A new pub in Porthcawl, South Wales has just joined our motorhome-friendly Nightstop Scheme, which we run in partnership with the Motor Caravanners’ Club

 

We’re pleased that our scheme has been steadily growing in size, and we have just welcomed the latest new location to our network of safe and legal motorhome-friendly places where you can stay overnight when you’re touring on a shoestring.
 
NEW NIGHTSTOP!

The latest pub to join the scheme is The Seagull Inn, a family-friendly pub tucked away among houses in a handy spot for the beach in Porthcawl. It’s a ten-minute walk to the town, and the area boasts a funfair, adventure park, golf courses, fishing, darts, swimming pool, footpaths and cycle paths. It would be ideal for anyone needing a stopover on the way on the coast between Cardiff and Swansea.

 

Contact Mr & Mrs D Ruck, The Seagull Inn, Sandpiper Road, Porthcawl CF36 3UT. Tel 01656 785 420. This pub charges £15 per night and is open all year. Access is via Fulmar Road, then West Park Drive. Take first left after the pub and first left into the car park. You can use the pub’s toilets during opening times.

 

OTHER RECENT ADDITIONS

A good pub can play a key role at the heart of any village, and that seems to be the case at The Royal Oak Inn, Stoke Saint Gregory, near Taunton. As well as welcoming Nightstop motorhomes, the pub offers regional ales, home-cooked food, pool, darts, skittles, acoustic nights and a large function room with its own bar, perfect for parties (01823 490 602, 10am-12 noon and 1-3pm).

 

The Junction Inn, Denshaw, is four miles from Oldham in Lancashire. New landlord Steve Rigby is happy to welcome you and your motorhome in the car park overnight, provided you eat and drink in the pub. Steve says, “We are a destination ‘food-house’ with a traditional ‘inn-style’ mentality, so we will always offer a welcome.” Please note that the toilets are only available in opening hours, from

12 noon, and it’s best to fill up with water elsewhere, as the tap is hard to reach. All entrances to the pub

have steps. Dogs are welcome.

(The Junction Inn is at 2 Rochdale Road, Oldham, Denshaw, Oldham, Lancashire OL3 5SE. Tel 01457 874265.)

 

This brings our current total up to 31 brilliant Nightstops, all ready and waiting for your visit.

 

Another relative newcomer to the scheme is The Three Merry Lads, on the edge of the Peak Distict, five miles west of Sheffield. This attractive stone building has humble beginnings as a cow shed, that started serving beer to thirsty workers building the Redmires Reservoirs in 1833. It’s a six-minute walk to the bus stop, with buses running into Sheffield every ten minutes on weekdays, 20 minutes on Sundays.

Other recent additions were locations in Wales (The Seaview Hotel and the Penrhiwgaled Arms), and one that’ll be really handy for exploring the historic delights of Stratford-upon-Avon (the New Inn Hotel).

 

The Old Hall Hotel is a great stopover for beach lovers, while beautiful Devon is home to The Castle Inn. Finally, don’t miss the handsome Seven Wives in St Ives, and the Tarrington Arms, a lovely 16th-century public house located close to Hereford.

 

NIGHTSTOPS’ CL FACILITIES

The facilities offered by each location vary – please contact the individual location to confirm if you need something specific – but each is a fully licensed, safe, legal stopover point for our readers to make the most of while touring Britain. All our locations are certificated CLs, with their licence granted by our scheme partners the Motor Caravanners’ Club (MCC), but the difference is that you don’t need to become a member of any club to use these Nightstops.

I met up with Rik Whittaker, the current MCC chairman, as well as former MCC chairman Les Kendrick and his wife Joyce (pictured below) at the NEC Motorhome & Caravan Show, 2012. They said that they are as keen as we are to expand the scheme.

NIGHTSTOPS MAP
To see a guide map of participating locations simply click here

 

We also publish details in most issues of Practical Motorhome. For further information on any of the Nightstops, including exact locations, email us: [email protected]

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP
Please send us your feedback about places

you’ve stayed in our Nightstop Scheme. Take a photo of your ‘van pitched

for the night, to show others what to expect.

When you accept hospitality from one of our wonderful Nightstop scheme hosts, please do buy meals and drinks if they’re available. Pub landlords

face soaring rents, commercial rates and other costs these days, so we need to support them in return for the welcome they offer us. ‘Use it or lose it’, as they say.

If you meet a friendly pub landlord/lady or landowner on your travels, who might like to join the Practical Motorhome/MCC Nightstop Scheme, please ask them to email us for more details.

 

We work with the Motor Caravanners’ Club to

run this reader service and are very grateful to the Club for

organising the legal paperwork for each venue. As well as the

Nightstops, the MCC also has its own network of five-van CL campsites,

for the benefit of its members.

 

As well as getting a cheap pitch for the night, using our Nightstops will do just a little bit to help support some of Britain’s friendliest pubs. As CAMRA (Campaign for Real Ale) has highlighted recently, pubs are closing at the rate of 18 a week. The many reasons are spelt out in this BBC article. One thing’s for sure: if too many pubs close, we’ll all be worse off, both at home and when we’re touring.

 

Kate Taylor,

Practical Motorhome
Updated 28 February, 2013
Email [email protected]

 

READERS’ COMMENTS

The Seaview Hotel, Fishguard

Cost of an overnight stay in the car park: free, if you buy drinks in the hotel. There are no meals available.

November 27, 2012


Nightstop at the Three Horseshoes, Alton, Hampshire
“I must comment on my Monday night stay at the Three Horseshoes at East Worldham, near Alton Hampshire. The pub car park is very secure and a short walk through the walled garden takes you into a beautifully maintained, log fired, warm and friendly pub. The menu is outstanding and the service to match.”
Peter Latham
Wednesday, November 1, 2012

Nightstop at the Hawthorne, Oldham, Greater Manchester
“Just a quick review of our two-night stay at this nightstop in early July. We were made very welcome at this small, peaceful site, just outside Oldham. Directions to the site via Google map are not good, due to the extensive roadworks takikng place in Oldham, so we would advise people to avoid the town centre if possible. The site had everything a motorcaravanner could need, including laundry facilities, with the addition of very friendly and obliging hosts. If the improvements to the facilities that they are planning happen, this will become one of the very best places to stay in this part of England. As it stands at the moment it’s already up there with the best!”
Sue and George Ashton
July 5, 2012

Halfway House Inn, Cornwall (pictured below)
“Just wanted to let you know that the Halfway House Inn (Nightstop location) at St Jidgey, Cornwall is now £10 a night, or still free if two meals are taken. We were there the other night and I told Lesley (the owner) that I’d drop you a line with the update.
Donna Garner
September 28, 2012

The Old Thatched Inn, Stanton-under-Bardon, Leicestershire.
Sadly this pub appears to be closed and the phone rings unanswered. We hope this is a temporary situation and look forward to welcoming the pub back when it reopens.

October 2, 2012