21st Trip
Littleover Farm, Sutton Bonnington, Leics. CC CL 3rd – 6th November 2008

Littleover Farm is a 3/4 acre field field just off the Main Street, Sutton Bonnington, a quiet village near Loughborough.  Its postal address is Leicestershire but it's actually in Nottinghamshire, close to the Leicestershire border.  It was chosen because it's close to my wife's sister, niece and nephew, so a handy location for a long overdue visit but it is perhaps our worst stay so far.

On arrival, you drive past the owners house to a large gate on which a sign says to site your caravan and then park car in the drive near the house. So no parking by your caravan. However, as I was setting up, the lady of the house came over to check we were OK and said we could leave the car beside the caravan until we went out anywhere but to park it in the drive when returning. We didn't plan on going anywhere that day do pitched up and parked the car beside the caravan.

Oh the noise!! First there was some constant plodding noise of machinery over in an adjoining field, then there was low flying aircraft rumbling overhead every so often (one which woke my wife up at 2.30am!) and also there was the bell ringers! There's a church just across the road from the farm house and it must have been bell ringing practise Monday night! They started at 7.30pm and didn't stop until 9pm. It later dawned on us that we were in the direct flight path of East Midlands Airport. The noisy machinery and aircraft continued the next day too. And the day after!

The gate to the field was kept closed at all times which was annoying because it's the only way in and out of the field and the gate is large and heavy. In the field are the pitches and EHU points, 4 of the pitches being two rows of slabs with gravel in between. Also field-side are the dustbins, the drinking water and shower. I went to get some water at one point only to find that the owners had connected a long garden hose to the tap. The hose went around the building and under a gate at the back so it looked like they were using it themselves. On the drive side of the gate, at the top of the drive is the elsan point next to the toilet. So anyone wanting the toilet in the night had to go out the gate, up the drive to the toilet unless they used their own toilets in the caravan like we do.

We popped into Loughborough next day to get some supplies. On returning, I decided to drive the car through the gate and park next to the caravan again. There was two reasons for this decision - 1 being we had quite a few shopping bags to carry into the caravan and 2 my wife being disabled and not up to walking far. As I opened the gate, the owner shouted across from the house. He came over and asked if we could please park the car in the drive. When I explained my wife was disabled he ummed and ahhed looking across over his precious field and then decided OK, we could park next to the caravan.

Overall, we were not impressed with this site, it's facilities, it's location or the noise even though it's only £8 per night.

 

BACK