Ouote “Kelham Hall is a beautiful stately home located in the Trent valley. The Hall provides a stunning backdrop for weddings, events and family days out. Open Daily with free admission and car parking.”
Only decided on this camp site a couple of days before we departed. We knew we wanted to keep it local, so didn’t want to travel too far from our home address. Getting away for some ‘us time’ was the priority as we hadn’t been away in Wolfy since January. It took us best part of an hour to get to Newark as our first port of call late morning. This wasn’t bad, and from a fuel point of view was neglagable. Newark was only a couple of miles from our camping destination. We had a wander around, a coffee at Prince Rupert, and after a little shopping moved on to the campsite.
Online reviews for Kelham seemed hit and miss, but we were pleasantly surprised with the location, and flexibility the site owners gave us for pitching up. Not needing electric we paid £20 per night which we thought was OK, with a cracking, quiet spot surrounded by trees…but next to the church (Our choice 🙂 ).
Our first afternoon was outstanding on all accounts as far as the weather was concerned. Not amazingly warm, but as good as could be expected for April.
We decided to go for a walk to get our bearings in the immediate area.
I must confess, I don’t really do a great deal of research about the places i stay, but Kelham Hall is a really nice building. I have shamelessly copied the below from the website (which is poor on my behalf)…but the picture above i took…so that’s fine 😉
“Anyone who has marvelled at George Gilbert Scott’s design for London’s St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel will find something familiar and remarkable at Kelham Hall. A Key figure of mid-Victorian Gothic architecture, Scott had originally been commissioned by the Manners-Sutton family to add a conservatory to the house which had already been rebuilt in the early 1700s, and then extended between 1844 and 46. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for Gilbert Scott, in 1857 a fire destroyed the older parts of the house and the architect was left with a blank canvas on which to express all the exuberance of his imagination. The result is a redbrick riot of Gothic styles, with towers, gables, arcades,exquisitely carved columns and fireplaces, and more than a score of different window designs. For 70 years Kelham Hall became home to an Anglican order of monks, gaining it’s impressive domed chapel, and today it remains a wonderful hidden treasure of English rural architecture and a magical setting for your perfect day.”
I totally appreciate the architecture in this building. Far more bravado than any modern building would ever consider! Friday evening consisted of a lot of chilling, and a nice meal cooked using our Cobb Cooker.
Saturday was quite relaxed in terms of getting out of the van. We are early risers, but it took us until 9am till we managed to get a shower. If I’m honest there doesn’t seem to be a great deal within walking distance as far as supplies are concerned, so make sure you get there with plenty of provisions if your stopping for a while. There is a pub in the village called the Fox Inn.
We dropped by for a half pint after a brisk walk. It wasn’t busy by any stretch of the imagination, and after an hour it didn’t show much signs of picking up. No reflection on the pub, and we didn’t try the food so can’t comment on that, but there is little else worth mentioning in the area.
Anyways, we left Kelham after a very pleasant two night stop. We would definitely go back here again for another night or two. We were very happy with the facilities the campsite offered. On that note I would suggest that the shower facilities ‘in’ the main building were probably better than the ones in the porter cabins next to the ‘Event Field’. They were heated which is always appreciated when the temperature is a little on the cool side. 🙂
As an overview for anybody that is considering this for camping …Its on a reasonably busy ‘B’ road so I would say if your prone to issues with noise make sure your nearer the river / Event Field (to the left of the below map). Motorhomes and Caravans will most likely suffer less from the acoustics side of things than tents and Campervans with Pop-Top type canvases like ours. All in all a cracking location if you just like being outdoors, and great for kids to play football, frizby and run around in the woods.
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