10/02/2012

Turnover Hall Farm

Turnover Hall Farm Certificated Location
Rawcliffe Road
St. Michaels-on-Wyre
Garstang
Lancs
PR3 0UE

01995 679275

Open all year

Current fees - Contact site for details


I used this quiet little Caravan Club CL as a base while attending a towing course at a nearby agricultural college in September 2010; it was my first experience of staying on a CL and apart from a couple of minor niggles it's a nice little site. I arrived at 10am on a Friday morning to find that reception was closed and there was no-one around - after spending several minutes wandering round the nearby farm buildings I finally found a farm worker who said he had no idea who was booked in but he would come across and show me where to pitch and I could pay my site fees the following day. It took several minutes for him to find me a hook-up post though as they are situated underneath the surrounding trees and the conifers were so thick the posts were totally obscured. My second niggle was the reception opening hours - Saturday only from 10am to 4pm, which under normal circumstances would have been no problem but was no use to me then, as I had to leave the site by 8.30am and wouldn't return until after 5pm. Luckily someone I knew was also staying on the site and he offered to take my site fees to reception for me, but had that not been the case I could have found myself in a slightly awkward situation.

Niggles aside, the site itself is in a lovely countryside location near the River Wyre on the outskirts of St. Michaels village, and is actually part of a much larger site which seemed to be mainly seasonal pitches and storage, and was undergoing further development. Accessed down a short private lane the CL is spacious and level, and being mainly surrounded by trees it felt very secluded. There's a large wooden farm gate at the entrance which must be kept closed at all times. The water tap and waste bins are just off the site at the end nearest to the main site - unfortunately a bit of a walk if you're pitched at the opposite end - and the spotlessly clean showers and toilets are in a newly built block on the main site itself, again a bit of a walk for some. Across the lane from the site is the high river bank which makes an ideal dog walk - walking along the lane itself isn't to be recommended as it's only wide enough for two cars to pass and there's no pavement.

With Blackpool and Fleetwood on the doorstep and Lancaster, the Lake District and the Trough of Bowland all within easy reach this little site makes a good base for exploring the surrounding areas. Maybe by now the main site has been fully developed and reception has better opening hours, and hopefully the conifers have been trimmed back to allow better access to the hook-up posts - I certainly wouldn't let the couple of minor niggles put me off, and I'll probably return for another weekend in the not-too-distant future.