Jump to content

Kings Orchard v Kings Bromley


Beo

Featured Posts

We moored at Kings Orchard for 27 months, leaving last September. Very good moorings and clean facilities. A good choice of routes via nearby Fazeley or Fradley junctions. The Plough at Huddlesford is a 10 minute walk down the towpath / cruise away. It’s a great pub with good food and beer and you can take a dog into the bar area. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, MHS said:

We moored at Kings Orchard for 27 months, leaving last September. Very good moorings and clean facilities. A good choice of routes via nearby Fazeley or Fradley junctions. The Plough at Huddlesford is a 10 minute walk down the towpath / cruise away. It’s a great pub with good food and beer and you can take a dog into the bar area. 

We are already fans of the Plough ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We’ve been at King’s Bromley for a year and love it. There aren’t too many rules, facilities are good, the site is well maintained and you can get your car close to the boat. Not been into the marina at King’s Orchard but spoke to a boater who moored there and they said it was very windy as the site is exposed. Best takeaway look at both and then decide.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also K O is close to beautiful Lichfield with  it’s good railway connections. Screwfix, Tippers and Tesco are all close by. A good chandlery at Streethay and cheap diesel at your own marina. What’s not to like?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love the idea of choosing the marina closest to a good pub and a Screwfix!

KO definitely has a tick in the 'nearby pub' box but we also need to check both out for dog and wheelchair friendliness. 

Thank you for all replies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Beo said:

I love the idea of choosing the marina closest to a good pub and a Screwfix!

KO definitely has a tick in the 'nearby pub' box but we also need to check both out for dog and wheelchair friendliness. 

Thank you for all replies.

We had our big GSD Lily and sadly now deceased Lab Cassie while there. It was very dog friendly. The normal rules applied of pick up after your dog and dogs on leads. The latter was flexible if you have a well behaved hound. 

 

I would think wheel chair access at K O would be ok. The locked jetty gates are not sprung so if you are self propelling I would not see an issue. There is some fairly thick gravel on one area of the path near the club house, but otherwise hard surfaces. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, MHS said:

Also K O is close to beautiful Lichfield with  it’s good railway connections. Screwfix, Tippers and Tesco are all close by. A good chandlery at Streethay and cheap diesel at your own marina. What’s not to like?

We've moored at Kings Bromley marina for the last 5 years. It is virtually as close to Lichfield as Kings Orchard is. It's an attractively landscaped marina, has decent toilet, showers/bath, laundry facilities, a moorer's lounge and a summer house that you book for your own personal use free of charge. Dogs are allowed off the lead in all areas and there are numerous poo bins meaning there is rarely any mess on the ground. There is a brook running alongside the marina if you want to cool your dog off.  The second of the 2 pools can be quite windy, also if you need to use the pump out or diesel and have a pram hood, the little bridge between the 2 pools is very low and narrow. Car parking by your boat isn't usually a problem, but if you have a second car it has to be parked in the main car park by the entrance. A shed can be hired for around £350 pa but there is usually a small waiting list.

 

As for wheelchair friendliness, there are some pontoons which are accessed via a ramp but a lot have steps. 

 

I haven't moored in KO but have visited there in our boat. It certainly is exposed to the wind, the wind turbine just behind it is testament to that. I think the two things that KO has over KB is having a pub within 10 minutes walk, and direct access to the towpath. The nearest pub to KB is either 2 miles along the towpath in either direction or over a mile along a busy main road, and access to the towpath is via  a 200 yard walk along the main road to the bridge.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm also moored in Kings Bromley, and really like it.  I'm in the second of the pools mentioned in the post before mine, and though it can be breezy like anywhere else the surrounding banks are quite high which gives a  lot of protection.

 

Full length mooring fingers are nice having experienced short ones before which are a pain,

 

One thing to note is they class it as a quiet marina ( which is no bad thing ) but they prefer it if you take the boat out onto the cut if you want to use any powertools.  This is a bit of a faff if you want to sand and touch up a spot of paintwork

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great to have such positive posts about these two marinas. Do you get the same agreement through Kings Orchard to use the other marinas in the group as you do at KB?

