The Brownlow Arms

Liked Friendly personal welcome on arrival, lovely level pitch in a quiet spot, seconds walk to the pub which had plenty of outdoor seating and general safe area for kids to play. Very quiet at night post 11pm. Conveniently close to the A1(M) and kids loved the nature - bugs and birds - present with the countryside location. Fellow campers were considerate and respectful of quiet hours. Music performance at the pub on Saturday night was great. Our stay was excellent value for money all things considered.

Disliked Washroom facilities for campers/caravanners really need some attention. Our kids were petrified by the many many spiders in varying sizes present within the toilets. Although the toilet itself was clean the area around needs attention. In the gents, the experience was similar - shower tray was clean and water was warm but some updating is needed... the shower curtain was stained, mats were not something you wanted to stand on, peeling paint and rotten window frames, and the shower head was spraying everywhere. It wouldn't take a lot to raise the standard to satisfactory but it's visible in other reviews that the bathrooms cause concern from visitors. We would have liked clearer signage for the elsan chemical toilet disposal point / waste water disposal. None of this would put us off from staying again as the positives outweigh the negatives. We will just use our own facilities if staying again.

Second area of concern was the safety of one or two of the pieces of play equipment for the kids. One slide had a missing step on the ladder and exposed metal within the structure which could have caused injury.

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Liked Lovely pub perched on the bank of the river Trent. Currently upgrading the toilet facilities. Nice food, good atmosphere. Very relaxing

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Liked Pub looked lovely, landlady welcoming on arrival.

Disliked Pitch way too close to the play park not enough space to put awning up. Park in desperate need of repair caterpillar broken and sharp and the swings need bolts tightening very squeaky.
Awful smell from nearby factories and rats running all over. Cut our stay short and left early.

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Liked Reasonably cheap

Disliked Pub atmosphere was poor although I’m sure it would liven up on the weekend.
Toilet blocks had been cleaned but are in pretty poor state of repair with plaster peeling from the walls & the showers (only two available) were either red hot with low flow or freezing cold with loads of flow.
Biggest downside to this site is the ungodly smell that drifts across from the local waste processing plant, you may be lucky with wind direction but I certainly wasn’t, it knocked me sick and I had to leave a day early.
Unfortunately I think JG Pears of Newark will be the nail in the coffin for this site unless they cease production.

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Liked Leaving and breathing fresh oxygen again

Disliked Where do I start

Nestled between an animal fat rendering plant on one side, a knocked down power station and the most boring riverside known to man, this pub and campsite are the epitome of mis-representation.

Our pitch looked out onto a dirty drainage ditch - not the picturesque Rivera views promulgated on pitch up, these are in fact of the river further down (and that doesn't look like that either)

The pub opens at 3 and shuts at ten, during that time you can't have food as they don't serve any, but you can choose between a pint of 3.2 percent ale that looks like fish tank water, or Hawkstone cider that looks like cider flavoured fish tank water. Add that to the atmosphere akin to an off season mortuary.

Decided not to worry we will make our own entertainment, and take a nice stroll down to the river and see the watersports place. This is a pontoon from the second world war by the looks of it and an old floating cabin. The only water sports done here are probably people ending their misery by jumping off the pontoon holding a kettlebell.

Decided to have a shower - there's a choice of freezing cold or Chernobyl boiled skin flaying dribbles - both with a backdrop of mouldy curtains and tiles, seen better facilities in Afghanistan.

Then after returning to our site somewhat disappointed the smell started.

Yes that's right that animal fat rendering place apparently compacts fish guts and chicken carcasses into dog food. And the stench is beyond belief, we started to gag and all of us have spent time in war zones lots of them in fact - this was next level, the smell coming from JP PEARS is absolutely disgusting.

We stomached it one more day then decided enough was enough. Place is an utter dump and stinks.

Left with a day to go

Not sure what the good reviews are about or the pictures, certainly weren't the same place we stayed.

Only took two photos as I was too busy gagging with the stench

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Liked Loved the location, in the middle of nowhere. Lots of spaces to park up. No traffic noise, peaceful nights sleep, lovely dog walks along the river. Lady who showed us to our pitch was lovely, friendly and informative. She did inform us that the shower & toilets were going to be getting an upgrade.
Didn’t use the pub so can’t comment on food, prices etc
£21 for the night including EHU is a very reasonable price.

Disliked The shower, grim. Shower mat, disgusting. 🤢. Toilets clean enough to use. Although there were a vast collection of flys, spiders & cobwebs and bugs to have chat with whilst in there. I know we were told that they were getting an upgrade, we didn’t see any signs of that. Over flowing bins

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Liked Very nice and peaceful 😌

Disliked Northing

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Liked Lovely view and access to countryside. Great price

Disliked We stayed Sunday evening to Thursday morning. They serve food Thursday evening to Sunday lunch time

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Liked Pub, food, beer prices, value, location, beautiful walks, friendly staff on site

Disliked Shower facilities are really poor & need upgrading,

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Liked Absolutely brilliant camp site, even better when I got there, there was a little festival on that I didn't know about haha
Toilets, showers, wash station, drinking water tap, waste disposal, got really everything you need

Disliked Nothing couldn't fault it

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