England

National Trust Brockhampton & Malvern Hills

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Sunday 13th August 2017

Late morning we set off to drive to National Trust Brockhampton.

The main attraction of the Brockhampton Estate is Lower Brockhampton, a timber framed manor house that dates back to the late 14th century. The manor house is surrounded by a moat and is entered by a newly restored gatehouse at the front of the house.
The house is surrounded by 1,000 acres (400 ha) of farmland, some of it parkland with fine specimen trees, and 700 acres (280 ha) of woodland.

Brockhampton Manor & Gatehouse
Manor House

On the way back to the caravan we stopped off near Great Malvern to walk to the top of Herefordshire Beacon. Excellent views in all directions although quite a strenuous climb on the route we took. Expected heart attack didn’t occur.

Stopped off for shopping on way home, and lit the BBQ for sausage and teriyaki chicken, jacket spud and salad dinner with obligatory bottle of white.

England

Meeting Lee & Don

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Saturday 12th August 2017

Today we drove over to Evesham, meeting up with friends Lee & Don to watch Dons’ beloved Wealdstone play Gloucester City. Not the best of games, it finished 2-2, a disappointment to the travelling supporters. After the game we returned to the van with a plan to meet up later at The Prince Of Wales in Ledbury.

The Prince Of Wales

We reserved a table and enjoyed a few pints of the local brew and the best steak & kidney pies I’ve had for a while.

After dinner Lee & Don came back to view the caravan & have coffee before setting off for their lodgings nearby.

I spent a while Perseid meteor viewing before turning in.

England

National Trust Croome

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Friday August 11th 2017

Croome House

We visited National Trust Croome today. The former home of the Earl of Coventry & site of a Second World War secret airbase , RAF Defford, where developments in radar and aircraft autoland technologies were carried out.

Much of the land required for RAF Defford was requisitioned from the Earl of Coventry in 1940, with the station’s technical area being built on the eastern part of Croome park. The laying of the runways necessitated the closure of a public road, and extended across Defford common.

An interesting museum and house with lovely walks around the lake & river.

Back to the caravan for some R&R before lighting up the BBQ.

England

The Tour Begins

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Thursday August 10th 2017

We’re Off! The tour begins and we set off from Denham in reasonable weather for The Elms – Ledbury, a Camping & Caravanning Certified Site.

First task was to pull into nearby Beaconsfield services to fill the LPG tanks for the first time and carry out a leak check. All joints were sprayed with leak detection fluid and a thorough check for bubbles found none 🙂

10.08.2017 Route

Towing Kilometres – Today: 226 – Cumulative: 226

We took the long way round route of M40, M42, M5, M50 with a coffee break at Warwick services. The caravan towed very easily at 56mph, mostly on cruise control.

I carefully checked and set the nose weight of the caravan to 80kg before we  left and there was no hint of sway enroute.

On arrival at the site we were met by the very cheerful owner who directed us to a pitch at the top edge of the site.  The field was quite wet but the car pulled the van up just fine.

The Elms is set on a sloping field without marked pitches.

The toilet & showers are basic but clean.

The Elms – Ledbury

After setting up we had a small meal before wandering down into Ledbury to visit The Prince Of Wales, a pub the site owner recommended.

The Prince Of Wales
The Prince Of Wales public bar
England

Preparation

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22nd July 2017 to 9th August 2017

We collected the caravan from Gomshall, Surrey on 22nd July. A relatively short tow brought us to Wyatts Covert Caravan Club near Denham.  This site is relatively near to our house in Langley, and was the base for preparation of the caravan for our tour & preparing the house for rental.

Shiny New Caravan at Wyatts Covert

Kim began the long process of determining which stuff to move to the caravan, to relatives, to the loft, or the bin.

This involved many trips back & forth between house and Denham and a hire van trip to Middleton On Sea with furniture.

We finally got the house and caravan preparation completed on the 9th August.

Our house was viewed 3 times within 2 days of putting it on the rental market and the first people to view made an acceptable offer and will move in on August 14th.

On delivery there was a problem with the solar panel. It had been cross connected and wired into a wiring loom. I wished at this point I’d fitted it myself.

Twin bottle LPG installation

My son Paul & I fitted a two bottle GasIt LPG refillable system with auto changeover valve and external fill point. This will enable us to refill with gas anywhere LPG is available without having to change bottles.

External LPG fill point

We also fitted a 4G aerial for use with a Mi-Fi unit to access the internet en-route

We slept in the caravan all except two of the nights of preparation at Wyatts, and finally had the house ready to let on the 9th of August.

The first people to view made an acceptable offer and will move in on 14th August. We handed the keys to the agent on the morning of the 10th and were all set to start our tour.