Smithson Farm Campsite, Reedley Hallows, Burnley, Lancashire

A lovely night spent with friends over Burnley way this weekend.  We decided to make a weekend of it – any excuse for a Jolly jaunt 😉.

We pre-booked a 2 night stay at Smithson Farm Campsite in Reedley Hallows which is just outside Burnley, in the heart of Lancashire.  The owners, Carole & Harry, are very friendly and welcoming and can’t do enough for you.  They gave us a tour of the facilities on arrival and this included the shower/toilet block which is currently mid-refurbishment.  We used our own on-board facilities though.

River Calder

Road to site

Tunnel under the M65

Road to site

Entrance to site

Track up to site

The site has grass or hardstanding pitches with EHU.  There’s a CDP and grey waste can be disposed of there also.  Just a little heads up though, you’ll need a long water hose to fill your unit as the tap is quite a way from where you park up.  There is also a shepherd’s hut, camping pods and a larger camping hut, so something for everyone. There’s a cafe/shop on site selling jams & chutneys but it was closed as it was out of season.  Carole still kindly offered us breakfast but we’d come well prepared with provisions to make our own.  The site is also home to the small Woodend Mining Museum which is an interesting piece of mining history of the area.

Woodend Mining Museum

We paid £40 for 2 nights on a hardstanding pitch with EHU.  It isn’t a large hardstanding pitching area, and Jolly at 7.2m in length just about fit.  Bigger units would struggle.  Also, there were 2 or 3 caravans on site that seemed to be permanent fixtures leaving a very limited choice of pitches.  The power supply was low and tripped a couple of times during our stay even though we weren’t drawing much from it.  Overall, however, the site was perfectly adequate for our needs this weekend.

Site accommodation

Glamping pod & facilities block

Glamping pods

Jolly preparing for home :🚐

Our first evening we enjoyed a meal at The Forest, Fence just a short taxi ride away.  We used Cavalier Taxis and it was £10 for the journey, not cheap but it was ‘Mad Friday’ one of the busiest nights before Christmas 🎅🏻🍻.  They were a friendly and reliable service.  Our meal at The Forest was delicious even though TripAdvisor shows mixed reviews.  It seems it may be a bit hit and miss there, in which case we were lucky that night because we couldn’t fault our meals.  The atmosphere was great too.

Mmmulled wine🍷 🍺

Inside The Forest, Fence

Seabass and a turkey dinner. Yum 😋

Dessert

The second evening we met up with friends for a Christmas get-together at The Fence Gate Inn, Fence which was a fantastic evening too.  In fact we were so immersed in the night we forgot to get any photos!  We’d recommend giving both places we tried a visit.  A really lovely weekend with excellent company and plenty of laughs.

Roll on our next Jolly Jaunt 😀 but until then …

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri

Edisford Farm Campsite, Clitheroe, Lancashire

After too many weeks without a Jolly adventure, we finally got away again this weekend with a group of friends on a return trip to Clitheroe.

We stayed at Edisford Bridge Caravan and Camping, a private campsite conveniently located right next door to the Edisford Bridge Pub and just a stone’s throw from the River Ribble.

On site

On site

New facilities block

The site appeared more or less full and our camping party was made up of 6 adults (Mo, Lee, Anne, Laurie and us) and 1 child (Emma), with 2 tents and Jolly.  The weather was wet and dull, but the company was quite the opposite!

We had all come well prepared with plenty of food, nibbles and drink (definitely lots of drink) and basically from the word go on Friday afternoon things quickly turned lively and a really good time was had by all!  Chef Lee cooked delicious steak on Friday night, this was accompanied by a lovely potato salad and bread courtesy of Mo.  Lee used a Cadac Carri Chef portable gas bbq with hot plate to cook all the food, including the breakfasts over the two days.

On Saturday afternoon we all walked off our over-indulgences from the previous day, strolling up into Clitheroe town centre then dropping in at the Holmes Mill beer hall and the new local-produce food hall that has opened there.  Several ales were sampled as ‘thirds’, including Unicorn, Crafty Fox, Hen Harrier, Pheasant Plucker, Blueberry, Cherry Choc (this would be more aptly named ‘Knock Yer Socks Off’), Pennine Best, Mango Decker Dence, and Heart & Soul.

Bowland Brewery ales

The Beer Hall Bible

Studying the menu

Sampling the ales

Bowland Brewery ales

Bowland Food Hall

Bowland Food Hall

Bowland Food Hall

We later walked back to camp and freshened up before finishing the day off with a meal at the Edisford Bridge Pub.

