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We have tried to put together a list of places to
go. Below are suggestions from members. New suggestions are always welcome so
please use the contacts form if you would like to
have your suggestion added.
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The
National Railway Museum (Sarah Hollands)
One of our favourite places at the moment is
the National Railway Museum (NRM). We have three boys who all love trains
and as entry is free this place is definitely a family favourite.
The museum is divided between two halls, the
Great Hall, which houses the modern trains such as the Japanese Bullet as
well as steam engines and the Station Hall, which houses the older engines
and is laid out in the style of platforms. The Great Hall has a locomotive
turntable, which operates twice a day at 11:30 and 3:30. Sam loves this,
as it is not every day you get to see an enormous steam engine turn in a
circle. Sam’s other favourites in this hall are the model railway and
the various interactive displays, such as trying to sort the mail as
quickly as possible. The Station Hall has trains and carriages you can
climb into and outside they have rides on the Miniature Railway and steam
trains and a playground. We tend to visit once a month and always find
something new to see.
You can enter the museum via the Great Hall,
which is the building next to the car park. However, you need to go down a
flight of steps to reach the exhibition hall. This is just about possible
with a single pushchair, but we find our double is too heavy. There is a
lift, but it is located in a conference room so access limited as it is
only available to the public when there are no meetings on. The easier,
but longer route into the museum, is to walk down Leeman Road and use the
Station Hall Entrance. Once inside access with a double buggy, or even a
triple buggy is easy. Our eldest son, Sam is at that stage when he will
walk far when he wants to, but not at all when you want him to. At this
museum there are so many things to keep him interested, we never take his
pushchair and he walks for hours.
There is a café in the Great Hall although
this does not always have highchairs and there is a self-service
restaurant in the Station Hall, which always has plenty of highchairs. The
food is quite expensive, so we sometimes take a picnic as the Station Hall
as an indoor picnic area. However, if you do use this, get there early as
school trips use this are their lunch area so it can get quite busy.
All the toilets have changing mats and are
usually very clean.
Although entry to the actual museum is free,
it costs £5 for the car park. The museum has special events such as ‘Thomas’
weeks and they charge for this, £7 for an adult and £5 for children over
2, so it is always worth checking with the museum what is on before you
go.
The museum can be contacted at:
National Railway Museum, Leeman Road, York
tel: 01904
621 261
www.nrm.org.uk
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The
Deep (Sarah Hollands)
We first visited The Deep when Joe
and Tom were only 6 months and they were fascinated. The Deep is the world’s
only submarium. Basically it is a giant fish tank (2.5 million litres),
you start viewing from the top of the tank and walk your way down to the
bottom finishing with a walk through the viewing tunnel whilst the sharks
swim over your head.
There are interactive areas, smaller
tanks with jelly fish and octopi and a special tank with real fish like
‘Nemo’. Sam particularly liked the ‘Touch Tank’ where you can
stroke a star fish and pick up a crab.
The walkway is dark and the viewing
windows are lit so little ones marvel at all the flashing colours of the
fish as they dart about. We have always visited mid week during the Winter
and it has been very quiet so there has been no problem manoeuvring a
double pushchair. However, this might be a different matter during busy
peak times.
There is a self-service restaurant
with plenty of high chairs and a good view across the Humber. They also
have very friendly staff who kindly clear up after our three have spread
most of their lunch over the floor! They do not allow people to bring in
their own food but they do provide picnic benches outside. However,
whenever we have been there has always been lashing rain and gale force
winds!
Ticket prices are £6.50 per adult
and £4 for children over 3. The car park costs £3, but £2 of this is
refundable against purchases in the café or shop.
The disabled toilets have a baby
changing area.
The Deep can be contacted on: 01482
381 000
www.thedeep.co.uk
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Forbidden
Corner (Gail Cox)
We visited this enchanting place
last October when we had friends staying for the school holiday week. I
can honestly say that despite us all visiting somewhere different each day
for the week, The Forbidden Corner is the place that each of us still talk
about with excitement and we are already planning our next visit !
It is fairly hard to describe this
North Yorkshire attraction, but it is a European folly garden, and it has
won a quite a number of awards. Basically, upon entry, you are
given a map with various clues and you become intrepid explorers for the
day, to work your way around the folly finding different things, all with
a strange and mysterious theme to them. Although the majority of it is
based outdoors, there are also some inside mysteries to uncover, which
take you through underground chambers and secret passageways. The
favourite event for all of us was when we found ourselves on a revolving
floor trying to work out which of the 4 doors we needed to go through to
reach the next stage !. The route also takes you to a glass pyramid, past
statues that squirt you with water, and across a set of steeping stones.
The whole garden has been so cleverly thought out and with real attention
to detail. While it is recommended that it will take 2 – 3 hours to
fully explore, we were there for almost a whole day and we still didn’t
get to see everything !! We also found the prices to be incredibly
reasonable, at just £21.00 for a family ticket.
One thing they are very strict on is
that you do need to ring to book a time slot for entry before you arrive.
This does have the advantage of controlling the numbers in peak times as
it can get quite busy in some of the narrow passageways. For those with
younger children, some parts would be hard to access with a pushchair
(especially a double one !).
The Forbidden Corner is not due to
open again until April, but it really is well worth a visit. The journey
to reach Middleham is also quite breathtaking and spectacular, so all in
all you are bound to have a wonderful family day !
The Forbidden Corner can be found in
Middleham, Leyburn, North Yorkshire.
