Hi Kiska
I read an article in the Times recently on free / cheap family outings in the UK. I'll copy and paste it or alternitvely if you want to use the links to the attractions here is the site address
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_
and_style/travel/holiday_type/family/article2084390.ece?token=null&offset=0
Last weekend we climbed the Malvern Hills, drank the Queen’s favourite water from a holy well and joined other families, their dogs and their picnics, on a ridge with 360 degree views across to the Chilterns in one direction and Wales in the other. Riffs of funfair music drifted up the hill from the Three Counties Showground below. It reminded me how many glorious outings cost nothing.
The Malvern outing was magic. Victorian gas lights line some of the steep roads into the hills and, bizarrely, appear in the woodland at one point. This is said to have inspired the light in CS Lewis’ 'Narnia' books. So the game is to guess which of the lights became his muse. My vote goes to that in the woods between Holywell Road and the Wells Road. Countless springs bubble out of the hillside, some of them enclosed by wells. The Holy Well at Malvern Wells is regarded as one of the ‘best-dressed wells’ being set in a roomy shrine where visitors leave flowers, poems and letters of thanks and mourning.
The whole experience reminded me how much you can do for nothing this summer. And here are some of my suggestions for other free summer outings.
LONDON has got its own excellent site listing of free events for everyone including families. The ones which caught my eye included Spitalfields City Farm (just down the road from The Times office and I’d never noticed it, I’m ashamed to say) and WOLDwrite’s free film training - OK this is not until October but what an opportunity for teens.
Since the government did away with entry charge to museums like the V&A, visitor numbers have soared. All the museums in Exhibition Road offer great days out – but there are other equally alluring museums in the capital.
LIVERPOOL
Tate Liverpool in Calderstones Park is south of the centre and, with a car, can be combined with visits to Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s childhood homes. Liverpool World Museum includes a planetarium as well as a mass of hands-on fun for kids and more serious stuff for serious people.
MIDLANDS
Coventry Transport Museum, has the biggest collection of English road vehicles in the world from bikes to lorries and plenty of luscious sports cars from an age before carbon emission guilt. East Midlands Aeropark has some vintage aircraft on display plus a chance to plane spot on East Midlands Airport. Bizarrely one of the airport’s parking companies has come up with an excellent site about local attractions which includes some free days out.
DERBY is not the most glamorous city in the country but does offer Pickfords House Museum which has been restored to look as if Joseph Pickford, the man who owned it in the late eighteenth century, is still living there (albeit with a 1940s air raid shelter in the basement). The Industrial Museum in a sense takes up history when Pickfords leaves it: this is a birthplace of the industrial revolution and home to full-size RollsRoyce aero engine. Train enthusiasts can climb aboard a steam train cabin. The Central Museum is in easy walking distance.
NORTH EAST
The Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Newcastle is a beautiful building with stunning exhibits. This is a talking point for any parent with a child at Newcastle University. And the talk is incredulous: how come such an amazing place gets so few visitors? High Force on the Tees is one of the UK’s largest waterfall. It’s also very beautiful and makes a great place to picnic beside. This was a regular part of my teen years and, with hindsight, I’d have liked it even better if I’d been taken there as a child.
CORNWALL
Brown Willie is the highest point on Bodmin Moor and, if your children are at the stage when bum/tit/willie words reduce them to helpless laughter, they will march up the hill with you just so they can tell their friends they been up it. Further down the UK’s ‘foot’ the Roseland Peninsular has lots of small beaches, reached by footpaths and enclosed by rocks (good for diving and rock pooling) and sand sprinkled with cowry shells. I’ve swum there in March without flinching too much.
LEEDS
Pudsey Park has everything from a pets corner to skate boarding just five miles from the centre. For indoor interest The Royal Armouries houses the national collection of armour
HOME COUNTIES
The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford is reached via the Natural History Museum where bottled sea creatures meet dinosaurs. The Pitt Rivers is one of the oddest and most entertaining museums I know: a ramshackle collection of tribal clothes, canoes, religious offerings and shrunken heads (although these are about to be removed to comply with some kind of political correct-ness). Opening hours are as odd as the museum.
The Natural History Museum, Tring has LOTS of stuffed animals.
Sussex has a list of free attractions . And the coast is a great way to combine walking fuelled by beach and ice creams stops. This itinerary is aimed at adults, but it can easily be reconfigured into a '1066 and All That' day out starting at Hastings and looking at castles.
WALES
National Museum Wales is easy to reach by train. It is a treasure trove of masterpieces of every kind from silver to porcelain to clothes and paintings. The Davies Sisters Collection is awesome: Cezanne, Monet, Turner, Van Gogh, Millet, Botticelli and much more collected by two teetotal sisters in the nineteenth century.
Machynlleth Carnival with floats, music, games and processions has its grand finale on July 16.
Portmeirion is the strange and beautiful village built on the edge of Snowdonia by Clough Williams-Ellis in the twentieth century. This is where the eerie TV series, The Prisoner, was filmed.
Swallow Falls is one of the areas’ most romantic or dramatic spots depending on the water flow. Reach it via the footpath from Ty Hyll (the ugly house) which gives some great views of the falls.
EASTERN COUNTIES
Sculthorpe Moor Community Nature Reserve has been leased by the Hawk and Owl Trust who are gradually transforming it into a nature reserve.
So many seaside piers have been lost to fire, sea or neglect but Clacton on Sea’s Victorian Pier is still going strong with dodgems, fish and chips and some Victorian slot machines. It’s close by the seaside town’s long, sandy beach.
BRISTOL
Like Paris, Bristol is about to get its own urban beach. And the city has so much good architecture plus great shops, the revamped docks and views from the hills that it makes a fun day out whatever you do. The website lists the many events, plus year-round attractions, many of which are free.
Best Regards
Oliver
Thomas Charles and Co Ltd.
Experts in personal debt solutions.
Read customer feedback at:
www.thomascharles.com/about_us.asp