Walk back to site

The River Ribble from Edisford Bridge

It’s usually necessary to pre-book a table in the restaurant as it does get busy especially at weekends.  Each of us made the mistake of having a starter before our main courses and we were all beaten by the meal as the portions are so generous we simply couldn’t eat it all.  Definitely a pub we’ll return to again and again though when over that way and we’d recommend it to anyone without hesitation.

Edisford Bridge pub – 2 mins from site

Walk to pub

Sunday seemed to come around in no time and as a group we gathered for breakfast and the rain finally stopped long enough for the tents to be taken down and packed up before we said our goodbyes after a great weekend.

Jolly providing shelter at breakfast

Jolly providing shelter at breakfast time

Muddy boots

Looks like Jolly has a new fan!

Looks like Jolly has a new fan!

Our next Jolly jaunt is just a couple of weeks away when we’ll be heading back up to the Lake District.

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri

Clitheroe Food Festival, Ribble Valley, Lancashire

Sooo, a food festival.   What’s not to like?

We were back in Clitheroe a couple of weekends ago to experience the Clitheroe Food Festival  which we’d been meaning to visit several times but always seemed to have other trips planned.  We made sure that we made it there this year.

We stayed at Clitheroe Camping & Caravanning Club Site .  It’s situated in an idyllic location beside the River Ribble at Edisford Bridge just a mile or so outside the town centre.  We often stay at this site and this time noticed a big improvement in that the old plastic mesh matting pitches have now been replaced with gravel hard standings.  This is a big improvement as this site is so close to the River Ribble it’s prone to water logging and flooding.

Pitched up

Cuppa & angel slice

Fizz n strawberries

Our weekend had begun Friday lunchtime when our nephew, George, who had been staying with us for a couple of days helped us to collect Jolly from storage and joined us on board as we took him back home on the way.

George at Jolly’s storage

En route to Clitheroe

For Friday night, we’d pre-booked ourselves a table at The Red Pump Inn, Bashall Eaves So, after a chilled afternoon on Jolly (it was raining quite heavily outside) we rang for a taxi up to the Red Pump, which is about 2.5 miles outside Clitheroe.  It’s in a peaceful location with good views of the surrounding countryside.

We’d heard before going that the steaks here were top notch, and although there was plenty on the menu that could easily have turned our eyes, noses and taste buds, we both decided to go for a steak.  We ordered a fillet steak with garstang blue cheese sauce and a 90 day dry aged rib-eye steak with chimichurri sauce.  Both were cooked to medium rare perfection, served with tasty chunky hand cooked chips and a side salad. The food portions were just right too, comfortably filling.

In fact, the whole evening was pretty perfect – great staff, service and atmosphere.  We can recommend this one without hesitation.  It made an interesting change for us too as we usually go into Waddington which also has great pubs/restaurants – The Higher Buck, Waddington Arms, and The Lower Buck.

The next day the sun came out of hiding in time for the Food Festival and the town centre was buzzing with a large turnout of people who were treated to a festival offering an impressive display of different food/drink/produce stalls.  There was plenty of live street music, entertainment and food demos too.  This Festival is rated as one of the most successful of its kind in the North West of England and in the top 10 throughout the country, and this was its 7^th year.

We enjoyed our afternoon wandering through the town centre then ventured down to another place that put on a great day – the Bowland Brewery at Holmes Mill just down from the town centre.  There were food stalls, their new food hall was open, live music, ice cream shop and of course some great ales to be enjoyed.  For us, this place is an absolute must to drop into whenever we’re over Clitheroe way.

The town’s festival was rounded off perfectly at approx. 4pm when the Red Arrows treated everyone to a fly-over display on their way across to the Blackpool Air Show.  It was a spectacular finish to the event.

Clitheroe Main Street

Red Arrows Flyover (photo by Zoie Carter-Ingham)

Afterwards, we cycled back down from town to the Edisford Bridge pub which is just over the bridge from the C&CC site.  We grabbed a pint and some tea (because we hadn’t actually eaten at the food festival!?) before heading back to our pitch to await the arrival of a couple of good friends and fellow campers, Mo & Lee, who were coming to see Jolly and have a few drinks with us.

Enjoying the last of the day’s sunshine

Bedtime Zzz …

We sat out for a couple of hours chatting, laughing and drinking before the evening chill finally beat us and we retreated inside Jolly for the remainder of the evening.  Our next outing will actually be back in Clitheroe but a group social gathering with Mo, Lee and another couple..  We’re really looking forward to that one.

