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Venue: Astley Green Colliery Museum
The last time we camped at Astley Green, a grand total of five units eventually turned up. I say eventually because Astley is no pain-field site. Astley is a mining museum and as thus has many old pieces of mining equipment on display. Some people turn up to camp only to turn around saying that they 'don't want to camp at a scrapyard.' This to my mind rather cheapens the memory of all those folks who quite literally gave their lives to mines such as this just to keep our 'home fires burning' through a couple of world wars and well on afterwards. But this is just my point of view.
Having said all this then, you can see that we were not expecting a big turnout when we arrived early on Friday to get pitched and settled before folks started to arrive. This was our first Stewardship so we were both nervous and exited as our first units began arriving.
Weather wise, we could not have asked for a better day as the sun shone down from a near cloudless sky and we found ourselves able to sit out for the first time this year. The minus side to this of course was when the sun went down, the temperature followed and with a low of -4 our blue gas was very sluggish the next day.
By Friday evening we had 16 units onsite and were pleased to find that we were not the only exited folk out and about. Two separate groups the Rebels and the Castaways had Birthdays to celebrate with the rebels being the oldest, 'Mum' was 74 years young and it was good to see people this age still getting out and enjoying themselves. I must say a huge thank you to Bob at this point for getting the fire going up in the social room, I'm sure that the party would have been a lot more subdued without your efforts!
Saturday morning found us with solid topped fire buckets and white grass. I openly admit that it makes me smile when we get the pitying looks as we use a trailer tent and before going out I carefully hid my smile against the inevitable "Oooh I bet it was cold for you last night.." comments to come.
The weather let us down a bit on Saturday and sporadic rain kept many under cover until the evening when another social was planned. I am reliably informed that everyone had a good time although due to having fun myself I have a few blank areas ;) The children also had a good evening as the Rebels organised a few games with prizes for them, although I have a feeling some of the adults enjoyed the games even more! ::)
On Sunday we all packed up to go our separate ways, another fun weekend over until the next time. I was sad to be informed that this site is not on our list for next year. Despite the fact that I personally find this site very interesting from an historical point of view, one must remember that places such as these rely on the money generated by campers to preserve the mining heritage and pass it on to the next generation.
A huge thank you to all who turned out and I sincerely hope that you enjoyed yourselves as much as we did. If you have any views on meets, why not post them here to be shared by everyone, good and bad let us all know why.
Peter Dean
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