cherwell, Rousham represents the first phase of English Landscape design and remains almost as William Kent left it, one of the few gardens of this date to have escaped alteration. Many features which delighted 18th century visitors to Rousham are still in situ, such as the ponds and cascades in Venus’ vale, the Cold Bath and seven arched Praeneste, Townsend’s building, the Temple of the Mill and in the skyline, a sham ruin known as the Eyecatcher.
Whilst we only visited the gardens, the house, built in 1635 by Sir Robert Dormer is still in the ownership of the same family.
Rousham is uncommercial and unspoilt with no tea room and no shop. We brought a picnic and comfortable shoes for a long afternoon in the gardens.
Rousham House
Chickens at Rousham House
Rear of Rousham House
View from the walled garden
View from the walled gardens
Views across the Cherwell
Bridge across the River Cherwell, built 1955
Part of the pond cascades (Lower Cascade)
Upper ponds
Upper Ponds
Upper pond
Scarlet Tiger Moth, seen at Rousham Gardens and becoming more common in the UK
In the afternoon we headed out for an LPG top-up and found A E Prentice (between Banbury and Bicester). A very helpful chap topped up the bottle for 0.95 per litre.
In the evening we had food and a few drinks at the local pub in South Newington – Duck on the Pond. Another lovely North Cotswolds pub and a great idea for comfort – the outside tables and benches came with a sheepskin rug to sit on!
We decided to test our off-grid capabilities recently and to spend a full week off-grid in Oxfordshire. We were a bit dubious about how well the battery would perform as it’s a basic lead-acid battery dating back to 2015. It certainly doesn’t owe us anything. The battery is a generic 100ah offering which means really you can only use 50 – 60 ah. Any more than that and the life of the battery is severely limited.
Our traditional lead-acid battery
The solar panel is a 40W version, factory fitted by Swift.
The charge controller is a Sargent 1755-R.
Sargent / Swift solar controller
After the first day, the battery voltage had dropped a couple of dots (as measured on the Swift panel) and we noted an issue with the Sargent controller. This very basic controller has two LEDs. The lower one flashes Green to indicate that there is output from the Solar panel. The upper indicator is the “Charging status” and this should illuminate Red for bulk charging and green for float charging. In this instance, nothing. We figured out it was time to replace the battery and the solar controller with a modern MPPT controller and Lithium battery.
I don’t take a huge amount of credit for the upgrades because there is a lot of information on the Web about how to replace the leisure battery with a Lithium phosphate one. On one forum in particular there are some very detailed threads about what is involved – the caravan forum “Caravan Talk”. I used some of the postings on that site to figure out what to do.
First thing was to order a new battery. I went with a Low Profile battery from KS Energy. It’s 120ah Lithium-iron Phosphate battery and apparently has a very good BMS (Battery Management system) built in. It also is a “Smart” battery which means it’s got a Bluetooth interface, Apple / Android App and a whole host of information regarding the state of the battery.
It also has built-in temperature control as Lithium batteries don’t like to be charged below 0 degrees C.
What this means is that you don’t also need to buy say the Renogy 500 monitor nor the Victron sense temperature control module (which terminates charging at low temperatures). It’s all part of the battery.
The KS Energy 120ah LP (Low Profile) battery arrived very quickly and the also the chosen solar controller – a Victron energy MPPT 75 / 15.
Fitting it all was very easy. The Low Profile battery is an easy swap-in, as it’s quite a bit smaller height-wise than the old lead acid offering.
The now defunct Sargent controller connects into the Caravan wiring loom and to the solar panel via two plastic connectors above the microwave.
Solar Panel / Controller connectors
Since I wasn’t trying to salvage the Sargent module I just cut the wires and used the cut wires to connect to the new controller. A bit fiddly in the confined space of the cupboard but very straight forward.
Victron Energy MPPT solar controller
There’s a preferred connection sequence in the controller manual – I think it’s battery before panel.
Once it was all connected, the appropriate LEDs lit up and I was able to pair my smartphone with both the battery and the controller. Once paired, here are screenshots of a couple of the battery information screens.
KSEnergy Battery monitor showing charge status
And similar for the Victron controller.
Victron Energy MPPT App info
A day or so after the install and all the monitors are indicating as they should. This is a brave new world – it’s like moving from analogue to digital or paper based to computer. No more guessing how much energy is left in the batteries. No more wondering if I’ve discharged the lead acid battery too much. No more guessing as to how much charge is entering the battery.
Finally, big savings now we can stay at off-grid sites and one final added bonus, an extra 15kg of payload!
Tuesday evening and we headed for tea and coffee near Banbury at my cousins, Martyn and Anne. They had booked a table a little later at the Red Lion in Bloxham. A fine choice of pub / restaurant but we realised afterwards, we had been so engrossed in conversation, we hadn’t taken a single pictures. Groan.
On Wednesday we headed into Oxford. A two mile walk to the village of Milcombe where we caught the bus to Banbury and then the train to Oxford.
Moe outside the church in Milcombe
We would arrive at the Old Bookbinders Ale house shortly after noon for a very long lunch with Paul and Andrea and also their friends John and Moyreen. It was great to catch up with old friends after so many abandoned Spanish winters and fantastic to make new ones.
The Old Bookbinders Ale House, Jericho, Oxford
This pub is well away from the tourist honey traps and we spent much of the afternoon there, almost until the evening reservations commenced!
A mighty fine selection of real ales.
Ales at the Old Bookbinders
Steak at the Old Bookbinders
We managed to catch the train back to Banbury and then the last bus from Banbury to Milcombe, leaving just a 2 mile walk back to our campsite.
