HUNTINGDON CL SITES

SIMPLE PLEASURES JOHN BATEMAN GOES CL-HUNTING IN MIDDLE ENGLAND AND FINDS PLENTY TO CAPTURE THE CARAVANNER’S IMAGINATION

HE RIVER Great Ouse may not Once an important staging post on the Fairy’s Lodge Farm, Covington, a quiet, have the most appealing name for Great North Road, Huntingdon has an sheltered spot with good facilities. T an attractive waterway but, on its historic heart that still beats proudly, with The site, a spacious, lawned rectangle, purposeful 150-mile journey to The Wash, local lad, Oliver Cromwell’s, old school is secure and private, open to the sun it has, through the centuries, made now housing a museum detailing the Lord (fingers crossed) but wrapped around by a considerable impact on a sizeable chunk Protector’s life, a well-preserved medieval mixture of conifers and deciduous trees. of middle England’s eastern flank. river bridge and fine Georgian buildings. There is also an adjoining hardstanding ❖ One of its crossings gave birth to There’s also England’s largest meadow area, available at the discretion of owners Huntingdon, in turn a bridging point, – all 257 preserved acres of it – alongside Simon and Julia Williams, themselves market town, coaching centre and the river between Huntingdon, experienced caravanners. Ordnance Survey Landranger Map 153 Huntingdonshire’s county capital, now Godmanchester and Brampton. I briefly With electrics and a modern shower clasped firmly in Cambridgeshire’s permitted the philistine thought that it and WC unit, Fairy’s Lodge Farm CL embrace. It’s a region which, if undramatic was tailor-made for my caravan. meets most needs and earned a 9/10 rating compared with some tourist targets, Outrageous! Nice pitch, though. from Don and Chris Mallett, who liked captured my imagination during a stay at Portholme Meadow, then, is not an everything other than the chemical toilet the Club’s Grafham Water site to such an option, so where can we unhitch? Well, disposal point being a “fair distance” from extent that a return to the area was swiftly one pleasant site a few miles west of their corner pitch. ABOVE: The Chinese Bridge organised to search out the CLs dotted Huntingdon but listed under Rushden Rushden and Wellingborough add to over the river Ouse around surrounding countryside. (Northants) in the Sites Directory, is handy town-visiting options from sites >> at Godmanchester

OCTOBER 2009 THE CARAVAN CLUB MAGAZINE 79 CL SITES HUNTINGDON

INFORMATION TOURISM

■ Huntingdon District Council, Pathfinder House, St Mary’s Street, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire PE29 3TN. Tel 01480 388588, email [email protected] or see visithuntingdonshire.org

INFORMATION SITES

All the CLs featured in this article are open all year and full details of these, and others in the area, can be found under Cambridgeshire (Huntingdon) on p303 and under Northamptonshire (Rushden) on p429 of the Sites Directory & Handbook 2009/10. The Sites Location Map also pinpoints numerous other CL options in the region

CLOCKWISE FROM on this westerly side of Huntingdon and, if pleasure options with the Ouse and 170 Trips into Fen country are also popular TOP LEFT: Fairy’s you want to forget the car, there are good acres of Hinchingbrooke Country Park on with Manor Farm’s regulars. Lodge – a vote farm walks from Fairy’s Lodge. Please the doorstep. Just a stroll past the CL is One change, which the owners have winner with Don and Chris Mallett; relax note that early booking for all the CLs Brampton Mill restaurant and bar; no made reluctantly, is that the site is now by water at Marina featured is advised. driving necessary but don’t fall in the adults only. For a CL with a 30-year Field; a tasty spot for Grafham Water is also close at hand water walking home. history it’s a new step that says something. caravanners at but it is the Ouse that has shaped much of Marina Field is about a mile from There is never space to do justice to an Ridgeway Farm; spacious and the development of this region over the Huntingdon, on its south-western flank, area or to see all of the sites, but I had time peaceful – Manor centuries and, if you like being close to the but if you prefer a base on the March side, to sample the goodies at Ridgeway Farm Farm water and things aquatic, then Marina Manor Farm, Kings Ripton, is only three CL, Hemingford Abbots, a couple of miles Field CL, Brampton (Huntingdon), miles out and Roy and Mary Collett have south-east of Huntingdon. Here, a line of should be a splash hit. developed a long-serving CL into a quality fruit trees runs along one long border, Here, more than an acre of meadowland site with good facilities. where the hook-ups serve pitches with studded with mature trees sits alongside The farm, which tends 260 acres and pleasant views across arable fields. boat moorings and launch facility. There is one donkey, has been in the family for Ridgeway Farm is home to Iris no fencing, so for that reason the site is generations and the CL has been in Saunders and her son John, and the CL is a deemed unsuitable for small children. Pity operation since 1979. Not surprisingly the flat, neatly mown meadow behind their really, they’d love it. Colletts, who are experienced bungalow. “There are lots of walks here There are three hook-ups by the river, caravanners, know their stuff and, over the and it’s popular with dog owners,” says with two more centrally placed. Other years the site has been opened up to Iris. “There is also a bus service right facilities are available for an extra charge roughly 11/2 acres, with hardstandings for outside the door, with good links to on the other side of a service road, where a winter use added, a shower (fee for use) Huntingdon, St Ives and Cambridge.” well run commercial site, the Willows and hook-ups sensibly placed to permit With golf, fishing and the picture- Caravan Park, is situated. Marina Field pitching all round the L-shaped plot. postcard village of Hemingford Abbots owners Pete and Steve Carter have the Farm buildings frame the site, which within easy reach, Ridgeway Farm is assistance of a warden and both sites were also offers an open outlook across gently another good reason for taking a leisurely spick and span when I was there. undulating farmland and lightly wooded look around Huntingdon. The shower and toilet block is modern countryside. The CL is well placed for Ouse, by the way, means water, so and available to CL-users for an extra £1 walking and cycling, and Cambridge tops forgive the atrocious pun but the area is per person per day. There are good leisure- the city attractions within easy reach. just oozing with interest. Do drop in.

INFORMATION ATTRACTIONS

■ Cromwell Museum – in ■ Prefer sailing at Grafham’s water? medieval bridge that was once guarantees local produce, sold by Huntingdon. Housed in the Then call 01480 810478 Ermine Street’s main route over the folk who produce it. Alternate former grammar school. Opening ■ Ouse Valley Way – offers a decent the Ouse Fridays in the Market Square, times vary throughout the year. walk... 150 miles from the river’s ■ St Neots – was south of the 8am-2pm. Tel 01480 388388 Free admission. Tel 01480 375830 source near Brackley in equator (only) 480 million years ■ Grafham Water Nature Reserve – Northamptonshire to The Wash ago! It’s a bit different now and a from dragonflies to fossils, this near King’s Lynn. See fascinating Green Corridor fascinating nature centre, jointly ousevalleyway.org.uk pamphlet details walks and run by the Wildlife Trust and ■ Huntingdon – the town itself was explains how the Great Ouse has Anglian Water, has the answers. founded by the Anglo-Saxons shaped today’s landscape Tel 01480 812154 and Danes, and has a fine ■ Huntingdon Farmers’ Market –

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