St John

St John sits quietly in the landscape just outside York, one of those parish churches you stumble upon while wandering the North Yorkshire countryside. The building itself is solid medieval work, all stone and history, the kind of place where you can spend twenty minutes properly looking or five minutes passing through - depends on your mood and how much you care about old architecture.

It's worth a stop if you're already exploring the York area and fancy breaking up a caravan park stay with some low-key heritage hunting. The church rewards close inspection rather than rushing through. You'll get more from it if you're into medieval masonry and local history than if you're after the grand cathedral experience - this is intimate, modest stuff.

The beauty of staying at one of the nearby parks - Westgate Carr Farm and Lakeside Caravan Park are both within five miles - is that you can string together a proper walking itinerary. Pop into St John, then push on to see what else the area offers without overthinking it. No admission charge that we can trace, and you can visit whenever you like since it's a working parish church.

Don't expect queues or facilities. Do expect peace and the kind of England that rewards curiosity over crowds. Worth the detour if you're based nearby at a holiday park, less worth planning your whole trip around.