Stubcroft Farm Camping Site
Stubcroft Farm
Stubcroft Lane
East Wittering
Chichester
West Sussex
PO20 8PJ
Pitches : 4 camping fields and 8 electrical hook-up points
Facilities :3 conventional shower/toilet rooms (2 of which cost £1 a go), 6 composting toilets, wash up sinks (old water only)
Open : All year
Stubcroft Farm describes itself as “a sustainable, environmentally friendly farm and campsite” - more about that later! It’s set in pretty countryside at the end of a private farm lane and is a very quiet haven for wildlife. It’s an easy and picturesque 20-minute walk or short bike ride to East Wittering and the beach, down private lanes with only residential traffic.
We took the camper to this site for 2 nights on the late May bank holiday, 2007 and this is our experience of the site at that time. I booked over the ‘phone a few days before we went and everything seemed okay. On arrival we were told by the owner that the minimum stay is 3 nights – I think he wanted me to pay for a night that we weren’t going to stay there! Anyway he “made an exception” this time (we can tell you – there won’t be a next time!) and we paid – including an extra £1 per person per night as it was a bank holiday! We should have turned up on foot or bicycle – that would have entitled us to a £1 per night reduction! Our cost per night with hook-up and awning was £19.
Stubcroft has 4 camping fields and 8 electrical hook-up points. There are 3 conventional shower and toilet rooms (cost of a shower in 2 of them is £1) but on our weekend, one shower was only producing cold water. There is no hot water in any of the sinks or in the washing up sinks in the camping fields (and dishwater appears to pour down a pipe from these into a nearby ditch).There are also 2 sets of 3 composting ecoloos in the fields. Stubcroft farm’s ecoloos are basically a large hole in the field, covered over with a shanty style timber shed with 3 compartments, draughty and very basic. A timber box section with a loo seat positioned over the hole completes the facilities. They were not particularly smelly - well, perhaps a bit, and after use, we used the plastic beach spade to shovel in sawdust from a handy bucket and that was it. We assumed when that pit was full, the toilet was moved on over the field to another. I’ve seen composting loos on TV – these were not anything like as “convenient!” We are not cissy “urban” campers, and did use the eco loos, but it was obvious to us that the 3 conventional toilets available for those who preferred them, would not be anywhere near enough for the overcrowded site.
The site filled up quickly and 8 electrical hook-up points were not enough – it seemed that too many people had been booked in for hook-up pitches and a splitter was eventually brought out to increase capacity. This seemed to cause problems, shorting out over the weekend, with several people around us losing power completely at times, as did we on our last night. This is one of the problems with unnumbered pitches; it does make overcrowding quite an issue at peak times.
In the environmentally friendly ethos, we were asked to separate out our rubbish – the site info says there is no bin for ordinary unrecyclable rubbish. In fact, the rubbish of hundreds of people was left for 3 days in one corner of the field (next to the drinking water tap) and, even though everyone seemed to sort out cardboard, cans, glass and paper into the separate bins, they were not emptied daily and were soon overflowing onto the ground. Had the weather been warmer, this may have attracted flies. See ‘photo! The number of rubbish bins was woefully inadequate for the size of the site and the amount of people squeezed on to it.
The pathways to the showers were just dusty mud – well, that’s what I thought until the dust on my shoes mixed with spilt water on the shower floors and then turned a khaki, yucky green colour – yes, it was cow poo! Well, it is a farm, but an emailer (and avid erstwhile Stubcroft camper*) contacted us to say that no cows have been kept at the farm for “many years” - our emailer must be on very close terms to the Stubcroft Farm owners to be in possession of such facts! Well, I’m not an expert on farm animal poo – but I do know I’ve never seen khaki coloured mud before. There was also a lot of hazardous rubbish left around; a roll of barbed wire, various tools, cement mixer, bits of rusty metal, odd bricks and blocks and bits of wood – all I assume, from a recently completed garage building, built perhaps, to house the abandoned dusty car with its four flat tyres, which was parked between the house and shower block.
* Our emailer forgot to use the phrase “going there” in their email and once, puzzlingly, slipped into “coming here”. Very strange.
Our emailer also noted some things have changed. Bins are now provided as is solar lighting on the fields 'eco' loos. Take a look at the gallery on their site.
Yes, you’ve guessed it! We didn’t like Stubcroft Farm Camping site and, for its lack of facilities, we thought it rather expensive – making it seem less like planet-saving and more like money-saving for the owner
Things to see and do:
However East Wittering is a great location and there are plenty of things to do in the local area, we like it:
East Wittering Beach
West Wittering Estate
Earnley Butterflies and Gardens
Chichester Harbour Water Tours
Fishbourne Roman Palace
Chichester Cathedral
Chichester Festival theatre
Goodwood Racecourse
Goodwood House
Fontwell Park Racecourse
West Dean Gardens
Denmans Gardens
Weald and Downland Open Air Museum
Arundel Castle
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