Anything good to say about Park Farm Camping in Bodiam

[gracebf]

Hi, we have booked to stay here on the Bank holiday as struggled to find anywhere with space! However, the reviews on the UK camping site are worrying me...they are horrendous!

They say its chaotic, loud, dangerous and out of control..basically.

Has anyone been there who can shed some light on the truth of this reviews?

i have been there several times in the last 18 years - but haven't gone in the last two years at all..

during the week it is a nice site, with informal pitch-where-you-like rules,

at weekends large groups come down and you get loud music to the small hours of the morning - often accompanied by shouting. Sometimes in the morning the toilet block is a wreck. Dogs often off-lead and sometimes completely lost on site...

you can have fires by your pitch and the farmer sells logs - and there is a lovely riverside walk to Bodiam castle itself. It is a lovely location.

so for a quiet bank holiday camping - i wouldn't recommend it. Mid week i can' remember having a problem there.

looking at their website they have tried to tighten up a bit and now have wardens on-site....

Hi gracebf. We go in a group every year and, I confess, have in the past chosen it partly because of the relaxed attitude to noise and late nights (now we have children, a late night is 11pm so we are no longer any danger to other campers' sleep). The other reason is the option to pitch where you like and have fires - as Eggy says, the farmer drives round selling logs early evening which is handy.

We have noticed in the last two or three years that things have really tightened up security-wise with the wardens making themselves felt during the evenings so it has not been nearly so noisy as it used to be. There was one very scary night a couple of years ago when there were a few nasty incidents - fireworks being let off (one or two horizontally), drunk people driving their cars round the site and loud singing that literally went on all night (the last one not scary, obviously, but annoying). The wardens dealt with it and those responsible were asked to leave. Last year, they were not taking any of that sort of thing and, again, people who didn't follow the rules were asked to leave.

The loo and shower block which used to be frankly nasty has been improved enormously and there are plenty of showers and loos to deal with the number of people on the site. It is still not a site you go to for the facilities though.

The river is a great attraction for children with a rope swing to enjoy, as is the playground, and the walk to the Castle (and pub) is a lovely one as Eggy says.

I don't think even now it is likely to be a quiet weekend and you shouldn't expect silence after 11pm, but take ear plugs and you should be ok. And there is loads to do in the area so I hope you enjoy your stay.

Thanks.

A difficult one! What I really dont want is people right next to you shouting and drinking all night with my 5 year old listening to some of the language used!

I dont mind a bit of noise etc but would hate to be crammed.

Would you go with young children over a bank holiday?
Is it a family campsite?

Hmmm. It's a difficult one. Every time we have been there there have been loads of other families and family groups as well as plenty of groups without children. A mixed bag really but loads of children everywhere. There is more than one field and it might be worth chatting to the owners to see if one of the fields is more family-oriented than another.

The group we go camping with has always included some children as we are one of the last couples to have children. Even before the tighter security came in the children seemed to be ok - they tend to sleep much deeper than adults on camp and I don't think they were ever woken even in the bad old days.

It will be busy so if you can get there as early as possible on the Friday afternoon/evening you will get a better spot and can spread out a bit. It might be worth pitching near the edge of the field if you can so that you won't be surrounded on all sides (that said, we always go for the centre of the field but then we have loads of tents and we form a large circle of cars and tents which gives us some protection). I think they may do electric hook-up these days and if you can book that there may be a more defined pitch which might solve the cramming issue.

Finally, yes I would take young children over a bank holiday but we are quite robust about the noise having camped there many times. I can imagine it might be a bit of a shock the first time. Language-wise I am not sure - I have never really noticed but then I do wear ear plugs at night.

What I can say is it is quite a sight at night. All over the field there are campfires burning and people sitting round them singing and talking. It looks a bit like a mediaeval army camp the night before a battle (well, the way I imagine one to have looked anyway).

Whatever you decide, I hope you have a great weekend (we are back there in July so if you have a moment, a brief review of what it is like this year would be very interesting...)

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/camping/738196-just-found-out-i-39-m-a-campsite-snob-help

Park farm is mentioned in this thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/camping/738196-just-found-out-i-39-m-a-campsite-snob-help

I've been twice but probably wont go back. Some people turned up last year in a van and were burning tyres!!!!

Very noisy with music allowed (I'll admit we're noisy as we go in a big group of families, but I would hope we ever annoyed anyone) steros not just accoustic instruments.

Hopefuly they will clamp down on trouble makers as otherwise it was great. Fab walk to the castle (and pub) by the river, wood is cheap, no specific pitches.

We are not going! Dont think its worth the risk as heard nothing but negatives about it in terms of a family site. We are not going in a group so would be over run!

Found another site instead.

Will have to get more organised so have more choice next time.

Thanks for all your advice.

what eggy and oranges said

Sorry to hear that gracebf but glad you have found another site and I hope you have a great weekend. When we go in July, I will pay a bit of attention to what it is like, particualrly for families on their own and report back here. It seems a shame for them to continue to have a bad rap if they are genuinely trying (and succeeding) to get a family atmosphere going. And, as needanewname says, in all other ways it is a great campsite for those who like a relaxed atmosphere and a campfire to sit round.

Thanks oranges12. Would love to hear how you find it as would be handy for us. If we were in large group, I would be happy to do as love the idea of campfires!