Holidays In Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire
For Children
For those with young children, the first thing you may think about is how to feed them without spending your holiday slaving in the kitchen. Adults and older children are a bit more flexible but the little ones less so. One solution is to contact Elise Paybody at
Tot Nosh who will deliver meals cooked in advance so that they are sitting in fridge or freezer when you arrive. They don't yet incorporate ingredients from our farm but in time we are hoping to reduce the food miles to as low as is possible. Until that date you can comfort yourself that the sausages and bacon left for you will have been raised and will be consumed on the same farm.
Tell Elise what you want for the week and she will liaise with Heather to ensure that they are freshly made for you on your arrival. This is a new service we are offering so please give us feedback on how it worked for you and your little consumers.
Elise also does adult portions which she can deliver in advance either frozen or fresh. You can see the details under 'holiday packs' on her website. We haven't tried them yet but a family sized hotpot or pork stroganoff in the fridge will be an insurance policy for the inevitable day when you are too tired to go out and can't face cooking on what, after all, is cook's holiday too.
Barnwell Country Park. I quote from a guest, 'Delightful. Fabulous nature trails and a wonderful, imaginative playground are a firm favourite with our children. Every year there is something to do - this year we did the Treasure Hunt. Family Pond Dipping on Thursday is also very successful.' There is also full disabled access including fishing. This is a small gem you could drive past and not know it was there.
Hamerton Zoo Park. See Cheetahs, Maned Wolves, Bengal Tigers and lots more. When our kids were little we loved to see the Meerkats. Well worth the trip.
Wicksteed Park. If your kids are under ten they will have a really great time. It doesn't have the highest, fastest or best of anything but I went lots of times as a kid, as did my wife and so did our kids and nobody has a bad word to say about it.
Stanwick Lakes. Cycling, walking, fishing and general outdoor pursuits for all the family including an assault course for the adventurous. My Godaughter Evie thinks it's the best place in the world and would go every day if she could.
All of the above are harder to enjoy when the weather is unkind. On these days a lovely activity for all the family is to visit Jericho Pottery in Jericho, Oundle a street just off the market square. There you can buy a pot, bowl, mug or even a money box and decorate and glaze it at a large table in the middle of the room. Mrs Park will then arrange for it to be fired and you can either collect it later or she will send it on to you. She will even open up in the evenings so that the whole family can take a bottle of wine and be creative. From a few pounds to twenty for the larger pieces, including decoration materials and firing, it is a great family entertainment. Open Tuesday to Saturday in the school holidays and Saturday and Sunday during term time. Normal hours are 10:30 to 5:30 but they will open at other times by arrangement. 01832 275157 or 272474.
Wimpole Hall. Lovely country house for the grown-ups and lots for the kids.
Kelmarsh Hall arranges various attractions.
Grafham Water. You can rent bikes and ride round this huge lake or sail on it. There is an excellent bike shop there where we go for repairs and purchases with knowledgable and enthusistic staff.
Rutland Water. You can cycle here too. Combine it with visits to Uppingham or Oakham which are beautiful market towns. Hambleton Hall is a Michelin starred restaurant in the middle of the lake accessed by a causeway although you won't find us recommending it. Overeager use of the pepper mill reminded me of a sixties trattoria and offhand service on a subsequent occasion means my wife won't go back either.
Snibston sounds perhaps the least appealing attraction you could imagine; a disused mine in a town called Coalville with industrial artefacts to look at. Surely not. Browsing the website, which must have been produced by a local government official, doesn't help either but when you look elsewhere on the web you get a feeling of something for everyone; a mine for the kids with a play area for the little ones, a beam engine for Dad, fashion history for Mum, lots of interactive exhibitions and a train journey for everyone. There is also a country park to run off excess energy and the icecreams. It has been highly recommended by guests which is the best recommendation at NVC.
And now for an uncomfortable question. Have your kids ever run around in a real wood? For a few the answer may be a surprise to their parents but there is a solution nearby. In a recent article in The Times, there was one of those de rigueur journalist lists of the best twelve wildernesses in the UK and the National Trust's excellent Old Sulehay Forest featured alongside the Inner Hebrides, Cape Wrath and the forts at Whitstable. 'This ancient woodland above the Nene Valley is a mosaic of habitats. In its oak, ash and maple coppice, nuthatches push hazelnuts into cracks in the trees to hold them steady while they split them open, Under the trees the ground is a carpet of oak and hazel leaves, scattered in autumn with enough crab apples to make a lifetime's WI jelly.'
Alton Towers for the brave, albeit it a bit of a drive away.
