Comfortable Camping Pre-Arrival Information
Thank you for booking a stay with us at The Bells of Hemscott.
This pack hopefully contains all of the information that you need for your stay, but if there
is anything that we’ve not included our please contact us using the details below.
Address where you will be staying
Hemscott Hill Farm
Widdrington
Morpeth
Northumberland NE61 5EQ
Contact
Alison and Phil are your hosts. You can contact us by email at Alison@hemscotthill.com or
by telephone on 01670 458647 or on mobiles, Alison 07876 344509 or Phil 07719 709611.
We live in one of the farm cottages that will be pointed out to you on arrival. Please do
not disturb the Farmhouse or the Holiday Cottage (Poppy Cottage).
Arrival
Arrival time is between 3pm and
7pm on your arrival day. Arrivals
after 7pm by arrangement only
please as we may not have
vehicular access to help you
move your gear. For the comfort
of other guests with children
there is no access after 9pm.
When you arrive please park on
the turning circle shown on the
map and check in at Pine
Bunting Cottage (there will be
signs to direct you). Please do
not smoke around the
farm/parking area/cottage as it
is a workplace. You can smoke
when you get to the camping
field. We will show you where to
park and transport your gear to
the camping field for you while you wander down (it is a 10 minute walk). We may be
moving other people to their tents so please be patient. Feel free to call/text 07876344509
when you are near and we will try to get back to meet you.
It is important that you make every effort to arrive within these times as we need to
accompany you to your pitch the first time as it is past the ponds, if you are delayed
please let us know as soon as possible.
When you get to
year and we are
there is anything
can try to rectify
your tent, if there is a problem with your tent please tell us! It is our first
still trying to get it perfect and can’t do anything after you leave so if
at all that you are not happy with please let us know straight away so we
it.
Tent Deposit
We require a security deposit of £50 per tent, payable on or before arrival, to cover any
extra cleaning that may be required as well as late departure, excessive noise, damage and
breakages. We will refund the deposit (minus any reasonable deductions that will be
itemised) upon inspection of the tent and not more than 7 days after departure either by
PayPal /card refund. If there are any spills on the carpet please let us know straight away
and let us know the nature of the spill, our carpets are made of coir and we need to treat
them straight away to make sure they don’t ruin.
If we suspect that smoking has taken place in the tents the deposit will be retained.
Departure
On your departure day please be ready to leave by 10.30am to allow for cleaning. Please
make sure that all of your dishes have been washed and put away. Please note that we will
make a £10 deduction to cover additional cleaning costs if there are dishes left in a dirty
state.
Smoking
Please do not smoke anywhere on the farm, until you get to your tent. Each tent has a
smoking bucket. We do not allow smoking inside the tents and if you smoke in the tents
you will be asked to leave and your deposit forfeited. Cigarette butts do not decompose
easily so we ask that you use the smoking buckets and empty them into the ash bin at the
bin store before departure.
Dogs
Please remember we cannot accept dogs on the campsite under any circumstances.
Directions
If you have Sat Nav use the postcode NE61 5EQ which will bring you to the farm. Please
use the map provided and park on the turning circle. We will guide you to your tent.
Directions from the A1 (North and South)
Leave the A1 at Chevington Moor/Widdrington exit (if travelling North it is shortly after
Earsdon, if South it is after Weldon Bridge turn off). Follow the road to Chevington Moor
and go straight over the crossroad. Follow this road for a few miles until you get to the
roundabout at Widdrington Village. Go straight across the roundabout and follow the brown
sign to Druridge (entering the 30mph zone), do not follow the sign for Druridge Bay Country
Park. After about 2 miles the road reaches Druridge National Trust Car Park and bends
sharply to the right, follow the road and after 0.5 mile you will reach the Hemscott Hill.
Drive past the cottages and enter the farm parking on the concrete surface just as you
enter. Please do not drive past the gate in the middle of the farmyard.
Directions from the A189 Spine Road
Follow the road past Ashington and towards Woodhorn. When you reach the Woodhorn
roundabout take the first exit towards Ellington (signposted with a brown Northumberland
Coastal Route sign. Follow the road past the Premier Inn and at the next roundabout take
the right hand exit to Ellington. You will reach another roundabout at Ellington, take the
right exit and enter the village. Pass the pub and post office and there it a turn to
Cresswell on the left. Take the road to Cresswell and when you get into the village take the
left at the T Junction. Hemscott Hill is approx 1 mile along this road, just over the hill. Turn
into the farm and park up on the concrete area as you enter. Please do not drive past the
gate in the middle of the farmyard.
Local Shops / Post Office / Food
Cresswell Village – Ice Cream shop, Drift Café (the Drift is the closest café, about a 15-20
minute walk from the farm.
Ellington Village – The Plough Pub, Bank Top Stores (general store), Post Office.
Widdrington Village – The Widdrington Inn, Country Barn café and farm shop.
Widdrington Station (1 mile from Widdrington Village) – Co-Op, Fish & Chips, The Junction
restaurant, Indian restaurant / takeaway.
If you have booked a food pack this will be delivered to you late afternoon (if you go out
just leave the cool box outside and we will put the food in there).
Electricity and Mobile Signal
Mobile signals are hit and miss depending on your network and phone, however there is
usually somewhere on the farm to get a signal. There is no wifi or electricity available. We
do have a charger that will charge mobile phones and ipods that we hire out. This is in
demand so please book early if you require it. It is 10000mAh of power which gives up to
60 hours additional play time on iPods, 40 hours iPhone and 8hours iPad. It is compatible
with all devices with a USB charger and you must bring your charger cable with you. The
cost for this is £10 for a weekend. Your security deposit acts as a deposit against damage
or loss to the charger.
What is provided
Depending on which tent you have booked it will contain airbeds with duvets and pillows.
You will have access to a fire pit and a wood burning rocket stove to cook on. Your
kitchen box contains plates, mugs, cutlery, glasses, utensils, knives, basic kitchen equipment,
pans, kettle etc. Also provided is:

