You try to do the right thing.....grrrr

vampirequeen

Guest
On Saturday we visited a stately home that had a large car park not far away. It had a sign up saying no overnight parking but there was also another sign that said if you wanted to park overnight you should ask at the Estate Office. So we did and were given permission to stay overnight provided we left early in the morning before the next day visitors arrived. Fair enough we thought. Lovely flat hard surface. 24 hour toilets a few yards away. Winning situation.

We settled down for the night but about 11pm there was a loud banging on the side of the van. My husband got out to find the banger now in his car with the window slightly open.....don't know if he expected my husband to thump him lol. Anyway he said we couldn't stay there. My husband explained that we had permission from the Estate Office but this jumped up jobsworth refused to believe him. He was incredibly aggressive and first tried to scare us off with tales of the local drug problem and the addicts using the toilets (obvious lie). Then he said that the police would move us on anyway as they don't like people parking there overnight. Why? Even if we didn't have permission we were only trespassing which isn't a criminal offence so the police wouldn't be interested. Finally and very aggressively he said that if we chose to stay put we would only have ourselves to blame if we were attacked....he didn't say by whom. My husband said that we would move onto the nearby road which we have used before. He then told us we couldn't park on the road. My husband told him that the Estate didn't own the public highway and we would park there. We knew the police wouldn't mind because we've parked there before and chatted to the local police officers who were quite happy for us to be there. The car park officially reopened at 6am and as we're early risers we were back on it by then to use the toilets etc. and left around 7.30am as we'd promised the Estate Office.

We never park where there are no parking signs but on this occasion we had permission. Then some damn arrogant jobsworth disrupts our sleep and causes massive upset. I've emailed the Estate Office to complain about his actions and aggressive nature. It will be interesting to see if they even bother to respond.
 
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My first response would be we were told ok so have been drinking so can't move. See you in the morning, bye.

Did he get his name?
 
Sorry but if he had been that nasty to me his dentures would have resided in his trousers,fact i take no bulls--t being irish.
 
st3v3 said:
My first response would be we were told ok so have been drinking so can't move. See you in the morning, bye.

Did he get his name ?
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name ?

Two very good points
Maybe make a big show of writing down his vehicle number.
That usually puts them off.
Sounds like a case of threatening behaviour?
 
First ask for their name then proceed to take a photo of them and their vehicle explain this is to forward to the police and estate office should there be any damage.

Alf



Pauljenny said:
name ?

Two very good points
Maybe make a big show of writing down his vehicle number.
That usually puts them off.
Sounds like a case of threatening behaviour?
Click to expand...
 
Sounds like it may have been a local and nothing to do with the estate. Anyone employed officially don't need to resort to threats, and that is what he did. I would have been tempted to call the police. Good advice from Alf.
 
We got his name and photographed his vehicle. My husband went for a walk in the village at about 6.30am and saw the man at the door of the local hotel. The man saw him and rushed inside locking the doors behind him. He then watched from behind the locked doors whilst my husband take a photograph of his vehicle. My husband said he was shaking in his shoes. Obviously he thought my husband had gone to find him for round two.

Looking back we should have stood our ground but we were woken from a deep sleep and were groggy so at the time it just seemed easier to move for a few hours.
 
Fazerloz said:
Where were you. What was the name of the hotel.?
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Complain to the hotel and tell them a member of their staff has been abusive and aggressive to you,OR and here's the best bit if it is his hotel write a damming review on Tripadviser!
 
I consider banging on the side of the van very offensive... I think I would have come out and banged on his car as I was talking to him.
Got his name a car reg for sure, and asked him what authority he had.
We would probably have had to move on after that though... :p
 
It was the Ripley Castle Estate in North Yorkshire. The man worked at the Boar's Head. When we got permission from the Estate Office we were told that the car park was checked at about 11pm but that didn't bother us because we expected to be left alone.

Ripley Castle is well worth a visit if you've never been. Go on a guided tour day. The house is fascinating with wonderful links to the Civil War and the guides are very entertaining. The gardens and deer park are lovely too. The village of Ripley is beautiful. It was designed and built by one of the past owners of the Castle who loved France so built the village in that style.

We had planned to return several times over the course of the year to see how the Castle gardens developed but now we're left with a bitter taste so may not bother.

If you go, use the car park during the day then park on the road overnight. The car park toilets belong to Harrogate Council and are open 24 hours day and cleaned every morning at about 6am. The chap who cleaned the toilets told us that there are no drug problems in Ripley even though the other man said there were. We've parked on that road three time now and never had a problem. The police stopped once for a chat and were quite happy for us to be there.
 
vampirequeen said:
It was the Ripley Castle Estate in North Yorkshire. The man worked at the Boar's Head. When we got permission from the Estate Office we were told that the car park was checked at about 11pm but that didn't bother us because we expected to be left alone.

Ripley Castle is well worth a visit if you've never been. Go on a guided tour day. The house is fascinating with wonderful links to the Civil War and the guides are very entertaining. The gardens and deer park are lovely too. The village of Ripley is beautiful. It was designed and built by one of the past owners of the Castle who loved France so built the village in that style.

We had planned to return several times over the course of the year to see how the Castle gardens developed but now we're left with a bitter taste so may not bother.

If you go, use the car park during the day then park on the road overnight. The car park toilets belong to Harrogate Council and are open 24 hours day and cleaned every morning at about 6am. The chap who cleaned the toilets told us that there are no drug problems in Ripley even though the other man said there were. We've parked on that road three time now and never had a problem. The police stopped once for a chat and were quite happy for us to be there.
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Don't let a grumpy old man spoil your enjoyment.
 
I can't stand jobsworth characters and why is it they all seem to talk with a nasal twang?
I think that you and hubby were remarkably restrained. Don't let him get away with it, complain to all relevant parties and get the knobhead sacked for causing you distress and fear.
 
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