The Blue Ship

Liked We booked last minute for a 1 night camping stay and it was so lovely. Peaceful site clean well kept toilets access to water. The pub is lovely too. Will definitely be returning thank you!

Recommend to friends Visit again

Liked Very peaceful well kept toilets

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Best Wishes
Sophie

Liked Location was nice and out of the way. Staff and owners were very freindly and accomodating to requests. Pub was nice along with the playground around the back.

Disliked There was a group of famillies whonl appeared to have a disregard to other people staying at the campsite and made a lot of noise that continued even after 22h00. Then when they left, a tent was left up, a pile of equipment left along with two chairs. This unfortunately soured our exprience.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting and for taking the time to review. We are pleased to hear that you liked the campsite and enjoyed our pub.

I can genuinely only apologise for the group being a bit louder than we would ideally like. For clarity our "quiet time" is from 23:00 not 22:00, we feel this would be a bit unreasonable especially on a sunny bank holiday weekend :-)
We did go out to the group on Saturday and Sunday night and insist that they lower the noise level, they were apologetic and receptive and in their defence they were not actually being rude or anything, just they were a larger group of family / friends so when you have a number of people talking and socialising the noise level can unintentionally rise but we do always go and speak to any such groups and 99.9% of the time in our many years of experience, they just had not realised and are very apologetic, as was the case this time.
With regard to equipment being left and chairs, this must have been removed after you had left as nothing of this nature was left on the campsite, no tent or chairs left behind, although with respect even if it had been that would be our issue to deal with and resolve (which we of course would) and I struggle to see how this would effect another guests experience because a tent or chairs remained.

Best Wishes
Sophie.

Liked Lovely rural setting

Disliked Unfriendly welcome. Very tired set up and signage with rules everywhere that made it feel like campers were an inconvenience. Drinking water tap not drinkable.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Addressing this for anyone else reading......
I wish that I could upload photos of our signs so that anyone reading this would understand. I love how the conclusion of safety signage which for clarity is a mandatory requirement for our insurance, somehow translates to the conclusion that campers are an inconvenience?!?!
Most people would interpretate from safety signage that we actually care about our guests, the environment and our surroundings.....
(for clarity the fours signs are, a welcome sign, a no firepits sign, a fair water usage sign to remind people to be mindful of the environment and a please take your rubbish home sign - all fair we would argue....)

Tired set up...it is a field so somewhat perplexed by this comment. The field is harrowed, rolled and a lot of effort goes in to the set up at the start of the season. It is then mowed weekly and well kept, but the fact remains that it is still a field.
The toilets are extremely nice as a block with high quality finishing for a campsite and cleaned and restocked daily, many campers comment on the toilets and how nice they are in reviews, no one has ever said they are "tired". Other than that there are no other elements to the campsite so not sure what else you could be referring to.
The pub itself is a 15th century Grade II listed building and is well maintained, gardens are well kept.

As for unfriendly welcome...everyone is entitled to their opinion but this is not in line with our many other reviews. Furthermore I feel this comment is solely based on the conversation with regard to the water, which at the time you (rather abruptly) accused us of having "disinfectant" in, which you have now clearly reflected upon and altered to "chlorine". I will explain now, as I did at the weekend, the water is mains fed, we do not tank it, alter it, treat it in any way and so any chlorine in the water would not be down to us and there is absolutely nothing we could do about chlorine levels other than assure you that this would not be unsafe as Southern Water would be responsible for this supply. We pulled off a jug of water once you raised this and it was crystal clear and nothing obviously wrong with it. The alternative is to drink bottled water if the water is not to anyone's taste or they wish not to drink it, but our supply is mains fed and is drunk at the guests discretion.

We trust this clarifies the points raised.

