Wallingford Splash Park. 

Not a million miles from Reading, and somewhere a bit smaller if you find the water park in Caversham a bit busy for your liking. 

The Wallingford swimming pool and splash park are on the north side of the river, before you get to Crowmarsh Gifford. From Didcot: Stay on the same road (The Street), drive over the bridge and the entrance to the car park is towards the end of the bridge, on the left hand side. 

I missed the car park and had to turn around to find the entrance. There is usually a charge but the machine was broken today so there was no charge. There is no charge for the splash park, but there is a £2.25 charge (I think!) for a two hour session in the swimming pool, for children, and approx £4.50 for adults. 

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We had never been here before today. There are loos and a big car park but not much shade around the pool. The children played for a good 2 hours, so as far as I'm concerned this was a success. 

I have pixelated these images. 

Also in Wallingford

Wallingford Museum. 

Caversham - Christchurch Gardens' Park 

and a boat ride.

Find all parks on this blog on this map.

Reading folk will def know about this place, but if you are new, or if you live a bit further out then this may be useful. 

I was catapulted back to my childhood yesterday when I visited Christchurch gardens with my children, aunt, cousin and grandma yesterday. My parents would take my siblings and I here when I was small. Compared the parks in South Oxfordshire we frequent it seemed impossibly busy. Despite my anxiety, the children, particularly my son, LOVED it here. He was in the pool for perhaps two hours. 

From Didcot Caversham is ridiculously easy to get to, and quick, taking only 25 minutes. Drive down the A4074, passed Woodcote, through Mapledurham and towards Reading. Go over the bridge, take a right at the first roundabout immediately over the bridge, take a right as though you were going into the Crowne Plaza hotel car park - the car park is signposted very clearly and is on the right, parallel to the river. You get two hours free parking. Additional car parking is cheap here, I paid only £1.50 for three additional hours. I consider £1.50 for 5 hours parking a bit of a bargain! There is a car park closer to the park but you only get 2 hours free parking and if you want more you must pay £7.00 for the whole day, so I consider the mile you have to walk besides the river to be worth it. 

So, to get to the park: walk under Caversham bridge - you will be heading down river. The George Street Bridge will soon come into view. You don't need to cross any busy roads - you can walk  through the giant Thames Water building's car park then over the bridge.

There is a bit of building work going on at the moment but the pool and park is still open. The park is not like Wallingford's and Abingdon's though, it is just a paddling pool. It was possible to smell the chlorine which was actually comforting:) 

There is a loo. It isn't very ice, of course, but better than nothing!

Pictures: 

None of the pool - I didn't fancy sticking up pictures of 50 half naked kids who aren't mine! 

This is Fry's Island. Walk by this. 

Cross this bridge to the north side. 

My children spent ages playing with the bucket (above). 

Equipment for smaller children

and bigger children, 

These swings appear to be able to accommodate disabled children. 

Nearby

Forbury gardens (from this park, walk south into Reading, cross the roundabout, walk over the bridge over the railway and turn left. The gardens are practically in front of you.

Blakes Lock is really close to Toys R Us. Or, you could walk along the Kennet and Avon River which runs behind the Oracle.

The Reading Museum has loads of stuff in, including a full sized replica of the Bayeux Tapestry. 

Caversham Court Gardens  is on the north side of Caversham bridge, on St Peter's Hill.

Mapledurham House signposted off the main A4074 road, open Saturdays and Sundays. 

Boat Rides

Every Reading person has been on the Caversham Princess! 

You catch teh boat next to the Crowne Plaza hotel, 

Times/ prices. 

Reminded me of a school trip when I was about 6 or 7.

Trip up the Thames going west. 

Greys Court

Greys Court

This week we are going to Houses. Today we went to Greys Court (after we'd stopped off at Stoke Row - a fantastically friendly village), which is in Rotherfield Greys. To get there I go through Stoke Row, then towards Highmoor Cross (there's a well here, too) and then towards Shepherds Green. You must keep right. If you go past Highmoor Cross nursery you have taken the wrong turn. 

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My children loved it so much at Waterperry that they wanted to go back. They settled for somewhere similar and were not disappointed. 

Greys court has great gardens. It also has a brand new children's play area! It's shaded and there are wooden swords, helmets and wooden blocks to play with. There is a tree fort with a slide, a sandpit and a great tree to climb on. Totally brilliant! 

Near this play area there is a labyrinth, with benches all around so it doesn't matter what time of the day you visit. I've got to say that as today was hot and sunny the thing I appreciated most of all was the shade. 

We did look around the house (quickly!). My daughter was interested. My son was compliant. He noticed the stained glass windows (no photography) because he is brainwashed about them (oops!) but was decidedly underwhelmed by the rest of the house. Sometimes children just need to learn to forbear whilst other people get to do things they want.

Additionally Greys has an ice house and a donkey wheel which was used for drawing 

water from the well. The children were actually interested in them. 

Greys is a National Trust property so it is really well looked after, there are loos, a tea room and plenty of people to ask for help. 

Pictures: 

More garden walls, hooray:) 

I have climbed this tower but I didn't fancy it with my children, rucksacks and my very precious camera. 

Lovely gardens.

 



I'm not sure if this is an arboretum, but there's a whole garden filled with trees like this and  wooden structure where the trees upper branches twist around. It looks bewitching. 

There's something alluring about little doors leading off into gardens. 

Yay - more walls! 

The pond is in yet another enclosed garden so easily avoided. 

The house was once crenellated. This is an old part of the castle. 

The new castle!

The tree fort has quite a lot of standing area. My son spent ages up here. 

An unexpected surprise!

(Sadly) his is more my home from home, haha:) 

I saw really small children playing with these. It's apparent that the NT have made an effort to engage visitors of all ages. 

