A group of mums has vowed to carry on camping after being barred from a site for not bringing their husbands.

Caroline Henderson and Linda Parker, both from Hove, were fuming when a campsite owner told them they could only pitch up if they were accompanied by their men.

They planned to stay at Nunnington Farm camp site in West Wittering for a few days early in August along with Sasha Long and another mum and the group's four babies and toddlers.

Their husbands were to stay at home looking after their older children.

But the site's operators refused, saying single-sex groups of more than two adults were not allowed.

Mrs Henderson, 37, of Bolsover Road, said: "We're a group of middle-aged women with children aged three or four years.

"We just wanted to take them camping for the first time and thought West Wittering would be the perfect place because it's just beautiful.

"When my friend Linda rang they said without husbands we couldn't come and they don't accept all-female groups.

"I rang the Chichester Tourist Board and they said they've had quite a few complaints about this. It just makes me so angry. What if we were a lesbian couple?"

Ms Parker, a single mum from Tennis Road, said: "We were planning to go on August 4 for a couple of nights and I was really looking forward to taking the older kids camping together for the first time.

"I couldn't believe we were turned away.

"I could understand if we were a group of 17-year-olds but we're mums in our 30s and 40s.

"Once the kids go to sleep we don't have the energy to do much of anything anyway.

"I asked if we'd be allowed to come if one of us brought a husband and the woman I spoke to checked, then came back and said that would be all right.

"I just find it astonishing that in this day and age a campsite won't accept a group made up of a single sex. Families come in all shapes and not all of them are mixed-sex couples."

Site manager John Buckland said the campsite welcomed gay and lesbian couples but single-sex groups of three or four people would always be turned away.

He said: "If it were four women and one husband that would tip the balance but we don't take single-sex groups.

"If we have a group of two women with children we can hardly tell they're here but three or four women with children can be an absolute nightmare.

"We don't take groups of families either. The maximum is three families because otherwise you end up with a group of 20 children together and by the time it gets to 11.30pm they make such a noise you can't believe it.

"It's down to members of staff to ask them to be quiet."