Biddulph Grange is a delightful and unusual garden, and is just brilliant for family exploring! With gardens inspired from a range of countries, and a maze of paths leading to a huge number of interesting nooks and follies, you’re sure to find something to wow you!
The Geological Gallery was the surprise hit for our family! A long corridor like room, it was full of fossils back when it was created, though these have now been replaced with replicas. Regardless of the “realness” of the fossils, our kids thought the gallery was great, and were even interested in the geological samples underneath the fossils. The gallery itself is set out with a “7 days of creation” theme, ending with some human and ape skulls, so be warned if you have sensitive little ones. And it’s very easy to ignore the creation aspect of it all if you’re not a religious family.
The gardens themselves are beautiful, and you can easily get lost – don’t let teeny ones run too far ahead! The Egyptian garden, though small, was definitely something we hadn’t seen before, and the kids loved the stone sphinxes! And the Chinese garden was very impressive, with colourful buildings topped with teeny dragons, not to mention a huge golden statue!!! (Personally, I was a huge fan of the Stumpery – it was the biggest one I’d ever seen! The kids weren’t so impressed with that though!) Then there are the more traditional formal gardens that usually accompany a stately home – neatly trimmed hedges, tree lined walkways and England’s largest stone urn.
Of course, being run by the National Trust, there’s also a kids’ playground trail! Like many other National Trust properties, the equipment is nature based (and you walk through a wooded area to complete the trail). There’s lots of balancing and climbing on logs and wooden structures. Even Mr15 thought it was fun, and he’s outgrown the majority of playgrounds now!
We’ll definitely be going back to Biddulph Grange! It was a fab day out, with plenty of exploring to find the next cool thing, and lots of unusual things you wouldn’t see elsewhere! A real gem!!!
The important part – how to find them:
Biddulph Grange
Grange Road,
Biddulph,
Staffordshire,
ST8 7SD
For current prices and opening times please check the National Trust website.
A Different Way To Go 