12th Century! Woah. This was used for over 700 years then. Totally amazing!

I really wanted to see the ice house as I have a bit of a fascination with them after seeing an amazing one on the telly a while aga. Some are beautifully tiled. This one isn't but it's still briliant:) 

When we arrived the cows had made their way into the ice house enclosure, eating the thatch and leaving presents for visitors. 

The light inside the house is solar powered and on a timer. I loved this juxtaposition 

Another labyrinth. We spent a long time here, too. 

View from the front of the House. 

Is there ever a need for a an excuse for pretty flower? 

Greys Court – Review By Jessica Mallows, Age 8.5.

Well it was a very good place although scratched myself on a tree I climbed and it grazed the back of the leg badly. On the bright side the children’s play area was epic!!! I really enjoyed the fort, it was up in a tree.

The gardens are beautiful. We had to wait to go in the ice house because the weight on the gate had broken and a herd of cows had wandered in, eating the thatched roof of the ice house.

Greys House is interesting. It has children’s activity sheets in most rooms - all you have to do is ask a lady in one of the rooms. The kitchen is nice.

Buscot House 

Another National Trust Property. Another lovely afternoon. Another day where the children didn't get bored. 

We arrived at Buscot House about 2pm, which is just as well because that is when the house and gardens open, although as the house isn't open Monday and Tuesdays we didn't get to see the Pre-Raphaelite painting by Byrne Jones -  the Briar Rose series. That didn't matter though because we did spend three hours walking/ running around the grounds and it does provide us with the excuse to go back. 

How suitable is Buscot House for really small children? I guess that depends on how they are around water. There is a lot of water. It also depends on how good they are at walking, because although there are excellent paths, there are also lots of steps. 

My children really enjoyed running up and down the very long paths and mounds, rolling down hills, swinging in the hanging garden, walking along the walls and taking pictures of the things they fancied. We were there over three hours and were not bored once, in fact they love going to these places as they like gardens - or more precisely they like making mischief in them. 

Unlike Greys Court and Basildon Park there are no activities provided, but I am sure that most children are capable of making their own fun. 

It takes about 50 mins to travel to Farringdon from Didcot, and Buscot House is just a little way out of Farringdon, on the A417, on the road towards Cirencester. We drove through Wantage then followed the signs to Farringdon. I don't use my GPS and still got there okay. 

Pictures 

Nearby places to visit: 

The White Horse at Uffington, the Vale and Downlands Museum in Wantage, Weyland's Smithy, the water park in Wantage. 

I haven't yet visited any of these places but I will have by the end of these summer hols! 

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Basildon Park. 

Wowweee! The kids had a fab time here today! They were occupied with assembling tennis ball runs (£3.00 but you get to keep the ball and use it as many times as you choose if you return) and variations on the theme. There were five of these activities scattered around the shaded parts of the park. Additionally they must've spent 45 minutes rolling down a hill. That was fine - the view across the river (you can't actually see the river) is pretty spectacular and there is plenty of shade. 

Find all parks on this blog here, on this map.

We looked inside the house. The activity for children was to find the single roses in each room so they raced around trying to find them. The house is big (much bigger than Greys) and has lots of stairs, so you may wish to avoid it if you have pushchairs with you.

The art lovers amongst you will have lots of look forward to. There's a mixture of old and new paintings. The rooms are gorgeous, although I am glad the fashion for wall paper in the bathroom has been surpassed by more sensible alternatives, lol! 

Speaking of pushchairs, there is a hill climb from the car park up to the house. It isn't a long way but nonetheless this may put off some.

Although there isn't an enormous flower garden - compared to Waterperry and Greys Court - there are lots and lots of trees and plenty of picnic tables. 

We spent a good 3.5 hours visiting today. 

Basildon House is a National Trust property located in Lower Basildon, Berkshire, Just outside Streatley, so there are loos and a restaurant. We didn't use the restaurant as I'd quickly bankrupt our family, what with the amount of time I spend out of the house, but my in-laws informed me that one can buy cream teas. 

Basildon House. Front or back? I'm not 'posh enough' so I really couldn't say with any certainty!

Example of a tennis ball run. 

Some nice flowers, but not the main attraction which I suppose is the park land. Apparently it runs at approx 40 acres. 

The elevated view towards the entrance. This is where my children spent such a long time rolling down a steep slope. 

Where's your next port of call? 

Since becoming pregnant and having popped two out, I feel I've become obsessed with loos and changing facilities. Long trips are planned around toilet stops. My children have been trained to tell me as soon as they start to feel the need. But it's not always possible to do this. One of those times is when we've driven to a park, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes away, only to find there's no public convenience. This is more often than not the case.

I feel reluctant to ask even when I know there's a loo. In a village this is usually the local pub. I have only ever done this on two occasions and both times I was so embarrassed I felt obligated to buy a drink, and one of these drinks turned into dinner. 

Yes, it's true that on neither of those occasions were we turned down. Perhaps the reluctance to ask says more about my (is it just me?) reserve than any mean-ness on the part of publicans. 

Despite this, I thought that it might be a good idea to ensure that this reticence never gets in the way of comfort. I therefore decided to have a go at creating a scheme whereby parents with children know that they will be welcome. 

The scheme (yet to be named!) involves  publicans displaying this design made into a window sticker (designed by the amazing Susan Smith, fellow admin for Mums in Didcot, ex-computer programmer, fellow ex-teacher and founder of Curiositots - told you she's amazing!) to show they welcome families. This same sticker will be displayed on each page of this blog where there is a local participating w/c owner. 

I hope this idea helps families to plan their day, that it does not inhibit their travels and that it encourages exploration of what is, in my opinion anyway, one of the best places to live.