Posted to Bovington Camp

[Claire62]

Hi, my hubby's in the RAF and we're posted to Bovington Camp in a week and a half. Can't find out much information about the camp from the web, if anyone can shed any light on it please let me know. Or if you live in or near the area and know what it's like for making friends etc please get in touch.
Cheers

Don't know about the camp itself but the area is gorgeous. So much to see and do in Dorchester, Weymouth, Poole, Bournemouth. In the summer it is unbeatable. Enjoy your posting x

I don't know anything about the camp but Bovington isn't the most attractive place to look at but it is surrounded by gorgeous countryside and yes there is lots going on.

Do you have children?

I loved it!!! I found the patch very friendly, schools are good. Houses are not pretty but quite easy to live in.

Shopping for clothes is pretty rubbish but that never bothered me but the countryside more than makes up for it. Have you been given an address? I can probably tell you about the quarter.
The tank museum is at the bottom of the hill, you can pick up a ticket from the main gate so you don't have to pay to get in. I've whiled away many rainy afternoons wandering round in there with DD1, friends and there children.
How old are your DCs? What else would you like to know?

Buy a national trust membership so that you can park without paying at Studland beach, (30 mins away max), weekends in the summer holidays parking was £8 so you'll quickly recoup the cost of membership and there are a good number of properties very nearby. If you just want it for car parking then you could even just get a junior membership.
Don't pay to park at Lulworth cove, Pick up the car parking pass from the gate at the camp at Lulworth as you drive down.
Go to Arne, lovely gentle walks through the woods, you'll probably see deer and you walk right down to Poole Harbour.
I miss it soooooooooo much, it was a really excellent, fabulous and fantastic place to live.

The people above are correct, the camp it not pretty! It's still a fab place to live unless you really like shopping and hate the beach and beautiful countryside.

If you want to meet for a coffee/info then PM me, not forces but live very close and DS goes to nursery in Bovington and DD does swimming there.

Ditto NT membership - Stourhead not too far away.

Weymouth beach

Bridport - lovely market town with great market and nearby pebbly beaches.

Near Isle of Wight

And of course the beautiful New Forest with tons of mega cool stuff for families to do

I'm sure you've seen this already but in case you haven't, this is from the HIVE website for Bovington:

"Bovington Camp in Dorset has been established as a Training Camp since 1916. The area surrounding Bovington is rural. Amenities within Bovington are limited so travelling to Dorchester (11 Miles) or Poole (13 Miles) is essential for Supermarket shopping and were you will find all major high street stores. Closer to Bovington is the village of Wool (2 miles). The Train Station there provides a vital link for travelling to Wareham (7 miles), which has a small high street with various local shops and Banks/Building Societies. The seaside resorts of Bournemouth, Weymouth and Swanage are all less than 25 miles away. Many former Military houses in Bovington are now owned by civilians. A community spirit has developed between the Military and Civilian population in Bovington and is proving to be successful one with many events being jointly organised and supported by both communities.

The facilities on camp comprise the following: HIVE, AWS Community Office, Sure Start Families Centre, Community Centre with Mother and Toddler room, Spar Shop & Post Office, Cash Machine, Families Medical Centre, Garrison Church, Unit Welfare Office, Library & DELC, Hairdressers, Beehive Café, Launderette, Tank Museum and Gauntlet restaurant, Salvation Army Café, Chinese and Kebab Takeaways, Police Office, Cloudshill Pub/Restaurant, Thrift Shop, Swimming Pool and Gym, Tennis Courts"

Thrift shop is excellent, Cloudshill pub is not.

And there's Monkey World just up the road!

ooh yes - monkey world is fab - even if you only went to the playground!

I have a feeling that it works out good value for money to sponsor a monkey if you're going to visit Monkey world often.
There is an excellent surestart centre in Bovington who might have tickets for Monkey world you can use, they were talking about it as we moved away. The surestart centre also runs some really good groups for preschoolers, again depends how old your children are. You can get discounted entry into Warmwell pool with your surestart card too.

I know nothing about it but loubielou has sold me on wanting a posting :o hope you like it there

I hope she likes it there too after I've said how fab it is. We'd love to go back but there are no more jobs that Dh can do there. The only slight drawback and this depends how old your children are, because there are very few teenagers on the patch, (partly due to the age of most of the families and partly due to a lot of families with teenagers choosing to send their children to boarding school.) If you have teenagers you will need to be a bit of a taxi service to help them have a social life, but they are likely to be in demand for babysitting.

Wow what great information you've all given me. It sounds like the surrounding area is great and my kids will love it. I have 2 daughters one who is nearly 5 and the other is 2 and half. My eldest is going to Bovington First school which according to it's last OFSTED is a great school so hope nothings changed since then. We move in to the house on wednesday and cant wait to go exploring!
Fivegomadindorset, how old are your kid's and yes would love to meet up for a coffee in next couple of weeks thank you.

Many years ago they talked of Bovington in awe Irrelevant now. "Gabby"

DD is just 5 and DS is 2.5 Claire.

I think i need to get up to speed with these DD, DH acronyms!!! Do you live on or near the camp? My girls are nearly 5 and 2.5!! Your the first person i've spoken to with kids a similar/same age!!

DD is daughter, DS is son.

I live just outside Lulworth camp, civvie rather than forces, DS goes to nursery next to First school, daughter goes to school in Wool.

There are a lot of children in Bovington your DC's age, but a mixture as some of the houses got sold a few years ago.

Hi fivegomadindorset, sorry not been in touch but we moved to sunny Dorset on wednesday so we're local now and all settled in!! Hope your well? What is the nursery like next to first school? I have to find one for my youngest DD. Lulworth looks lovely, we drove down to the the cove back in dec and looked beautiful. Do you work at all? Would you fancy meeting up for coffee sometime?

DS goes to that one so they will be in the same class, we love it. DD started there when she was one and is now 5 and DS has been there since he was 6 months. Very low turnover of staff as well. I work usually on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and then very flexible for the rest of the time so would love to.

I'm gonna pop in there on Monday to have a look around but been told there is no space for DD until May but you never know that may change. I will send you a message on here and we can exchange details re meeting up etc. Thanks for your advice re nursery.

Try Bovington Nursery, the one behind the Tank museum. It has a lot more room although it too may be full. My Daughter loved it there. It only does normal school hours, if you needed longer hours because you work then three bears by the school would be your only choice in Bovington.

Loubielou this is one of the problems i'm having with nursery for my DD as at the minute i'm not working but i'm hoping to get back into to soon so three bears would be only one here, otherwise going to have a look at others in the local area like Wool or Wareham.

There's some good childminders in wool but I'm fairly sure that the nursery which is held in the "kids of Wool" building is also only school hours. Hope a place at three bears comes up soon.