#CountryKids Camping at Callow Top with Single With Kids

This weekend we finally got back around to going camping again after 2 years! Last year with moving house and poor weather we hadn't managed to go. So we dug out the kit, borrowed some of my parents' camping gear and headed off to Callow Top near Ashbourne for a Single With Kids camping weekend. An easy drive down meant that by 8 PM we had the tent and gazebo all set up (with a little help from some other campers) and ready for the weekend:

Eagle eyed readers will spot what it is that is missing from the above shot? I had to do a mad dash to the camp shop and plead with them not to lock up so I could by a regulator! A very helpful man used the photograph so that I could buy the right one and cook our tea (hot dogs in buns).

My son had been playing with some of the other children and my daughter had been off exploring when we were invited to the party tent to sit around the fire and the children were given marshmallows to toast:

At about 11 my son and I decided we were too tired to stay up and retired to our tent. My daughter stayed up a bit longer with some of the older children. The next morning I was up rather early as the sound of birds and sheep seemed really loud! It all looked very peaceful in our part of the camp:

#CountryKids at Sudbury Hall and National Trust Museum of Childhood

I had a twitter conversation with the National Trust the other day and they suggested stopping at Sudbury Hall and the Museum of Childhood next time I was heading down south.  So this Saturday I plumbed the address into the sat nav and off we set... My son was pretty good at helping me follow the directions and it only took just over 2 hours to reach the car park. After a little walk along a path we soon came to the actual hall itself:

As the hall was not yet open to general visitors we went into the Museum of Childhood first. It is very much a hands on museum with plenty of toys from the past to look at and play with. There was also a section showing how hard life was for children in previous centuries. My daughter was happy to crawl up a replica chimney as sweep:

It was dark and pretty cramped though a light was half way around:

#CountryKids Poole's Cavern and Buxton Country Park

On our drive back north from Ashbourne we stopped in Buxton at Poole's Cavern. This is one of Derbyshire's show caverns as it contains stalactites and stalagmites. When we went there when my daughter was a toddler she impressed us all by pronouncing these properly! This time both of mine were old enough to appreciate the cavern:

Amazing looking calcite formation

The river was high enough that a whirlpool formed

#CountryKids on the Heights of Abraham

The Heights of Abraham is something I remember seeing on Blue Peter as a child but don't ever think I went on before Saturday. Three families teamed up together to get it slightly cheaper as between us we had 3 adults and 4 children so it added up to an extended family! 

It was a shame that the windows were covered in rain drops as we couldn't fully appreciate the views from the cable car:

Once we got to the top we discovered we had timed it perfectly to go into the main cavern:

We descended a little way down some dark passages:

#CountryKids Camping in Derbyshire

After last week's trial run this weekend we headed to Callow Top Holiday Park near Ashbourne for our first ever single parent camping weekend with Single With Kids. On arrival it looked surprisingly familiar and I realised that I had been there 8 years ago with my then husband, his eldest 3 and my daughter! This time we were in a group of about 30 families in a field on our own at the top of the site. We were the last ones to arrive after our 2.5 hour drive and just managed to get the tent up before the sun set:

My children very quickly made friends with the 6 and 7 year old boys in the nearest tents and played games whilst I rustled up a very late BBQ. Then we went to the communal area to toast marshmallows and get to know the other families:

A drive through my Derbyshire family history

As I headed off on my weekend away on Friday I suddenly noticed that I was about to start driving through lots of places that feature on my family tree! It was as the traffic ground to a halt at the pinch point where the M57 is squeezed to the A57 at Mottram in Longdendale that this really clicked.

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This is where my 8x great grandparents John Bradley and Ann Hollingworth were born in the 1680s. I couldn't see the parish church of St Michael and All Angels in the dark but for about 100 years this was the place which witnessed the baptisms, marriages and burials of my Bradley, Hollingworth and Band ancestors:

© Copyright Stephen Burton and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Silent Sunday: Snow fun