Liked This is a great little place if you just want piece and quite located deep in the countryside. We arrived early evening with our motorhome for two nights and was greeted by the owner who gave us a choice of pitches, We found a nice quite spot in the corner of the field it was perfect.
After setting up we strolled to the pub and enjoyed a few beers, we didn't eat but the food looked amazing and plenty of it. Again the owner greeted us and made a fuss of our little dogs and we felt very relaxed
The night went well and quite, everyone obeyed the rules after eleven o clock.
I would advise anyone coming to read the rules of the site carefully and understand there is no facilities for showers or waste disposal, so bring plenty of rubbish bags with you and take them home when you leave.. It was a little frustrating during our walk to the pub that our dogs decided to do their business a few yards from the pub, So that meant a walk back to the camper with our poo bags so keep that in mind,.. there is no where to dispose of dog waste that we were aware of
But don't let that put you off, this is a lovely dog friendly site with a cute little pub
run by friendly staff,..It also has the smallest bar I've ever seen which amused me and a great beer garden
A big thank you to Fiona who gave us the time of day and even gave us good advice for walking our dogs nearby
would we visit again ...YES 100%

Disliked Not a dislike criticism or to offend,..more a suggesting.
As we had to pay ten pounds more for one extra little dog and no facilities for them as such, maybe you could charge a fair fee that would cover each dog booked in to go towards a dog waste disposal bin if possible

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Unfortunately dog waste bins are costly and also the smell in the summer is horrendous so when we did have one before all of the camping guests complained about the smell! One of those situations where we just cannot win so we just no longer offer this. Just in terms of being totally transparent, the reason we charge for additional dogs (two are included in pitch fee as standard) is although we are very dog friendly, last year we had some guests bringing five or more dogs so we have had to now charge for more than two.

Best Wishes
Sophie

Liked Good space in quiet location. Pub a nice addition.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Best Wishes
Sophie

Liked Lovely pub with great food. The staff were all really friendly and helpful. Advise booking for lunch or dinner as it’s only small but worth it! Delicious!!! Nice clean field, was quite busy but still had plenty of space and empty space in the middle for kids to play. Toilets were clean. Really peaceful location. Felt really safe for children. Plum the pig was hiding from the sun so sadly didn’t get to meet her. 35 minute drive to the beach which was a nice option for the next day!

Disliked No showers, but we knew when we booked so not an issue! Toilets could do with better lighting, even in the day the cubicles have no light, perhaps some solar lights or sensor lights could be handy. We took a torch after dark but during the day still quite dark and sink quite high up for the little ones.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Just a quick side note re the toilets mainly for anyone reading this considering booking, we are somewhat confused by this as they are lit at night and are motion sensored so only come on when you enter. They are low level LED lights, we deliberately went for this so as to cause minimal disturbance to others at night, and to not attract too many bugs during summer months! We are also mindful of electricity costs as it is now so high which people do seem to forget, this is why they are motion sensored so only come on as required. If we were to install lights that people turned on themselves, then ultimately they would get left on and end up costing us a fortune which simply would not be sustainable. As for daytime lighting, there are two large windows and a huge door which is always open so there is always natural light. The LED's only come on once light levels are low enough and triggered by motion, so if it was as dark during the day as you claim then they would turn on with motion, so this demonstrates there sufficient is natural light.
The reality is that more facilities we add, we would have to increase our pitch rates which we don't wish do to as we want a rural camping break to be affordable for everyone especially given the cost of living increases for everyone just now. Plus, it is a rural campsite and we do advise everyone (within our listing and in the welcome letter sent to every single guest by email) to bring a torch as we are a rural site and not lit.
The Sink is high deliberately as otherwise children leave the tap running or try to climb in the sink, we had our previous gorgeous butler sink cracked by exactly this sadly and had to replace it.

Thank you once again for your custom and taking the time to review. Your photos are lovely too :-)

Best Wishes
Sophie

Liked Spacious pitches, freshly cooked food and warm welcome from owners. Clean toilets and nice woodlands walks nearby.

Disliked Nothing

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Best Wishes
Sophie

Liked A really enjoyable few days at The Blue Ship

Spacious, clean and loads of space !!!

Food and as first class and no complaints !!!!

Disliked Just the rain !

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Best Wishes
Sophie

Liked Back to basics with a lovely pub attached. Great food, friendly chat, flat pitches. We will be back.

Recommend to friends Visit again

From the manager: Thank you for visiting, we are delighted you enjoyed your stay with us and hope to welcome you again soon.

Best Wishes
Sophie