The website address is : www.yorkshirenet.co.uk/theforbiddencorner
Tel : 01969 640638 / 640687
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Creepy
Crawlies (Helen Sayles)
Advertised as:
"York's largest Adventure Play site and Family
Entertainment Centre . Open
to 0-12 yr olds. Incorporating a huge astra slide, racing tube slides, a
wavy board slide and a massive climbing frame for 5-12 yr olds. Toddlers
area, with large frame and slide. Babies area, with ladybird snooze bags
and ball pool. Multi sports area, three party rooms, disco rooms, 200
seater Buzz Cafe serving delicious homemade food all day everyday, parking
for 70 cars."
I’ve heard mixed views on Creepy crawlies,
the majority of my friends with singletons love it but my twin friends
aren’t as keen on the whole. We enjoyed it and it tired the girls out,
always a good sign.
We took Beth and Katie one Sunday just before
Christmas. It was fairly full but didn’t feel too crowded. There are
two main areas, one for under fives, one for over fives (though if you
sign you can take under fives into the over fives area). The under five’s
area was fairly tame, and difficult to supervise with babies competing
against lively toddlers. The bigger area was much better. The girls were
able to do everything with supervision, it would have been a nightmare on
my own with both of them but together Mark and I had great fun…..oh, and
Beth and Katie did too.
Creepy Crawlies are located at Wiggington
Road, York
www.creepy-crawlies.co.uk/
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| Askham
Bryan College Children's Park (Michaela Dobson)
I would like to share with other members of York Twins Club the enjoyment
my children have in visiting Askham Bryan College Park. It is a relatively
unknown park but has some great apparatus for children of all ages. There
is a woodland walk, assault course, basketball net, football goal, cricket
stumps, climbing wall & frame, sandpit, swings, roundabouts, various
slides & small children’s climbing frames, picnic benches &
pagoda. It is well worth a visit and is totally fenced in so you can relax
while they run around and have lots of fun!
The park is run by the Playing
Fields Association and is free. To get there leave the A64 Leeds bound
signposted Copmanthorpe, Askham Bryan etc. or the A1237 towards the A64
Leeds and at the Copmanthorpe/Askham Bryan roundabout take the Askham
Bryan turning. Turn left after a few hundred yards into Askham Bryan
College grounds. It’s a very twisty road, which eventually leads to the
College’s main car park on your left. Park here and you will see the
children’s play area adjacent to the car park.
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Eureka! The Museum for
Children (Pickford family)
Discovery Road, Halifax, West Yorkshire, HX1 2NE, UK
At this year’s
Christmas party we were fortunate to win a family ticket to Eureka. This is
a museum designed especially for 0-11 year olds and we all certainly had a
fun time.
There are over 400
‘must-touch’ exhibits and numerous events and activities throughout the
year. The museum is organised into specific galleries, including a sound
garden and desert discovery for the under 5s. Emily and Oliver had a lot of
fun dressing up as garden animals in the Tree Trunk Hideaway and making
butterfly patterns!
Another favourite
was the ‘Living and Working Together’ gallery which recreates a Town
square. Emily and Oliver loved exploring all the buildings, including a
bank, mini Marks & Spencer, Post Office, Garage and a House. Much fun was
had creeping into the bank’s vault and setting off the alarm! They also
enjoyed working in the garage, especially the carwash and delivering the
letters and parcels from the Post Office.
There is a café
located within the museum and also an inside seating area for those with
pack lunches. Outside there are additional seats and a good play area,
including an enormous sandpit. Sadly on our visit, the rain and wind proved
a little too much to venture outside! We would certainly recommend visiting
this museum as there is so much to see and explore.
You can contact
Eureka at the following:
Telephone: 01422
330069
E-mail:
info@eureka.org.uk
Fax: 01422 330275
Group Bookings:
01422 330012 or email
bookings@eureka.org.uk
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Newby Hall (Nicky Nolan)
I recently went to
Newby Hall with Ellie and Ciaran. We were meeting a friend there who has a
7 year old and a 5 year old. We met at 11 am. Sue had suggested that we
bring a picnic so we came armed with our lunch boxes. The picnic area is
situated just outside the entrance but you can go in and out as much as
you like as you pay on the driveway into the hall. The drive up to the
hall is really pretty and there are lots of animals in the fields. They
really enjoyed pointing out the sheep, etc.
We decided we go
for a walk around the gardens and then go back out to have a picnic before
heading to the playground. The gardens and lake are really beautiful, well
worth exploring. We then had lunch in the really lovely picnic area and
then headed to the play area.
The playground is
superb, there are lots of things to play on for all ages. There are
pedaloe boats, Victorian swing boats, slides, etc. There is a large sand
pit which they absolutely loved. There is also a paddling pool (very cold)
which children of all ages seemed to love, despite the icy water. The
highlight for Ellie and Ciaran is the little miniature train which they
thoroughly enjoyed. Ellie was highly amused when her hat blew off and the
driver had to collect it on the return journey.
We were very lucky
with the weather, it was a glorious day, and in fact I got a little bit
sunburned. It was a fantastic day out and we are looking forward to
returning.
Cost
It costs £6.95
per adult for the gardens and grounds. Entrance into the house also costs
£9.95. Family ticket is £22.80. Under 4’s are free. The train costs £1.50
per person extra. Under 2’s are free.
Directions
Take the A64
from York toward the A1. Follow the A1 northbound towards Ripon. Newby
Hall is signposted form the A1 and is very easy to find.
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