Back to Stoneywish again and again
Back in mid-July I took our Bell Tent and Canvas Malu Awning to Stoneywish Nature Reserve in Ditchling for Max’s birthday picnic, the same time I bumped into my first pop-up campsite. We went back yesterday to meet some friends who were camping there. They had originally planned to stay at Forgewood Campsite in Danegate Nr Tunbridge Wells, but the guy who runs it seems to manage his bookings from an iPhone and didn’t get back in touch with two different people from the same group. Shame as it’s lost him two formally very happy customers, and negative word of mouth will have a bigger impact than the goodwill he generates.
Luckily, there were still some pitches available at Stoneywish, which has only recently started to offer basic camping. The general consensus by the mums was that Stoneywish could potentially be the best campsite for kids. At the moment, there’s a campsite and nature reserve, which are treated as two separate entities and there’s no discount for the nature reserve if you camp at the site. The result is that on a bank holiday weekend neither were particularly busy, which is a huge shame because the nature reserve is a great spot for kids without being a commercial-type attraction. So there’s a swallows and amazons type play and pic nic area, as well as a stone circle and nature walks with free range animals to pet and feed. As far as the mums were concerned, it would make more sense to turn Stoneywish into a campsite with all these facilities, and if they did then they would prefer Stoneywish to the likes of Blackberry Wood, which is or was Cool Camping coolest site. They also thought that it would be better than Wowo, which is Cool Camping‘s number 1 or 2 site for kids. Having hosted Max’s birthday there then I think it would be a shame just to turn it into a campsite completely, but definitely think it would make more sense to make it a campsite that also has a nature reserve than a nature reserve that also has a separate campsite. We met Michael and his wife who own and run the reserve and made the suggestion, so it will be interesting to see whether they take the advice on board.
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