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Silebyman said:

I'm also moored in Kings Bromley, and really like it.  I'm in the second of the pools mentioned in the post before mine, and though it can be breezy like anywhere else the surrounding banks are quite high which gives a  lot of protection.

 

Full length mooring fingers are nice having experienced short ones before which are a pain,

 

One thing to note is they class it as a quiet marina ( which is no bad thing ) but they prefer it if you take the boat out onto the cut if you want to use any powertools.  This is a bit of a faff if you want to sand and touch up a spot of paintwork

When I was there it was a case of moving to near the services to do work on the moorings between there and the entrance. If you moor on the wrong side of the basin its a good walk for the toilet or showers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Beo said:

Great to have such positive posts about these two marinas. Do you get the same agreement through Kings Orchard to use the other marinas in the group as you do at KB?

Do you know what the price differential is between the two marinas? Sounds like that could be the deciding factor.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 minutes ago, Nick D said:

Do you know what the price differential is between the two marinas? Sounds like that could be the deciding factor.

Not yet but I'm assuming (!) that there won't be a huge difference...I'm also assuming that they both have vacancies...We are going to have a look at both over the next couple of weeks. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

Dont leave it too long, I came unstuck a couple of years back looking for a new mooring in September, The winter moorers had started booking them

I hadn't thought of the winter moorers- I haven't even started my summer holiday yet! Thanks for the heads up ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Beo said:

Not yet but I'm assuming (!) that there won't be a huge difference...I'm also assuming that they both have vacancies...We are going to have a look at both over the next couple of weeks. 

I don't know the up to date availability at KB but certainly up to the middle of May they'd had a small waiting list for quite a while but even if there is one I don't think you would have to wait very long

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 01/07/2019 at 17:45, Beo said:

Great to have such positive posts about these two marinas. Do you get the same agreement through Kings Orchard to use the other marinas in the group as you do at KB?

KO is now part of ABC group, so in theory you can moor at any of their other marinas subject to availability. However in reality this doesn't really work. We've tried twice to arrange mooring at other ABC marinas without success. You have to remember that a boat from another ABC marina doesn't bring in any revenue, whereas it may be possible to let the same berth to a paying customer. Result is there is no incentive to find a place for someone who has already paid. They'll accommodate you if you turn up & there's space, but don't expect to be able to pre-arrange it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
16 minutes ago, Beo said:

Thank you for all the replies to my original post. For anyone who is interested in the outcome, we looked at both: Kings Bromley were not willing to put a triangular infill at the corner of the finger jetty and pontoon to facilitate wheelchair access on to our boat; Kings Orchard were more helpful but didn't have a suitable length mooring and there are a lot of gravel surfaces (very wheelchair unfriendly). 

 

Our boat was being repainted at Streethay while we were looking for a new mooring and, although their moorings always looked full, we asked whether they had any spaces...so here we are. They couldn't have been more helpful with accessibility and have built this fabulous ramp so OH can access the boat independently. (The curved rails on the boat open outwards)

3e0dc593-1378-4b2a-8c06-5b84a6b3fc7e.jpg

Its nice that they looked after you there with access, a first class result. The only problem I would think is the noise from the road? In all honesty a far better type of mooring than any marina anyway ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The road noise is much less than we expected. We haven’t spent a night there - we very rarely did when we were at Mercia - so not really an issue for us. We also expected more noise from the workshops but we are at the far end of the moorings so that’s not a problem either. All in all, a good move ?

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Its nice that they looked after you there with access, a first class result. The only problem I would think is the noise from the road? In all honesty a far better type of mooring than any marina anyway ?

That does seem to be a realistic compliance with disability legislation that requires service providers to make reasonable adaptations. That they have done it goes  long way to establishing precedent and meeting the reasonableness test.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.