Our first trip of 2022 took us to the Broadway CMC site in the Cotswolds on 11th March for 3 nights. Broadway is a very attractive village, understandably popular with tourists, full of interesting cottages, shops and cafes, many built from golden coloured Cotswold stone. We were joined by old friends, Jim and Kate and as well as visiting many of the shops and the local museum we also tried out one of the village pubs, The Swan, for an evening meal. For one of our party (i.e. me) a major attraction of the campsite was that it backed on to the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway which now runs from Broadway to Cheltenham Race Course. Our visit coincided with their first operating weekend of 2022 which in the end did not go as smoothly as they had hoped. The coal they had chosen to use couldn’t quite keep the boilers on the locomotives hot enough which resulted in breakdowns and significant delays. Nevertheless, I managed a trip halfway down the line to Toddington Station where you can view the engine sheds.

We managed to fit in trip to one more National Trust property – Croome. A house developed in the 18th Century by the 6th Earl of Coventry and garden designed by ‘Capability’ Brown as part of his first ever commission. The house had some interesting art exhibits including art, furniture and especially ceramics but several floors were in the process of renovation so it would be worth revisiting in a few years time. One unusual feature is that part of the grounds during the Second World War became RAF Defford housing over 2000 service personnel and scientists developing Radar systems in top secret. A museum has been created in one of the surviving airbase buildings and was very interesting to see.