The places we visited this summer

Since taking out National Trust membership earlier this year our weekends have been transformed. Friday night we can be found reading the NT bible and the app to check out whats on near us and find interesting places to explore. So where did we go this summer?

Greys Court  - A wonderful 16th century mansion with so many different walled gardens and also a donkey wheel. We loved looking round the house, and the guides in each room were really great with Charlotte pointing out interesting things for her to look at. The house had such a homely feel to it, you could still imagine the boys playing there. We enjoyed climbing the great tower and looking across the grounds and then exploring all the different bits of the garden. I could have easily sat for hours reading a book by the pond, it was so peaceful and beautiful. The hidden play area was fantastic. A Greys fort, slide, archery, and games, all hidden amongst the trees.

Walled Gardens of Greys Court

 Basildon Park - Which I reviewed earlier this year, and we have since been back to for a big walk. We got to explore the extensive grounds on our second visit which gave some wonderful views looking back across to the mansion. There were lovely seats on the walk in just the right spot for a sit down. There were log bridges and dens to explore along the way so Charlotte wouldn't get bored, we almost got chased by cows through the last field... which stopped any "my legs won't carry me any longer" grumbles. It really wasn't that long a walk!

View across Basildon Park

 Hughenden - we visited on a re-enactment day which made it a lot of fun. Punch and Judy shows, dressing up, Zulu Dawn re-enactment. The house was such a contrast with the stunning upstairs rooms and then the war room downstairs, the ice house bunker which use has only just been discovered was amazing. The formal garden was lovely to sit in and the walled garden was great for children to explore and find the hidden things. Charlotte also made us go on a walk to find the dog graves, we weren't the only parents to be dragged along to check these out thankfully.

Hughenden gardens

 Upton House and Gardens - From the start Charlotte was made to feel welcome, having a map to herself and being shown the special trail for children to follow to the house spotting the characters along the way. She was so excited. We loved exploring the house with the balcony that looked down over the games room. We sat for some time playing snakes and ladders, it was nice to have a room where you can sit down and touch things. The dressing up room was a big hit, and the oh so glamorous bathroom. The contrasting garden areas were lovely to walk round, if a little hard climbing back up. The kitchen garden on the hill side with the lake at the bottom which can't be seen from the house was a surprise. The sunken garden was our favourite for sure, but wish we could work out where the smell of toffee was coming from.

Upton gardens

 Cliveden - We have now visited twice as the grounds are so huge, and we still haven't seen it all. I reviewed our first trip earlier on this year, and the second time we went back to explore the long garden, secret garden and war memorial garden, and of course the excellent slide on the south terrace.

plenty of statues at Cliveden

 Stowe -  fantastic magical grounds with something round every corner to explore. The grounds are so vast it will take a couple of visits to see it all. Before you even get to the grounds your journey starts at the New Inn, with parlour rooms, games rooms and kitchen from the 1700's. The one thing we found stopping us enjoying it quite so much was the one set of toilets right at the start, not great with a young child. The map said there was a second but these were closed.

Stowe grounds

Chedworth Roman Villa - I blogged about this earlier in the year and keep saying we will go back again soon as it was such an excellent day. Its really educational for children and has a wonderful lawn to picnic on. There are plenty of things going on at weekends with traditional skills being shown off.

layout of the formal villa rooms

Waddesdon Manor - Readitdaddy and Charlotte went for the day by themselves. We have visited a few times over the years but this was the first time they have been inside the house and were really wowed by it. The grounds are fantastic for walking round with children and the play park is great.

Big bird at Waddesdon

Now where shall we visit next?

Cliveden, Maidenhead, Buckinghamshire

So now we have our National Trust membership we are going to spend as many weekends as we can visiting some really wonderful places. And what a weekend we picked to go to Cliveden, a gorgeous bank holiday weekend with wonderful blue skies and the bluebells were out.

Cliveden is all about its stunning grounds, it is possible to go round the house (now an exclusive hotel) by timed ticket on certain days, but we stuck to the gardens and the wonderful walks. We were there all day and only got to see maybe half of the grounds. There is a lot of walking, if you want to do a lot of walking, with a hill and steps down to the river Thames. If you have a pushchair you may want to stay to the upper levels, of which there is still plenty to look at. There is shuttle bus service to get you up and down the hill if needed.

We arrived close to lunch time, after a stop off at the information centre (we have worked out always head there first. You may find extra maps, child packs, suggested walking routes and we picked up our 50 things book), we headed to the fountain of love and the grand walk towards the house. We walked round the the back of the house and the view across the grounds were stunning.

All the kids were rushing towards the flower beds as there is a small slope for them to roll down. We then chased each other round the flower beds until we reached the statue at the far end with a view back to the house.

From here we took a windy path down the hill to the river. Where you can sit on the grass and enjoy the view or take a boat along a river cruise.

We then took a scenic steep root up the hill to the Dukes Statue, with a view across to the house and a bit further up is a wonderful look out point to see across the river.

Amongst the bluebells was a fitness trail which was amusing for everyone! 

Not sure how we found the energy for doing the press-ups and jumps after walking up the hill but we did (or should that be Daddy and Charlotte did).

We headed back towards the car park via the grotto to get an ice cream from the dolls house by the play park. A very popular ice cream stop this one so we just went on the fantastic play park, themed on traditional book characters like Wind in the Willows, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland etc.

Took a delightful stroll through the water garden and sat down with our ice creams on the grass as its was so calm and pretty. 

Just before closing time we slid into the maze, hoping we would make it out before the grounds did close. We did make it out but took quite a few wrong turns along the way.

Our last stop was our first stop, to get our stickers for our 50 things book from the information centre. We could have done so many things but we achieved:

• rolling down a hill (was a small hill but you have to start small and build up)
• walking bare footed across the grass in the water garden

We had a fantastic day out, we can't wait to go back again to see all the things we missed, like the secret garden, play trail and maybe inside the house. We did stop for lunch in the cafe, which had some wonderful cake but think next time we would take a picnic as the grounds are great. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/cliveden/visitor-information/