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!

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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 …

http://www.visitribblevalley.co.uk/

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.

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

Hawkshead Christmas Fair, Lake District

Ow do!

Well, after a few technical issues with the blog (aka user error) we can now finally update with a couple of Christmas trips.  So what if it’s almost a month after Christmas, it was certainly a ‘Jolly’ one in our motor ho-ho-home 🙂

At the beginning of December, we returned to Hawkshead, one of our favourite lakeland villages, to visit their Christmas Fair.  It’s held on the first weekend of December each year, although there had been some uncertainty about this year’s event taking place following the previous year’s devastating floods.  However, it did take place and was most definitely worth the visit.

http://hawksheadchristmasfair.com/

Jolly was in festive mood and especially accommodating on this trip, as he also transported Suzie’s parents, who had booked 2 nights bed and breakfast accommodation at the cosy 17th Century Queen’s Head Inn right in the heart of the village.  We had to book this several months in advance, as all accommodation books up quickly for Christmas.

http://queensheadhawkshead.co.uk/

After dropping the folks off at their accommodation, we pitched Jolly up at the Croft Campsite just across the main road from the village centre.  We’ve been here before (see previous posts), as Hawkshead is a place we often return to.  The site is relaxed with a friendly feel, clean with good facilities, and the pitches are a generous size.  The site was more or less full by Saturday, with other campers ready to kick off the festivities.

http://www.hawkshead-croft.co.uk/camping/

We all had a great time over the weekend involving mulled wine/cider, local ales & seasonal food, street entertainers, live festive music, stalls with all you can think of, lantern procession, and carol singing.  However, rather than witter on for this post, we’ll let the following photos tell the story of our weekend.  We highly recommend you put this one in your diary for a future Christmas visit.  You won’t be disappointed.  Hawkshead is captivating at any time of the year but extra magical at Christmas …

 

ONWARD!>>>>

Suzie & Bri