Bladon Chains - another lost site?

Posted on 06/12/2020 15:06 by Wherenext

Thank you for your replies.

Our idea of security has been tempered somewhat by 2 incidents, one here and one abroad.

The one abroad was in the south of France on one of our first visits. There is a parking place at the top of a small hill that allows you to walk a beautiful ridge to a couple of extremely pretty villages. We pulled in and the first thing we saw were a couple of broken car windows and 2 Roughnecks haring away down hill followed 10 seconds later by 2 Gendarmes careering after them. We took the view that it was probably the safest place for 3 hours and parked up but every time we revisited we parked in the town at the bottom of the hill and just added to our walk.

The one in the uK was at the start of a hill climb in a small car park where a PVC van had its windows broken and the owners standing outside waiting for the Police. 

These are the type of places we usually find ourselves in and yes I know that there is always Insurance 🤗.  We have decided against leaving the car once or twice when we are getting a bad vibe and there are a couple of places in France where we actually park outside Police Stations before going off on our walk/cycle. Just hope we never see any Police cars with broken windows there. 

We too have been lucky with crime in all of the 30+ years of touring and have always taken the view that property is replaceable but we really don't want the hassle. We are not totally paranoid, just partially. We once left stuff outside our caravan in Mid France on municipal site where the only other occupants were French people who were there to visit their relatives in the nearby prison and didn't worry about it as they seemed genuinely nice people. Similarly with some high end Gypsy people in Germany. Mind you their outfits, car and caravan, must have cost £100,000 and most were new so our 15 year table and chairs were definitely safe.😃

Posted on 06/12/2020 15:29 by JVB66

As posted we are thinking  of getting a PVC again (had an AS in 2001)it could only be 15ft to16ft max length ,as we would use it as our only vehicle,and it could be parked outside our garage (not sure about house security when away) but it would save us over £1000 per year on the static costs of the caravan, and would still allow for us to tour and park in most places

Posted on 06/12/2020 16:27 by Takethedogalong

We have always had our outfits on our property JV. Touch wood, house never touched. We put in place as much security as we can, have family visit it randomly, leave lights on timers, radios on timers, neighbours watch for us, even go in and out if asked. Sometimes we have family house sitters. Same when we go in cottages (oh I was careful there!🤣🤣)

Posted on 06/12/2020 20:12 by Takethedogalong

We switch from one type of accommodation to another throughout the year. There has been discussion about finding a nice lodge somewhere if this Covid sticks around. 

The aged van is for lolling around holidays in Cornwall really. Just need to get on with it...........😁

Posted on 06/12/2020 21:20 by Takethedogalong

Sorry, I should explain more. Van is a work in progress, partly refurbished, lockdown found it out of bounds up at Mum’s early on. We just need to fetch it home, get stuck in. New heaters are in, fire and water, I am planning interior resto, replacing or renovating hob, then exterior all cleaned up and painted. House DIY has sort of got in the way. Plus we need some strong muscles to do the final push onto the drive but we are still keeping away from rest of family who would help.

Caravan lived in St Hilary for years. We used to commute up and down solo, occasionally take it home for some work. Brilliant for a month at a time down there.

 

Posted on 06/12/2020 22:18 by Takethedogalong

1984, a Cotswold Windrush. Only small, but in it’s hey day, a very well built, nicely designed two berth. We have owned it for 26 years, and towed it thousands of miles in all seasons. It owes us nothing, has all we need in terms of comfort, warmth and reliability.