We stayed at Butt Farm in mid August 2017, for three nights over a weekend. This was the first time we’ve been to Beverley and our first proper visit to East Yorkshire, excluding getting the Hull-Rotterdam ferry.
Butt Farm is situated about 2 miles south west Beverley centre, close to the A1079. Actually, very close to the A1079, close enough to have its own bridge over the A road as you approach it.
Fortunately, you don’t notice the presence of the A road while you’re on the campsite as it’s reasonably quiet and shielded from the road noise. On the opposite side of the A road is a retail park and supermarket. They’re close enough to be useful, but far enough away to feel like you’re in the countryside.
We arrived on Friday afternoon on a mostly sunny day. There was a sign at the entrance saying what who had which pitch, so we found ours and starting setting up. At the time of arrival, it was reasonably quiet, though it starting filling up later in the evening.
Our pitch was mostly in a good condition. Though there was an area looking a little overused and muddy. This wasn’t a problem as there was plenty of space. The pitches are arranged in lines, with a mixture of electric hard standing pitches and grass pitches. There’s plenty of space and it didn’t feel too busy when all the pitches were filled.
The only real negative is the campsite can feel a little exposed and open to the elements at times. The fields are open, which means good views of the cattle in the surrounding fields and beyond, but it can get a little breezy if the wind gets up. It could probably do with planting up a little more to provide some shelter.
There are modern, well-maintained toilets, showers and washing facilities set in the old farm buildings. The toilets and showers are heated, so are nice and warm in the morning and the showers are free to use. From the pitches, the facilities are a short walk down a chipped bark path, through a small wild meadow area.
In the washing area, there’s a fridge freezer, seats and leaflets for local attractions. A nice touch, there are fresh eggs from the farm to buy as well as some nice homemade cakes. You can pay to hire a fire pit with wood and marshmallows, which is very welcome on the cooler evenings.
Beverley
Having researched beforehand, we decided to the take the bikes along on our trip to Butt Farm, particularly as it looked like there was safe routes into Beverley and beyond.
For the size of town, the cycle route from Butt Farm to Beverley is actually better than I was expecting. It’s certainly far from perfect, but it does provide a reasonably safe route, which would be much less pleasant if you had to share the road.
Most of the route makes use of the pavement that’s been split to provide routes for walking and cycling. There’s a painted line separating the two and the cycleway is a different colour.
There’s no priority for the cycleway at any of the junctions. At one of the junctions, elephant’s footprints have been added. I assume this is to highlight the presence of the cycleway to other road users. I don’t think it’s very successful and probably leads to confusion more than anything.
As you approach the town centre, you move off the protected cycleway and onto the road. This is mostly on local roads with little traffic, so isn’t too much of a problem. Though things soon take a turn for the worse as you’re faced with cyclists dismount signs at a number of junctions.
Combine the cyclists dismount signs with some truly pointless sections of pavement painted cycleways and you’re left with no choice but to ignore it all and use the road.
Arriving in Beverley, we easily found cycle parking as the town appears to have it in abundance on the routes into the centre. Compare that with a big city like Manchester, where you struggle to find any usable cycle parking that isn’t overrun with motorbikes or abandoned cycles.
In contrast to our experiences in Ludlow, Beverley comes across as being quite a people friendly town. Much of the town centre is traffic free or has very low levels of traffic, due to more convenient routes elsewhere. It means wandering round is a much more pleasant and stress-free experience.
I mentioned this on Twitter at the time and many people agreed that Beverley is quite a people friendly town.
It’s not perfect though. Navigating the A164 that skirts the town centre on a bike is quite an unpleasant experience. There’s definitely a need for some protected cycleways here and safe routes across junctions.
I’ve also been informed that on non-market days, the market square is given over to car parking, which is a shame.
On the whole though, Beverley is quite people and cycling friendly. This is evident in the number of people wandering round and the number of normal looking bikes and normal looking (no helmets or hi-vis) people riding.
After spending some time here, we decided to head out to the north of the town, through Molescroft and onto the Hudson Way, which is the site of the old York to Beverley railway, another victim of the Beeching cuts in the 1960s.
After navigating round and across the A164, we were soon on quite a pleasant traffic-free route that passes through the housing estates. This was a shared use path, that on the whole was quite quiet and had a good surface. We were pleased to see many of the barriers had been removed to facilitate access, so there was no stopping and struggling through pointless barriers.
We soon passed over the A1035 on a bridge and started on the Hudson Way. Being an old railway line, the route is typically straight and flat and it passes through mostly farm land. The surface starts as largish loose stones, though this soon gives way to a narrow muddy path as you get further away from Beverley.
We stopped for lunch at one of the benches and carried on until we reached the location of Cherry Burton Station. The bridge across the B1248 at this point has since been demolished, so it’s necessary to go down to the road and cross.
We decided to turn round at this point and return to Beverley to do some more sightseeing and avoid the rain that was on the way.
After a visit to Beverley Minster and a café for coffee and cakes, we set off back to Butt Farm, hoping we’d avoided most of the rain.
We took a different route on the way back, via the Minster, partly along Long Lane and on some traffic-free sections through the housing estates. This route was mostly good apart from the odd awkward gate. One of which meant detaching our youngest’s bike from mine to get through.
We arrived back at Butt Farm a little damp but happy after a very pleasant day out. Time to get the fire pit going!
Bridlington
After the slightly dodgy weather on the Saturday, we were greeted with sunshine on the Sunday. So there was only one thing for it, time to hit the beach.
This was our first time at Bridlington and I must say we were really pleasantly surprised. The beach is a good size, with lots of golden sand, perfect for sandcastles. Even on a hot August Sunday, there was plenty of space and it didn’t feel at all crowded.
After we were done on the beach, we walked along the seafront to the lovely harbour and stopped for an ice cream.
We then carried on further to the fairground for some fun on the rides, before heading back down the seaside to stop at the paddling pool. We then headed back to Butt Farm after spending a lovely day at the seaside
We had a great time at Butt Farm. It’s a lovely campsite and the location is really handy for Beverly and beyond. The owners are really friendly and welcoming too. We’d be more than happy to return.
We were very pleasantly surprised with Beverley and Bridlington as well. Beverley is a really friendly town, with some lovely old buildings and is perfect for a wander.
Bridlington is definitely one of the better seaside towns we’ve been to in the UK. If you’re after a typical beach with donkey rides, sandcastles and a fairground, you can’t go wrong. It’s clean, well maintained doesn’t have than rundown feeling you get at many seaside towns.
Dom Cycling 