Willowbeck Farm

Positiv: Warm welcome...clean facilities

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Positiv: Adult only, quiet, small site.
Clean facilities.
Friendly, helpful owners.
Great pub next door
Fantastic cycle routes locally.
Well located to explore the area.

Negativ: Nothing

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Positiv: The peaceful location, no screaming kid’s,facilities were great with waste water and toilet disposal, clean toilet and shower, and lovely host. Will definitely be back.

Negativ: The plough inn behind the site let fireworks off Sunday evening without informing any locals, my poor rescue dog nearly had a heart attack, that’s nothing to do with the site though.

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Positiv: Lovely small site - owner was there to greet us & was very helpful etc - pub just up the road (5 mins) - rang & booked a table for the next day - great food & staff & views all around

Negativ: Nothing to dislike for a quiet, peaceful couple of days with a pint or too!

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Positiv: Toilets and shower clean and heated - nice facilities and well maintained. Owner was helpful and gave me help to reverse park as bay was on a dog leg!
Local pub was dog friendly. Although I didn’t eat there the food looked amazing and the interior was beautiful - staff were very friendly. Enclosed dog exercise field although not totally secure - but not a problem for a trained dog.
Very quiet location through the night despite being roadside

Negativ: Parking spaces not so easy to negotiate especially for a solo traveller - I needed help from the owner to reverse in - logs placed around edges of EHU park ups a bit of a negotiation and three of the bays down a small hill, although he did offer me an alternative. My EHU did not work but I did not notice until next morning (i am new to this camper experience)
Not the fault of the site at all but nowhere to walk dog safely offsite locally as both public footpaths were through sheep fields at this time of year, and roads around are fast, and have no paths. This is not a reflection on the site at all, but a consideration if you are bringing a dog - once on site and hooked up!
No other local facilities apart from the pub - although it is stunning!

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Vom Platzbetreiber: Thank you for your review, which we are especially keen to address some of the false and highly misleading comments you have made.

1. Our electric hook ups are regularly tested after each guest. We can confirm we have therefore never had a problem with ehu’s as a result. Perhaps the somewhat dilapidated state of your vehicle would have been a more appropriate starting point for the missing electricity. Indeed, had you actually given us a call to say you had no power we would have been straight down and could have demonstrated it was your unit at fault!

2. We were stunned to read you feel there is “nowhere to walk dog safely”… There are miles and miles of public footpaths in this most rural area of ours and it seems to have come as somewhat of a tremendous shock and surprise for you to see that the hundreds of acres around us were occupied by sheeps (I stole that word from Clarkson!) (and also cow juice providers too)…!

3. Our pitches are designed to allow a good degree of separation between pitches and allow you to enjoy your stay in peace within the lovely surroundings . We have never had any guest previously raise any issue of “difficulties” in reaching their pitches as quite simply to do this only requires the most very basic of driving ability.

We are aware that not everyone appreciates the rural nature of our site where we are surrounded only by green fields, woodland providing amazing views with said fields occupied by farm animals. Guests will experience a most amazing array of wildlife with our very own dawn chorus on site. “Rural” means rural!..and in rural areas the unclassified roads and surrounding roads invariably do not have dog walking footpaths to reach the miles public footpaths. In such situations, the Highway Code gives excellent guidance to those on two legs accompanied by four legs.

Thank you from the grumpy site manager…..

Positiv: Brilliant site, great owners . All the facilities were spotless and the enclosed dog field was a right hit woth Connie and especially useful as we were snowed in.
We will be back when it's warmer

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Positiv: Warm welcome from owner.
Large well spaced, level hardstanding pitches, plenty of water taps and EHUs.
Toilet block a little old, but very clean and well kept.
Chemical toilet and grey waste container disposal point.
Secure dog field.
Good pub about 10min walk.
Very quiet and peaceful nights sleep.
We would love to return.

Negativ: A motorhome drive over grey waste disposal point would be a big plus.
Recycling bins, but didn't notice a general waste bin.

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Positiv: Views

Negativ: Pitch under trees , no sun, when it rained sap dropped and stained caravan! Not enough toilet facilities, they were very clean though.Smell from waste areas was very strong at times . Won't stay again .

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Vom Platzbetreiber: Thank you for your comments.

We are pleased you found the facilities clean and would point out that as a tiny site we are significantly under the maximum number of pitches allowed for these facilities.

It’s always disappointing for site owners when guests don’t tell us whilst they are staying of a problem and instead leave comments after they have left.

The occasional smell turned out to be another guest tipping their chemical waste into the gray water point (hence why it was occasional). We have now moved the disposal points and placed even more clear signage to avoid this happening again.

Finally some complaints are entirely beyond our control but we do apologise for the lack of sunshine during your break!

Willowbeck

Positiv: View from caravan was lovely. Field for exercising dogs.

Negativ: Our stay at Willowbeck Farm was disappointing, we requested a gravel pitch but nothing on the website mentioned that it was right next to a very busy road that motor bikes used as a race track, not the site owners fault I know but prior warning would have been good. Our caravan was under a huge conifer tree and it was a battle trying to keep our caravan clean from all the dead pine needles surrounded the pitch, nothing was mentioned on the website that there is zero tv signal under the trees. The one toilet and shower was clean but I found the ladies shower was only lukewarm and the mens was either cold or scalding hot. The washing up area outside the toilet block was scruffy, the Elsan disposal point was the worst we have ever seen and the smell was awful. The site rents a pod which is only meters from the Elsan disposal, not sure I would want to eat outside next to the smell.

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Vom Platzbetreiber: Thank you for your comments:

It’s always disappointing when guests choose not to raise issues whilst on site.

Had you done so, we would have respectfully pointed out that on the Pitchup listing it is clearly stated that this pitch was near the road (and of course is offered at a lower price because of this). Pitchup also very helpfully have pictures of the pitches so you would have seen before booking our site is surrounded by some wonderful trees that attract wildlife. Pitchup also make it very clear on their site description that the tv signal is not good due to our rural location but the 4G mobile data signal is great.

The elsan smell turned out to be another guest tipping into the gray waste and hence it was occasional as another guest confirmed. We have since moved these points to avoid this happening again with larger signage! But again, had we been made aware we could have dealt with this much earlier.

We are unsure why you felt the need to mention the pod.

Willowbeck

Positiv: Pod- cleanliness.
Quiet and small site.
Adult only.
Location - great for hiking.
Toilet/ shower facilities were clean.
Parking next to the Pod.
The Plough Inn - 5 min walk from site and it has a welcoming atmosphere and lovely food.

Negativ: Visited due to other positive reviews. Was slightly disappointed due to the location of the Pod on the site. It is next to the toilet block, not secluded / private.
There was a very unpleasant smell outside the Pod - possibly from the septic tank.
Pod needs better lighting- only has LED strip lights inside- take a torch!

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