Great weekend! 😊  Til next time ..

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri

Waddington, Ribble Valley, Lancashire

We spent our Christmas weekend on a site we haven’t stayed at before in Waddington, just 2 miles out of Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley.  Cross Lane Caravan & Camping Park is a lovely spot, conveniently located away from the main road and just a mile from the village centre.   It’s a Camping & Caravanning Club Certified Site, open all year, with 5 spacious hard standing pitches with electric hook-up (£12 per night) and space for tents.

http://www.crosslanecaravans.co.uk/

We were the only visitors over Christmas & Boxing Day so had the place to ourselves.  We didn’t use the facilities other than chemical disposal point, but there were toilet, hand-washing and shower facilities provided.  We used Jolly’s own facilities.

From the pitch, the view of Pendle Hill in the distance was pretty impressive even when the weather was dull, foggy and rainy.  Christmas night we experienced gale force winds battering us, but had some protection from surrounding bushes and trees and Jolly only swayed about a few times!

Looking out from our pitch towards Pendle Hill

There are many places of interest to visit in this area (see previous ‘Clitheroe’ posts and the following link …

Ribble Valley

However, we visited to spend Christmas Day with family in Clitheroe and Boxing Day in Waddington, again with family, to celebrate Bri’s birthday.  As always, a thoroughly enjoyable trip.  We’ll definitely be using this site again too.

A cheeky glass of Blitzen

Fun with the family

Niece, Olivia, coming home with us for a few days 🙂

We enjoyed a Boxing Day meal at the Waddington Arms

We’ve a few weeks now until our next Jolly outing in early March as we’ve a family celebration and a holiday abroad in February beforehand.  Eek, March sounds such a long time off but it’ll be here before we know it!

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri

Three Rivers Caravan Park, West Bradford, Nr Clitheroe, Ribble Valley

We had an overnight stay here last weekend while we were over visiting family in Clitheroe.  It’s a good couple of miles outside Clitheroe, but we used the site as our usual two choices in Clitheroe itself were closed that weekend.  It was just a flying visit and we were only on site to sleep, so we didn’t make use of any of the facilities. A lot of the pitches here are very sloping, but that was fine for just a night.

It’s a popular site for families, in view of the facilities available, and it was quite full as it was the beginning of half term week.  The sun shone too which added to the beauty of this site’s rural setting.  For more site info check out the link:-

http://www.touringtenting.co.uk/lancashire/three-rivers-woodland-park?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

You’ll need a car to explore the surrounding area here as there is very little within easy walking distance.  For us though, it was a great weekend spent with our nearest and dearest.

A Valentine’s meal for 6! ❤️

Our next stop is a return to the Lake District and one of our favourite annual haunts.

ONWARD!>>>> 🚐

Suzie & Bri

 

Horns Dam, Goosnargh, Lancashire

Whoop!  Our first trip of 2016 and we were ready for it.  We had a last minute change of plan for this trip, very last minute, just an hour before we were due to set off.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, we ended up at a real belter of a site just down the road in Goosnargh.  Also, after weeks of rain, wind, rain and more rain, we were blessed with 2 days of glorious winter weather, frosty with lots of sunshine.  It made for a really brilliant break.

We stayed at the Horns Dam, run by a lovely family who were friendly and attentive to the needs of visitors.  We pitched up on a spacious corner pitch (No.1) surrounded by fields and a lake.  Perfect.  We were grateful for Jolly’s warm air blown heating system throughout our stay!

Welcome

Countryside view from our pitch

Horns Dam is a Caravan Club CL site set in beautiful countryside, surrounded by 4 fishing lakes of differing sizes.  Fishing was the main purpose of this trip as we hadn’t really done much of it recently.

Jolly, with built-in rod holder 😉

We opted for a couple of pegs on the larger of the lakes, Horns Dam, and fished for about 5 hours.  We were hoping for a carp or two but they didn’t seem to be biting that day.  Instead, we caught 5 small roach & bream.  On leaving, we spoke with another angler who had had a similar catch.  It was an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon in tranquil surroundings.

Waiting for a nibble … 🎣

Relaxing way to spend the day

Beautiful, tranquil surroundings

View across the lake, with Jolly in the distance to the left of the bungalow

http://www.thehornsdam.co.uk/fisherey.html

In the evenings, we walked approx. 5-10 mins up to Ye Horns Inn, a traditional 1700s coaching inn. The Inn serves ales from its own microbrewery and was voted Pub of the Year for 2014 by CAMRA.  It features in the Good Pub and Good Beer Guides 2016.  This was certainly a busy little pub, even mid-week, and it was well worth booking to be sure of a table in the small dining area.

http://www.hornsinn.co.uk/

The morning we left the site, a couple of the lakes were partially frozen after a heavy night frost.

