EXPLORING THE LAND OF IRON

Julie and Tom Thorpe are on their mettle as they visit the fascinating and beautiful industrial coastline of the North East of England

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Like many holidaymakers, we have our favourite go-to places. However, this year we were determined to step out of our comfort zone and try somewhere new and very different. With this in mind, we set off on a trip to the North East of England to discover a more industrial landscape than we are used to and to stay at a very different kind of campsite.

We are, unashamedly, comfort campers. We like our comfortable Swift four-berth, even though there are only two of us - plus Stanley the spaniel. We rarely go off-grid; we did so once at a festival, which, to be fair, was easier than I had anticipated and a brilliant weekend away.

We expect a warm, clean shower block to be part of the deal, despite also using our onboard facilities when we choose to. However, this time we were trying out a few days on a small CL with only an electric hookup and tap on the pitch, plus an Elsan emptying point at the top of the field... yikes!

Our journey took us from Nottinghamshire, past Whitby - a very familiar and favourite haunt - and on to Easington, a few miles south of Saltburn-by-the-Sea. We were booked at Townend Farm, which we found easily, just off the main road running out of the village.

The farm is a busy working farm with lots of horsey goings on, surrounded by fields of various crops which run down to the Cleveland Way and stunning views of the sea.

This small site has five hardstanding pitches, each with water, drainage and electric hookup and is slightly slanting (although we were at the top and didn't need levelling blocks); there is a communal picnic bench in the centre of the field. The Elsan point was spotlessly clean and recycling bins were handily placed near the entrance. There are also holiday cottages and the farm offers B&B, so a stay with non-camping friends would work well here. The whole site is accessible for less mobile visitors, though a pitch at the top of the field would be most suitable.