We stayed at The Green Caravan Park in early August 2017, for three nights. This was the first time we’d been camping for a few years, so we were looking for somewhere not too far for a long weekend.

We chose the campsite for a few reasons. It gets good reviews, it isn’t too far from Manchester and there’s stuff to do in the surrounding Shropshire area.

The Green Caravan Park is located in the village of Wentnor, on the edge of the Shropshire Hills. The village itself is pretty quiet, with some houses, a shop and a couple of pubs.

The campsite is quiet too. There’s a small river running through it and a pub next door. There’s a mixture of grass and hard standing pitches across a number of fields.

We arrived on a sunny Friday afternoon and received a pleasant welcome from the people there. After a thorough introduction, we were told we could pitch wherever we like on any of the grass pitches.

We pitched in one of the quieter fields, with just a handful of tents in there. There was plenty of choice in terms of locations and the quality of the grass was very good. We pitched near the river, which was the most level part of the field.

The on-site facilities were fine, but not amazing. There was the usual toilets, showers, washing and laundry facilities. There’s also a small on-site shop with essentials, but with limited opening hours. The only real issue with the facilities was how far they were from our pitch. Walking to and fro became quite tiresome.

The river was a nice addition. We picked up some nets from the shop and the kids had fun messing about in the river. The boys went back a number of times, along with some of the other kids camping there.

Ludlow

We’ve been to Ludlow before on a previous camping trip, mainly to visit Islabikes for a fitting session. Ludlow is lovely old market town, with a rich history going back to the 11th century and a lovely Norman castle.

In addition to the castle, there’s lots of old buildings to see, from medieval timber buildings to some lovely Georgian examples. There’s also a market and a museum on top of the Buttercross building. It’s got to be one of the smallest museums I’ve been to, but as entry was cheap, it’s worth a quick visit.

The thing that lets Ludlow down is the car is very much king. It’s not so much that there’s lots of traffic, it’s just that so much of the town is given over to cars, either moving or parked.

There’s very few pedestrianised areas in the town, and pavements are often much too narrow for the number of people using them. This makes wandering round with kids much less pleasant than it could be as you have to watch out for cars passing through.

So much of the streets are give over to parking. Broad Street with its lovely historic buildings is more like a car park, and is made quite narrow because of all the parked cars.

Ludlow desperately needs to tackle the car situation. It could be so much nicer if more space was given over to people instead of cars, and I’m sure it’d attract more visitors.

Ironbridge Gorge Museums

We really enjoyed Blists Hill Victorian Town on our previous visit, so we decided to go back again now the kids are a bit older. As you can probably guess from the name, this is a open-air museum set up as recreation of a Victorian town.

Blists Hill was originally an industrial complex in the Madeley area, consisting of mines, blast furnaces and brick and tile works. But it’s been transformed into a replica of a Victorian town, complete with shops, houses, schools, factories and much more.

Many of the shops at the museum are fully functioning and have guides who’ll tell you all life back in Victorian times. You can go into the fish and chip shop and get yourself fish and chips, buy sweets originating in days gone by and buy prints made in the printers.

In addition to the shops and houses, you can get an appreciation for some of the industry of the time. There’s iron works, brick and tile works, blast furnaces and replica mine to see, there’s also a Victorian fairground and cafés to enjoy.

There’s plenty to see at Blists Hill and you can easily spend a day here without seeing everything. We didn’t see everything we wanted to and plan to go back again.

Enginuity is another of the Iron Bridge Museums. Its an interactive design and technology centre with a purpose to make science fun. It is situated in Coalbrookdale, a settlement with a history of iron ore smelting.

Some of the things you can do Enginuity include pulling a locomotive, generating electricity with water and playing with a robot arms.

The museum is split into four zones Materials & Structures, Systems & Control, Energy and Design. It’s not the biggest of museums, we spent the morning there and saw pretty much everything. But the kids had a good time, particularly playing with the water.

We had a very enjoyable long weekend at The Green Caravan Park. The campsite was pleasant, if a little lacking in facilities and there was plenty to do in the wider Shropshire area.

You’re reliant on having a car though. There wasn’t a great deal in the way of public transport and we didn’t fancy taking the kids on the bikes given what the roads were like, mainly narrow A roads with people driving at quite high speeds.

Would we stay again? In Shropshire yes, though maybe not at The Green Caravan Park. Though we did have a nice time there.

As we now have a year pass for the Ironbridge Gorge Museums, we plan to return. Though we’ll probably find somewhere to stay in Ironbridge itself.