Camp sites in the Welsh borders - Plassey Laisure Park

A blacksmith hammers and sparks away in the shadow of a tiny real ale brewery.

An artist is mixing dough from which she creates animal-caricature ornaments with gleaming, laughing eyes that say ‘buy me, I’m cute’.

Across a courtyard and up an iron staircase, the precision craft of clockmaking is going on. This incredible mix of talent and tradition and business is going on at – you’ve guessed it – a touring caravan park.

The Plassey, a few miles from Wrexham, just inside the Welsh border, is no ordinary caravan park, though. It’s home to 20 small retail and craft businesses, all hidden in a warren of little units in a former farm building complex.

The Plassey started out in an ordinary enough way. Like very many caravan parks its roots lie in the desire of a farm to diversify into other income-streams. Only in this case, that ‘other income stream’ became a huge torrent.

The Brookshaw family came to Plassey in 1960 and diversified into caravans rather than cows 10 years later.

“We used to milk cows right here in this  building,” explains Della Brookshaw as she takes me on a tour of the complex that has a lovely cosy traditional atmosphere. She’s pointing to an area now occupied by a little nest of needlework skill that is another of the craft units. “And this was the bull box” – she points to a unit housing more pretty crafts and still bearing all the structural hallmarks of its agricultural past.

The hay lofts are there. And so are the drainage channels in the floor, all serving to enhance the agricultural bygone image. It’s at once a museum of farming and a buzzing hive of little businesses where dedicated craftspeople make and sell their wares.

So what does this mean to the caravanner?

The answer is that Plassey is a weekend in itself; you don’t need to leave the park to enjoy a couple of days at least here.

This is your selection:

•    Nine-hole golf course.
•    Outdoor plant sales area to browse around.
•    Sample the farm made ice-cream that Richard Done sells here; it’s made on his 200-acre, 150-cow farm at Erbistock, a few miles away.
•    Browse the visitor centre, where there is a video of Chester’s attractions and history.
•    Watch the blacksmith at work
•    Smell the dough cooking and watch it being made into those animal cuties
•    Take a look at the brilliant paperweights and much more
•    Have your hair cut or coloured
•    Visit the beauty salon for extra pampering.
•    Go to the jewellery workshop, that’s after you’ve bought clothes here… and don’t forget the speciality chocolates to take home…
•    Visit the photographic studio
•    Walk around this pretty estate, watch the ducks waddle right up to your caravan
•    Eat at the restaurant or cafe housed amid the old farm buildings

And Sunday?

•   Chester. The North Wales coast. Llangollen. The mountains of mid-Wales.
•   Otherwise, a game of badminton might appeal – on the park’s covered courts.

As we towed out of The Plassey on the evening of the last day of our all-too-brief stay, caravanners and motorhomers were setting out their chairs and tables and wine glasses as barbecues sizzled, sending mouth-watering smoke signals vertically in the still  air, exemplifying the tranquillity that is The Plassey.

With a two-hour tow ahead of us we were dreadfully envious of those we left behind, relaxed and settled into another day of Plassey pleasure, its air of friendliness led, as much as anything, by the fact that it is family-run – Della Blackshaw’s son John is the park’s managing director.

Site Info: The Plassey Leisure Park
Address:	Eyton, Wrexham
Telephone:	01978 780019
Email:	[email protected]
Website:	www.theplassey.co.uk
Open:	March – October
Facilities:	Heated shower buildings, washing-up facilities, hardstandings, shop, indoor badminton courts, superpitches. Visitor centre with tourist information.

To search for your perfect campsite from our large database simply click here: www.outandaboutlive.co.uk/pitchfinder/

Back to "Travel" Category