We visited Newton Grove some years ago for an overnight stop and were struck on the peace and quiet of this CL site. We returned today for 7 nights off-grid – there is freshwater and toilet disposal facilities but no electric hook-up.
It had been our intention to visit the final Cornbury music event next weekend but the organisers have deemed they can charge grotesque prices for this final festival. Maybe if there are tickets left over there might be some last minute special offers. Fingers crossed!
Our pitch at Newton Grove CL
John, the owner of the CL dropped by for a chat and explained he has a solar battery unit if we run out of power. It has a small inverter attached so looks like I’ll be able to charge up the laptop every once in a while.
At the moment, all is working off the leisure battery and we are keeping an eye-out on the voltages. The leisure battery is some 7 years old so is already beyond its life expectancy. If it doesn’t survive, I’m eyeing a Lithium leisure battery replacement…
A visit to Frome (very nice market town nearby) and then a “guilty” wander around Longleat listening to the last of the concerts – Tears For Fears. There seemed to be tickets available but a bit expensive at £75 each so we gave entry into the arena a miss.
Sunday we drove over to Shearwater lake and walked the circular route around the lake. The footpaths of the last stretch back to the Car park (next to the tea rooms) were overgrown so we definitely walked the best way around the lake – anticlockwise.
The walk is shown below – just ignore the “tail” where I’d forgotten to turn off the tracker!
Our walk around Shearwater.
Shearwater Lake
Shearwater Lake
Lunch was at the Royal Oak at Corsley. Food was excellent and would highly recommend the Sunday roast.
Sunday Roast at the Royal Oak, Corsley
The cheeseboard was immense – it should keep us in cheese for the remainder of the trip!!!
Desert at the Royal Oak, Corsley
Tomorrow we head into the Cotswolds for the great “off-grid” experiment. We have a week at Newton Grove CL site, near South Newington, near Chipping Norton. A reasonable walk to the Falkland Arms at Great Tew, where we understand we may bump into David Beckham. We might need to spend some time in the pub to recharge the laptop battery.
It’s been a busy day today. Fresh off the back of our trip to Stourhead House was an evening of entertainment at Longleat, part of their summer programme of concerts. When we left the campsite to visit Stourhead the club site was barely a quarter full. When we returned late afternoon, nearly every pitch was taken.
Tonight’s act was Diana Ross and the walk to the concert from our site was around 20 minutes through the Longleat estate. Diana Ross was on-stage from around 9pm for a 90 minute show. Well attended with 5,000 concert goers present for the show.
Longleat House
Stunning setting for a concert
If somewhat on the cold side for July
Diana Ross concert, Longleat 01 Jul 2022
Diana Ross Setlist, 01 July 2022, Longleat
Set 1 I’m Coming Out More Today Than Yesterday My World Is Empty Without You Baby Love Stop! In the Name of Love You Can’t Hurry Love Love Child
Set 2 Chain Reaction I’m Still Waiting Upside Down Love Hangover / Take Me Higher / Ease on Down the Road
Set 3 Why Do Fools Fall in Love If We Hold on Together If the World Just Danced Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You’re Going To) Ain’t No Mountain High Enough I Will Survive
Tomorrow sees Alison Moyet as the support act to Tears for Fears. We don’t have tickets for this concert but maybe we’ll take a wander around Longleat during the evening.
It was a day to accumulate small, useless artefacts of knowledge. It started with the River Stour – in fact the head of the River Stour. Whilst looking for the route of the River Stour I discovered this wasn’t quite so easy as there are a total of FIVE River Stours in the United Kingdom.
One each in the counties of Dorset, Kent, Suffolk, Warwickshire and Worcester. The name is of ambiguous and disputed origin, with one theory being that the name derives from the Celtic “sturr” meaning “strong”. However, the river-name Stour, whilst common in England does not occur in Wales…
Secondly, the Grand Tour is not just a TV series hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. The Grand Tour was the principally 17th to early 19th century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tutor or family member) when they had come of age – around 21 years old. The tradition finally declined in Europe as enthusiasm for classical culture waned, and with the advent of accessible rail and steamship travel.
The head of the River Stour on the Somerset / Wiltshire border is located at Stourhead. The river flows across southern England before finally entering the English Channel at Christchurch in Dorset. At the head of the River Stour is Stourhead House, a National Trust property. Stourhead House was one of the first country villas to be built in the new Palladium Style, the design much influenced by its owners trips on the Grand Tour.
The house was designed for Henry Hoare I by the architect Colen Campbell although Henry died before the house was completed and so never got to enjoy life at Stourhead.
Stourhead House
Stables at Stourhead house
Henry Hoare I, (“Good Henry”) and his successor, Henry Hoare II (“Magnificent Henry”) both made their money as bankers. The private bank, C Hoare & co remains the oldest private bank in England.
The house tour is a selection of rooms on the ground floor. All pristinely preserved and beautifully furnished with original furniture, fixtures and fittings. In 1946 the house was given to the National Trust to care for and look after for future generations. In the entrance hall are portraits of all the key Hoare family members and knowledgeable National Trust guides to pass on the family story.
The garden was described as “a living work of art” when it first opened its doors in the 1750s. The world-famous garden was designed by Henry Hoare II as a series of carefully constructed views, like scenes from a Landscape painting. Henry Hoare II built a dam to form the lake and around it he positioned classical temples and Gothic buildings as well as rare and exotic trees.
The garden was at the forefront of the English Landscape movement and for this achievement, Henry was nicknamed “the Magnificent”.
