Tredegar House, CMC site, Newport, South Wales.

So we decided a week away would be a good idea as the weather looked fair. We have been to Tredegar House before some four years ago. What should have been a short journey of some fifty minutes, turned into a journey of over two hours as there had been an unfortunate accident on the Motorway. The journey was further complicated by massive road works as we approached the site.
Anyway on to the site and we set up at the top of the site, big mistake as  you get more road noise at the top of the site.
We set up and put the awning up. Pegging it down was really difficult as the hard standings were the hardest I have ever experienced. Many bent pegs.  The warden did say though that in October 2018 the hard standings were all being replaced, and the ablutions block was going to be replaced as it was rather tired!

Our Pitch

The view across the site

We settled down for a relaxing time, and were able to pop down to the Tredegar House Tea shop
Tredegar House is a National Trust Property. At this time of year the gardens are open, but the house is closed up.

The main entrance to Tredegar House

We went over to the St Fagans National Museum of History at St Fagans. This is an estate which was donated to Wales some seventy years ago.  When it was donated there was a Castle at the top of the site and a farm house at the bottom. Since then over forty original buildings from different historical periods have been brought from all over Wales and re-erected  on the hundred acre site.
All the buildings are open to visitors, and often craftsmen are working in them. It really is worth a visit, and it is free.
https://museum.wales/stfagans/about

The Village Stores

The working water wheel, that powers the working Flour Mill

This is the pig sty, built in a circular shape to stop pigs digging in the corner!

Inside one of the cottages

On one of my wanderings round Tredegar House I came across these film crews who were filming 'Jerusalem', a spy thriller set in the mid 1940s for channel 4.
It was really amazing just how big the film crew was and also how many takes they did for each scene.

The film crew

This was in the background of the scene being filmed. Poor chaps were going backwards and forwards with these chairs.

At the end of the week we cleared up and were home in under the hour .

2018 gets under way!

Well for our first trip of the year we decided to head for Burrs Country Park CC site in Bury, so we could see Kathy. Robert and Dennis the Dawg.
Unfortunately a couple of days before we were due to leave our Discovery Sport decided to play up. A quick phone call to Land Rover Assistance and one of their technicians duly turned up. He diagnosed a faulty Ad-Blue injector. Discovery booked into the dealer and eventually two days later,   we were supplied with a brand new only 11 miles on the clock Discovery 5. (They had difficulty sourcing a Land Rover with a tow bar).

The Discovery 5 we were loaned. £73.000 Price Tag

So the following morning we were off. As we cruised up the M5 followed by our caravan we had a phone call to say ours was ready. I explained where we were, and that I had just put £70.00 of Diesel in! OK I was told, carry on with your plans and bring it back next week!

A long run up to Bury, horrific roadworks on the M5 and M6. We arrived at the site, set up on our favourite pitch, and it was round to Roberts for Dinner.

Friday was dry so i put the awning up first thing. We then went down to the market in Bury, where new iPad cases were purchased. We then cam back to the caravan where I caught the steam train that was running. As it was half term the train was quite busy.

This was the Engine doing the half term Steam duties.

 

On Saturday Robert Kathy and I went up to Wetherspoons for breakfast. Then Kathy went home and Robert and I went off to ride the diesel trains that were running all day.

Robert in conversation with the driver

This DMU was doing the Bury Ramsbottom shuttle

Driver View from the DMU

 Later in the day Kathy collected Lizzie and we all met up for an early dinner at another Wetherspoons.
Then Robert and I went off to ride the evening trains between Bury and Heywood. These trains were double headed to start with so the engines made a real racket. The last train of the evening was single headed.

On the Sunday we spent time at the caravan watching the train go past, before going up to Roberts for an excellent Sunday Dinner.

The view of the trains from our caravan

Passing the campsite.

Monday saw me at the market first thing, before meeting up with my cousin.

We cleared up on Tuesday morning before heading home. For a change we came down the M6, M6 toll, M42 and M5. This route avoided an awful lot of the road works.

As for the Discovery 5, well it was ok, and comfortable, but no better than our Discovery Sport.
It only did 19.6 MPG, whereas ours does 31mpg towing. So we definitely made the right decision.