Freezing lake, brrr! ❄️

At last the proper winter weather is here!  In fact it’s snowing here at home as I write this blog post.

This will undoubtedly be a regular haunt for us from now on.  Loved it!

Our next fishing trip, though, is to a different location at the beginning of February.  So carp beware, we’re coming to get ya!  Until then …

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri

 

Clitheroe, Ribble Valley

 

One of my own shots of Clitheroe Castle against the backdrop of Pendle Hill
(c) Suzie Coulburn

Back from a 2-night stay in the beautiful market town of Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire.  It nestles between Pendle Hill (famous for its witches) and Waddington Fell.  In my totally unbiased opinion this is the most beautiful town in the world … although I was born there and only moved away in 2012!

We stayed at the Edisford Caravan site down by Edisford Bridge through which the River Ribble flows.   The site was clean, almost full yet quite quiet, and sloping in areas but we got a flat grass pitch (No.30) so no chocks required.  No choosing your own pitch though, the warden instructed us where to pitch up.

 

The site has a miniature steam railway and a 9-hole pitch n putt course but availability depends on whether or not the ice cream van is parked up(!) because that’s where you hire your clubs and balls, and he visits intermittently throughout the day.  Failing that, there is a swimming pool, gym and tennis courts across the main road at the top of the site.

Also, there are nice walks along the river bank or a steady 2 mile walk to the nearby village of Waddington.  We cycled there and sampled a few bevvies at The Lower Buck Inn & The Waddington Arms.  It’s a pretty village well worth a visit.

Clitheroe town centre is about a 25 minute walk from the campsite, and places of interest would include the Norman castle keep & museum, town centre shops particularly the award-winning Victorian Byrnes Wine Shop, Cowman’s Famous Sausage Shop, coffee shops, wine bars, gift shops and designer clothing shops.

For us though, this weekend was about catching up with family and involved plenty of food and drink.  On Saturday night we took a taxi into the town centre for a meal with sister, brother-in-law, niece & nephew at La Vespa, an authentic family run Italian Restaurant.  Good food and service.

On Sunday afternoon we had four generations of my family drop in on us to have a look around Jolly.  Surprisingly, at one point all ten of us were inside Jolly, proving how spacious he is!  We then headed out to the Edisford Bridge Pub just a 5-10 minute walk from the campsite, for a late Sunday lunch.  Good pub grub.

Afterwards, the two of us just chilled out and played cards for the remainder of the day then cabined up as the rain set in.

We will return again and again to Clitheroe because of the personal connection, and Edisford Bridge Campsite is a perfectly good place to stay.  Great weekend!

Next stop Englethwaite, Cumbria next weekend.  Can’t wait.

ONWARD!

Suzie & Bri

Cheeky overnighter in Silverdale, Lancashire

Decided on a little overnight stay at Gibraltar Farm Campsite, Silverdale this weekend

http://gibfarm.weebly.com/

We got a lovely, flat pitch with a cracking view looking out over the south east coast of Morecambe Bay.  A bit of a strong breeze at times but beautiful sunshine and managed to grab an hour or so of rays B-)

The site is situated on a working farm with calves and spring lambies.  There are also a number of friendly hens wandering by the site, and into caravans/motorhomes if they feel the urge.

Cycled a short distance into the centre of Silverdale and visited a pub recommended to us called The Woodlands.  It’s not somewhere you would stumble upon without knowing where it was but we’re so glad we went.  ‘Woodys’ is a quirky little place in an unusual setting, and Bri was impressed with the selection of ales and thought it’d be rude not to sample a few.  Also called into the Silverdale Hotel for a swift one while we waited to collect a takeaway from the local Cinnamon Spice Indian restaurant.  We took it back to Jolly to eat and have to say it was one of the best curries we’ve had.  Check it out!

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurant_Review-g1639813-d3170050-Reviews-Cinnamon_Spice-Silverdale_Lancashire_England.html

After a breakfast in the sunshine, some friends came to see us just as we were packing up to head home.  They’re big fans of this site and regular visitors.  We will also definitely return.  As for now …. next stop is Suzie’s hometown of Clitheroe in a fortnight.

Breakfast Jolly Majestic style!

Gibraltar Farm Campsite, Silverdale

The Woodlands Pub aka Woody’s.

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri