Aim for Nottinghamshire

Anthony asked whether the loud noise wed just heard was me, before he flung open the ’van door and spotted a guilty-looking squirrel jumping down from our roof. This was our first time at Clumber Park Caravan and Motorhome Club site and we were to learn that wake-up calls from squirrels were part of the deal.

Although we were rookies, Clumber is a popular site and, when we arrived late on a weekend afternoon, there were scarcely any free pitches. It took a few circuits of the large site to locate a quiet area where we were happy to park the Blue Bus. Perhaps squirrels like hidden corners, too!

We were in north Nottinghamshire, a rural area where many of the big open spaces are the remnants of country house parklands, royal hunting forests or former collieries. Clumber is one of four neighbouring ducal seats north of Sherwood Forest, along with Worksop Manor, Welbeck and Thoresby Park, together known as The Dukeries. In the 1920s some of these landowners leased or sold their mineral rights and, as a result, allowed pitheads on the edge of their estates as The Dukeries Coalfield was developed.

If we’d visited this area 50 years ago, coal would have dominated the landscape.