We (Celia and Ian) took over running The Valley in the spring of 2014 and running a campsite was all new to us.  We moved here from Humberside (OK, it hadn’t been known as Humberside for a few years but we have lived on both sides of the river so that’s the easiest way to think about it), for Celia it was a return to the “land of her fathers” and she likes to think that she has brought Ian from God’s own county to God’s own country.  

Before moving here we spent more years that we would like to admit to working in the voluntary sector for charities and community organisations, so while we are very used to working with all sorts of people we had little experience of managing land.  But one thing we were clear about from day one is that we are passionate about green and environmental issues and we wanted to make this a central to the campsite.

After spending our first few years here developing the basic facilities and generally learning how to run a campsite, we are now concentrating on becoming greener and improving the experience for our guests.

We love camping and think that camping is a great way to have to low environmental impact holiday and to get closer to mother nature.  We encourage campfires and are making provision for each tent/pitch to have a dedicated campfire (as well as the communal fire pits in the woods and recycled tipi), because we know that not only are camp fires great fun, but they are a great way to see the stars (and we have lots of them visible here due to low levels of light pollution), see the night time creatures and get to know your camping neighbours.

What being green means for our campsite

• Firstly this is camping in a field not a manicured park.  If you would prefer to camp on very short grass with a tarmacked parking space, this is probably not the campsite for you.
• Rubbish and Recycling - we ask that all our guests try to keep their rubbish to a minimum and recycle, we have a recycling bin system and give everyone details of how to use it in the welcome leaflet when they arrive.
• Green electricity, whether you camp in a caravan with an electric hook up or just turn on the light in the toilet block then you can be sure that the power you are using has been sustainably generated, we buy our electric from an all renewable supplier and have solar panels on the roof of our house generating power on sunny days, that said please don’t be wasteful.
• We try to manage the land at the valley so that it will continue to nurture us for generations to come.  We have wild areas for wildlife and leave the grass longer where it’s not in use, to create spaces where wild flowers, birds, insects and other creatures can live undisturbed, please respect this.
• We are also passionate about animals and their welfare, we are vegetarians and vegans and while we don’t expect that all our guests will share our lifestyle, we hope you will enjoy the sight of our animals, we have a collection of rabbits and guinea pigs who are mostly rescued animals or other people’s unwanted pets.
• We try to keep use of chemicals to a minimum and to use environmentally friendly ones, so its unlikely the toilets will smell of bleach.  We provide recycled toilet paper and if you bring a portable toilet and wish to dispose of the contents in our system, please ensure that the chemical used does not contain formaldehyde, chlorine, bleach or any other corrosive/toxic chemical. We can supply (at cost) a chemical that is 100% biodegradable and septic tank friendly.