Aldridge Mill - Wild Camping

All of it

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Way off the beaten track.
Peaceful.

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Location was very rural and uninterrupted.
Stream alongside pitches was immense fun.
Haven for wildlife (although that includes ALL wildlife even the bitting ones!)
Not too far from a town for shopping
Great area, beautiful and peaceful
Contact with hosts was good.
Access to logs and allowed fires, kids loved it.

Nothing really, although I would suggest mowing some pathways between the car park, water and obvious camping spots, especially in light of the tick warning with the long grass. I don't personally think it would affect the aesthetics of this wild camping spot.

The setting here is really beautiful.
There is so much choice where to pitch and with limited occupancy, you don’t feel overlooked.
The back to basics nature of this site is great. At the same time though, you have clean, well stocked composting toilet and a plentiful supply of fresh water.

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Quiet peaceful clean so simple.
Excellent phone and internet signals etc to find maps etc

Nothing at all really. Only downfall someone there did not pick their dog mess up 🤨 so myself dog-less dod the job

beautiful location - quiet (minus the owls), stunning scenery and a perfect place to escape the daily grind. although I did get surprisingly good 4G reception on vodafone to help with planning the next days activities

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We just wanted to say a big thank you for a lovely stay. The firepit evenings are great under the stars and we all loved the wildlife, fresh air, paddling (dipping) in the stream and foraging in surrounding woods. Kids also loved the play area.

The midday departure time is very friendly for inexperienced people like us.

We planned to see Tarr Steps (12 miles), but in the end we did not go anywhere from such a good little place. Next time. I hope very soon.

Honestly nothing just the logs were too big for our portable fire pit :) but we could borrow an axe for 5 minutes from friendly and helpful neighbours.

Tranquility. Unspoilt nature. Lovely views. Stream (full-on river when we were there due to plentiful rain!) was beautiful. Very friendly owners - welcoming and extremely accommodating (they helped us bring all our gear up the very steep road in their land rover at the end of our stay due to the steep gradient - our automatic car couldn't cope when fully laden. We were very very grateful for that). Composting toilets were clean and well maintained. Gorgeous woodland. If we were true wild-camping (travelling light and without young kids) this would have been a great option to pitch in...
Great play area for the children.

We're seasoned campers, and don't mind wild camping in the slightest. However - the weather was against us on this occasion and it did have had quite a knock on effect for a few aspects of our stay here (Storm Frances - high winds and unseasonably heavy rainfall). Not the owners fault at all - just a force of nature really - but useful to know for future reference.

Parking - there was space for 3 or 4 cars on a gravel area. There would have been plenty more spaces on the flat meadow; however as the weather had been extremely wet, cars were becoming stuck in the mud and needed to be assisted out. There were some hard ground boards too and I must point out that the site owners were very happy to help out with their land rover. I'm sure when the weather is fair this is not an issue at all.

The path up to the composting loos was steep and extremely slippery due to mud. Ferns and sawdust had been laid down to afford some more grip and we understood the toilet had to be up on the slope to make sure it was away from the river, but with youngsters the slippy mud was fun! (You could get to the loos by walking up and around also - added adventure in the middle of the night...)

The flat grassy area for pitching was directly next to the fast flowing river with steep banks (river was fast flowing due to excess rainfall - usually a gentle stream ripe for paddling in). We opted to go up the hill further away from the river to feel safer with our children; this meant camping on quite a slope unfortunately, but did mean we had awesome views down the valley.

It would be useful for future bookers to be made aware of just how (VERY) steep the roads in and out are, along with a hair-pin bend, as the site lays at the bottom of the valley.

Really amazing opportunity to camp in an untouched woodland, it’s possible to pitch up anywhere you like, and you’ll definitely have your own privacy. Other campers had extensive camps set up with tarps, fires and cooking areas. We had a beautiful walk along the river down the valley through ancient woodland and along an ancient track, saw deer! Fresh water provided. Definitely a case of bring what you need!

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That we were allowed campfire, staff very friendly and lovely view of stream

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