We spent a night last week at this campsite in the town of Minchinhampton, near Stroud, Gloucestershire: http://www.tobacconistfarm.co.uk/index.html It’s a fairly new site (opened last year), and is very nicely thought out. The pitches are grass (well mown), very spacious and divided off with patches of wild flowers/grasses left to grow high so providing some privacy. The toilet block was built last year and is kept spotlessly clean, and rather than having separate ladies/gents facilities, has separate rooms which each have a loo and wash basin in, and separate shower rooms which have loads of room and hooks and a chair for your clothes. In the facilities block there’s also a kitchen with a fridge/freezer, washing machine, electric kettle, and outside is a washing up area with hot water, and a clothes drier. It’s on a farm so there are a few animals to see. There are fire pits for use (not sure if there’s a charge for them - I doubt it). There are very few rules and regulations and a lovely, friendly owner, who wasn’t at all phased by us removing our sliding door as soon as we got there and laying it on the grass (the door card had come loose!). The cost was £15 with or without hook-up (the owner has a card system for setting up the electricity and when I asked about how do we pay for the electricity, she said that we’d only use a few pence worth for one night and it wasn’t worth charging. It sounds like she doesn’t generally charge for it as she mentioned someone who stayed for 10 days and only used £1.20 worth of electric and she seemed to have a “it’s more trouble than it’s worth” attitude to it. Makes you wonder why other campsites charge and extra £2-4 per night for hook-up … We walked into Minchinhampton which was a pleasant, old market town with a few shops, including a butcher which sold what looked to be a good selection of meat, including various marinated things that would go down nicely on a barbecue! I can't comment on what else the area has to offer as we were only passing through, but would heartily recommend the site and happily go there again ourselves. It isn’t open all year (the owner likes to have a holiday!), and booking is needed at peak times.
