Family In:site into Bladon Chains
This story happened on: 26/08/2015
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The Caravan Club site at Bladon is much smaller and quieter than the New Forest where we've just come from, although extremely popular with people arriving and leaving at a regular rate, filling the site.
The site offers a mixture of hard standing and grass pitches. It is quite an open site with a field of sheep next door, giving it a real countryside-feel.
Things to do and places to go:
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a stone's throw away or an easy stroll from the site. It is a beautiful location to explore and spend a few hours at. The grounds are extensive and ideal for walking around and exploring. For those interested in historical buildings, Blenheim Palace is an impressive sight.
Bletchley Park
http://www.dotrythisathome.com/learning-around-bletchley-park/
The site offers a mixture of hard standing and grass pitches. It is quite an open site with a field of sheep next door, giving it a real countryside-feel.
Blenheim Palace
Blenheim Palace is a stone's throw away or an easy stroll from the site. It is a beautiful location to explore and spend a few hours at. The grounds are extensive and ideal for walking around and exploring. For those interested in historical buildings, Blenheim Palace is an impressive sight.
http://www.dotrythisathome.com/learning-around-bletchley-park/
This is one of the best educational visits that we have done this year. It had been recommended to us by a couple of people who had also had a fantastic time there. The entrance fee allows annual membership which is useful since a one day visit is not enough. We were only able to go for one day and crammed it full, leaving as the doors were shutting behind us.
The site, once the secretive headquarters of a major code breaking group during World War Two, is now a major tourist attraction. It offers an impressive audio tour - one aimed at adults and a more entertaining spy-themed one for the younger visitors. The audio tour gives information about the site but not the inside of the buildings. So, as well as wandering around the lake and grounds, visitors wander in and out of the mansion (where some the Imitation Game was filmed) and huts, reading snippets of information and interacting with state of the art screens. A museum in one of the buildings houses a replica of the Bombe, the machine that was used to help decipher the codes sent by the Enigma machines. Videos explain how it was built and staff demonstrate how it works.
The site, once the secretive headquarters of a major code breaking group during World War Two, is now a major tourist attraction. It offers an impressive audio tour - one aimed at adults and a more entertaining spy-themed one for the younger visitors. The audio tour gives information about the site but not the inside of the buildings. So, as well as wandering around the lake and grounds, visitors wander in and out of the mansion (where some the Imitation Game was filmed) and huts, reading snippets of information and interacting with state of the art screens. A museum in one of the buildings houses a replica of the Bombe, the machine that was used to help decipher the codes sent by the Enigma machines. Videos explain how it was built and staff demonstrate how it works.
For children, there is an activity room that provides games and activities linked to code-breaking. Workshops are also offered to different ages groups; these last 45 minutes to an hour and have a spy theme, encouraging children to break codes, learn the skills needed to be a spy and send messages across the room.
Overall, Bletchley Park is a great day of learning for the family and definitely worth visiting if in the area.
The Caravan site isn't far from Oxford and there's plenty to do for a family there. Rather than drive or get the bus you could cycle of scooter (as we did) to Oxford since there is a tarmaced path all the way from the site into the city centre. It is approximately 8 miles each way.