Greenacres Farm

Greenacres Farm in Chappel, near Colchester in Essex is a small site with friendly and helpful owners. It is a Caravan Club Certificated Location, which means you have to be Caravan Club member to stay there.

The first thing to say is that it’s a nice, quiet site (depending on your neighbours in the field, of course). There a small field with just 5 grass pitches for Caravan Club members and the pitches are well spaced out (all with electric).

Adjacent to the field are two hardstandings and a number of static caravans in a separate part of the site.

At the time I stayed the tariff was a reasonable £15 per night.

The site’s website gives a good overview so there’s no point in me repeating that information here, so this post is based on my own observations and experiences.

Facilities

The facilities are all pretty much as described, with a few things to note. There is WiFi access, but only in the laundry. There is a seat in there if you need to be connected for a while, and given the speed of the connection you’ll probably need a bit of time.

On the plus side, I got a reasonable (H+) ‘phone connection which was fine for small stuff (emails, WhatsApp without images, browsing etc.) – depending on your data allowance. That’s with EE, I don’t know about other networks.

The laundry room also contains a washing machine and tumble dryer, both coin operated. Charges for the washing machine range from £1 to £3 depending on size of load (half or full) and the temperature of the wash. The tumble dryer is £1.

The shower costs £1 too, for about 10 minutes.

I know some people get uptight about extra charges; however, given the relatively low tariff (compared to many other sites where facilities are inclusive) it seems reasonable to me.

Local facilities

The site is near to the villages of Chappel and Wakes Colne – I couldn’t work out where one finished and the other started but both are about 10-15 minutes walk from the campsite. If you’re returning to the site after dark, a torch is advisable both for seeing where you’re going and being seen by others.

There is a pub (the Swan Inn) and a general store/post office. There may have been other shops but I didn’t see any and I think I walked round most of it. There is also a telephone box that has been turned into a book exchange.

Riverside seating at The Swan

The Swan Inn serves food for lunch and dinner on weekdays and all day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The bar menu is quite limited; I didn’t try the restaurant as dogs are only allowed in the bar. There is also a covered courtyard and some riverside seating, which is very relaxing.

The Swan has WiFi, which requires a sign-in through Facebook or Twitter.

Walking

There are plenty of places to walk and cycle. One of the more formal areas is the Millennium Green in Chappel, next to a very impressive viaduct. Millennium Green is a very nice space, though it doesn’t take long to walk around it. However, there are plenty of footpaths throughout the area for less formal walks.

Millennium Green

One of the nicest walks (in my view at least) is accessed by turning right out of the campsite and walking for maybe 200 yards where there’s an almost-hidden gate on the left. It looks like it just leads into a rough field, but carry on and it passes through a small wooded area to more obvious footpaths.

If you continue past that one, there’s another signposted footpath a bit further down on the right. This runs along the edge of field alongside a large lake. The vegetation is very dense so the lake isn’t accessible from that side and appears to be on private property.

The footpath itself leads to a road, that was fenced off at the time of my visit. However, further along the hedge is an almost-hidden stile which provides access to the road. There is a pavement on the other side of the road but the traffic is fast so crossing should be done with care.

Summary

Clearly appreciation (or not) of a site is very subjective but if you’re looking for a quiet spot to relax in I can thoroughly recommend Greenacres Farm. I’m sure I’ll be going again.