Bed linen for the number of people. The tents are usually set up for 2 with a double
bed (Flutter and Dune) or 4 with a double and 2 singles (Daisy and Clover). If you
are bringing more than 2 children please make sure we know so there are enough
beds (note for more than 4 people you will need to bring bedding).

A starter supply of wood. This should keep you going for a couple of nights
(depending on how much you burn) but you can bring your own or buy more from
us. A fire pit is provided tents, these double up as a barbeque. We do not supply
charcoal.

As we are off grid and as sustainable as we can be we ask that you avoid using
too many chemical laden toiletries. We are currently sourcing organic shampoo
sachets but until we find a suitable supplier please keep shower toiletries to a
minimum. We provide ecological washing up liquid and hand wash soap in the loos.
What to bring

Some guests choose to bring a small portable stove for quick cups of coffee (the
rocket stoves take time to light). We did provide these but they were getting broken
every week so we stopped including them. Scout, Cub and Clover include portable
gas stove, the other tents have a rocket stove.

Cool box – We have found that people tend to bring their own with them with their
food in it so we no longer provide cool boxes. We do have a couple of spares that
we can lend you if you need one, just let us know before arrival. We have cool
packs that you can borrow free of charge from us.

Towels, we don’t provide towels so please bring them with you, including tea towels.
We recommend you bring beach towels and a tea towel too. You can hire a towel
pack from us for £10pp (Bath and hand towel) but must be booked in advance.

A newspaper, read it on the way and it will be invaluable for lighting the fire.

Fire lighters if you don’t have a paper, you can buy these from us.

Wellies! We are a working farm and if it rains heavily the road to the tents can get
wet and muddy. The tents are located in a meadow and the grass is baled as silage
at certain times throughout the summer. This means that it grows long and we use
a strimmer to cut areas and paths, leading to loose grass lying around. While this
means the field keeps a nice meadowy feel it also means that it can be scratchy to
young ankles.

We recommend you bring flip flops, slippers, or something easy to slip on for inside
the tents as we ask that guests remove shoes to keep the carpets clean.

Warm clothes! Even in summer. We provide 13.5 tog duvets in the tents but you will
need warm things to throw on before you are in bed and for around the campfire.
Bring a warm coat and hat too.

We recommend bringing a sleeping bag to use under the duvet. You don’t have to
use it but it is there in case you need it. Hot water bottles are a good bet too.

Torches and batteries – we provide a tealight lantern in the tent but you will
probably want extra torches for night time toilet trips. Some guests prefer to use
LED tealights in the holders too if they have small children.

Camping chairs if you have them. We provide a picnic bench with each tent and two
chairs per tent, so if you have kids or need more chairs please pack them, you
can’t beat your own camping chair!

Children’s games and toys. We don’t have a play area, but the tents are in a field
with loads of space in the middle for games so please feel free to bring anything
that will keep your child amused. Beach toys are good too.

Binoculars for wildlife watching and looking at the stars if it is dark enough.

Bikes are great for around here, we have listed a bicycle hire company at the end
of this document who do good hire rates and will deliver to the site and collect.

Guitars and acoustic instruments.

A sense of adventure!
What not to bring

Your best clothes – you are sleeping in a field!

Amplified music – we love acoustic music here and guitars are welcome as is an
ipod with small speakers but for the comfort of other guests we ask that you don’t
play loud music.

Candles – other than tealights please do not take any other candles into the tent.
What you can buy from us

Wood - One box included for your first night.

Fire lighters

Charcoal

Gas Cartridges

Tealights

Food Packs (e.g. breakfast, stew, barbeque) – see separate order form.
Other Information
Dogs – We don’t accept dogs in the Bell Tents, sorry.
Bike Hire – Pedal Power in Amble rent bikes and can deliver – please contact us for
information.
Any other queries, please contact us!