It’s day 1 of the Cornbury Music festival and Bob and Mandy have left early for work. They’ll be joining us later in the day for a late lunchtime BBQ.
We went for a morning walk, stopping off at St Michaels church within the grounds of Great Tew park. The graveyard attached to the church has some of the oldest graves in the land.
Then on to a fine watering establishment, the Falkland Arms. A stunning country pub.
The Falkland Arms, Great Tew
Bob and Mandy joined us for a late afternoon BBQ before we headed to the arena for the evening bands.
The line-up for Friday was as below – The Specials headlining with a great performance. Beverley Knight on the second stage was a class act too.
A 150 mile drive to the Cotswolds awaited us on this fine Thursday morning – a journey which would take us north of the M5 and then East along the A40 before finally heading north towards Chipping Norton and Great Tew Park – home of the 2019 Cornbury Music festival.
We had purchased both weekend tickets and a campervan pass – which, also allows caravans (and why wouldn’t it!).
Arriving after 14:00, we were counted in as the one hundreth outfit and managed to blag a decent size spot – large enough to park the car, erect a small shade awning and a three man tent for our friends, Bob and Mandy.
Cornbury Campervan Park
An evening BBQ on Thursday completed our first day at Great Tew park.
It really has been a truly remarkable year and difficult to know where to start. About a year ago, we posted an entry about our travels from the Peak District to Exmouth and during that very stay near to Exmouth, we bought a house in Budleigh Salterton. During May 2019, we completed our relocation from the Thames valley to the beautiful south coast of Devon and the idyllic coastal town of Budleigh Salterton.
Our caravan is stored at Woodbury Caravan and Boat storage and it’s been a while since we haven’t had the caravan housed locally at the house. The storage facility is a gold site and so far our experiences have been first rate. The staff are very efficient and totally organised.
More so than myself – I didn’t think to take a single picture of our pre-departure stay at Pooh Cottage holiday park – close by Budleigh Salterton.
I will post some more details soon, including some pictures but this is a gem of a campsite. The facilities are super modern and certainly put to shame our bathroom facilities at the new house. The site is very peaceful and located right beside the disused railway line connecting Budleigh with Exmouth.
From here, one can cycle all the way to Exmouth, north to Exeter alongside the eastern side of the River Exe before headng south to Dawlish alongside the Western edge of the river.
And it’s virtually all off road.
The town and pebble beach of Budleigh Salterton lie about 1 mile to the South of the campsite.
Finally, Moe managed to track down one photograph of our place at Pooh Cottage. Do give this gem of a site a try though.
The GDSF 50th and largest show ever drew to a close yesterday.
GDSF 50th Anniversary…
A few days ago this field was rammed with caravans. One of about half a dozen caravan fields.
Not so busy now…
Ours had 6A electric hookup but this was disconnected late yesterday afternoon.
The infrastructure to deliver all of that was incredible.
We had a great time and met folks who’ve travelled from all over Europe and as far afield as Australia and the USA. Everyone had a great time and we felt it a privilege to be here.
(Except perhaps those arriving Saturday on a day ticket who queued for 4 hours to get in and a similar time to get out of the showground!).
This is the fith and final day of the show. The weather has improved and caravans were leaving the camping grounds in the morning without the assistance of a tractor.
We rustled up a breakfast brunch for the four of us and headed back to the showground for one last visit (to the Real Ale tent…).
Moe visited the World War I display / re-enactment which we had visited a few days earlier to take a few pictures.
World War I Centenary Celebration…
World War I Centenary Celebration – Trenches…
World War I Centenary Celebration – view towards main arena…
Months of hot summer weather had created a very dry showground but all of that changed today. Torrential rail turned the showground and camping grounds into a mudbath. Hope things have dried up by Tuesday.
Sunday lunch in Chris and Alison’s van was a great way to spend the wet day… Delicious roast.
Thursday was the official opening day of this five day event – the 50th anniversary of the show – 520 full size steam engines in total on site but the official record stated only 472 as some of the engines were not rideable. This is still a new world record. The weather was generally ok for the first three days with Saturday being the pick of the bunch. It wasn’t as warm as much of the summer but just about acceptable. The weather for Sunday looks a little more ominous…
GDSF Saturday – beautiful weather / view across the camping grounds.
The quietest area to grab some food and drink (especially some exquisite cider) was the Food Hall area. To be honest, there’s no shortage of street food (of varying quality) throughout the entire Steam Fair.
A summary of the first few days is documented in the many pictures below.
The Great Dorset Steam fair is the world’s largest heritage and cultural event, showcasing Great Britain’s National industrial, agricultural and rich leisure legacy… And this year it got much bigger.
2018 marks the 50th Anniversary show and is starring 500 full size steam engines, never before has such a gathering been attempted….
A short drive from the campsite and then organised chaos in entering the site. There are a lot of “travellers” here for the event.
GDSF campsite…
It then took a little while to find an ideal camping spot and to mark out the territory.
Nice big plot…
The GDSF is huge show. Six music venues, 500 steam engimes and lots of stuff to see and do.
We are en-route to the Great Dorset Steam Fair. An event highly recommended by our next door neighbours and some friends we met out in Spain (Chris and Alison).
We arrived at Summerlands Camping and Caravanning site following about a 2 hour drive from North Hampshire. The campsite is located south of Salisbury and close to the A354, which will be the route of our short journey to the Steam Fair tomorrow.
Summerlands Caravan and Camping site
This is a lovely site with a small and pristinely kept toilet block consisting of two toilets and a shower in both the Mens and Ladies sections.
Summerlands Shower block
This is our last piece of civilisation before the show. The view from our van is stunning.
Summerlands – view from our van…
Our friends (due to the height of their “horsebox”) are parked up in the rally field.
The beast…
Dinner was at the Fox and Goose, Coombe Bissett. Very good pub grub.
Monday morning and a prompt start to Bakewell with Paul and Andrea. It was market day and the town and car parks were heaving. So too were the cafes so having failed to find somewhere for a coffee and bite to eat, we headed to the supermarket and purchased our “picnic kit”.
We then found a wonderful spot alongside the River Wye to enjoy our ham and cheese rolls, followed by Bakewell tart.
After the impromptu picnic we headed up to the “All Saints Parish” church in Bakewell.
All Saints Parish Church, Bakewell
On our way back to the car, we couldn’t help but admire the multitude of large fish in the river. Apparently a mixture of Brown and Rainbow trout with many specimens looking to be around 20lbs in weight.
We had hoped to stop at a nice country pub on the way back but everywhere was closed. In the end, we headed into Ashbourne and sat outside an inn on the market square. Unusually the pub had a pool table free to use. Sadly my pool wasn’t quite up to the professional standards required to beat Paul…
