Melton Mowbray

First trip of the year! Away for five nights to Leicestershire and Staffordshire this time.

We’ve booked our first campsite in Melton Mowbray as we want to visit Leicester and it’s on both bus and train routes into the city. The weather forecast is good so we’re hoping for some sunshine too.

We arrive around 1pm and enjoy lunch in the sunshine and a bit of kindle time. The Grange campsite is attached to a garden centre and is lovely and green with large serviced pitches and clean and modern facilities.

Mid afternoon we take the bus into Melton Mowbray. It’s two miles into town so a very quick ride.

Our first stop is the Old Pie Shoppe where we buy a traditional pork pie for later. A wander around the town across the River Eye and through the park to St Mary’s Church which is closed.

Next stop is Anne of Cleve’s house, now a pub, so we stop for a drink. T is excited for a pint of Everard’s Tiger Ale a blast from his past. Thomas Cromwell owned this house but after his beheading, Henry VIII ‘acquired’ the property and gifted it to Anne as part of her divorce settlement. We don’t think she ever lived here.

A wander around various pubs in town including The Crown, The Cutting Shed a wannabe Wetherspoons, The Montero Lounge which is busy with diners and then back to the Crown intending to get the last bus which stops outside. The bus sailed past us 7 minutes early so we assumed we’d missed it. We crossed the road to The Hop Shop for a final drink before ordering an Uber and ten minutes later watched the actual last bus sail past! No problem getting a taxi back to avoid the two mile walk.