1. By Royal Design
- Admission included in the entrance price, with booked, timed entry at weekends and half-term until November 3 (after that unrestricted); rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley
Spending time outdoors as a child is a foundation for a happy, healthy adult life. So said the Duchess of Cambridge as she opened her new Back to Nature children’s play garden at RHS Wisley this September.
Inspired by the gardens she co-designed at RHS Chelsea Flower Show and RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, the permanent play area includes a hollow log and boulders from the waterfall at Chelsea, plus the wildflower meadow, hidden burrow and rolling hill showcased at Hampton Court. New play elements include a ‘bouncing forest’ – where children can jump on trampolines surrounded by trees – two treehouses linked via a walkway with slides, and a living willow pod.
2. Open-air feast
Halloween Feast, October 31, 3.30-6.30pm, £27 adult, £20 child (u14)
Breakfast in the Woods, November 10, 10 am – 12 noon; £25 adults, £15 child (u13); wearethesaltbox.co.uk
Alfresco cooking specialists Beckie and Christian of The Salt Box, at Priory Farm, South Nutfield in East Surrey, are all about the simple pleasures: woodland walks, crackling bonfires and toasted marshmallows.
And on Halloween night, their beautiful fairy-lit glen is the setting for a wood-fired cooking class for families (best for under 10s) and open-air feast. After a walk through the pumpkin fields and meadows, kids can pick up some cooking and firelighting skills, before supper around the fire.
If you miss that, roll up for the monthly Breakfast in the Woods, an outdoor Sunday feast of seasonal fare.
3. Free-range
- November 23, 2-4 pm, £45 per adult (up to two children free); hencorner.com
Do you dream of a rural idyll with chickens in the garden and fresh honey from your own beehive? At Hen Corner, in Brentford, former banker Sara Ward and her family have transformed their West London terraced home into an urban smallholding and are living the good life with 20 hens, two colonies of honey bees and a micro-bakery.
Hone your own country skills on one of Sara’s family beekeeping and hen keeping courses. At this month’s Family Feathers and Fun, kids will meet the resident pure breeds, bantams and hybrids and take home some delicious fresh eggs.
4. Geocaching at Hatchlands Park
All over the countryside are countless hidden treasure boxes, or ‘caches’ – and all you need to find them is a smartphone or GPS device and a sense of adventure.
Log on to geocaching.com for the coordinates of caches near you. Some contain trinkets and toys you can swap, others just a pen and logbook to record your find.
You can do it anywhere, but try Hatchlands Park – the popular National Trust house and gardens near Guildford – which has 11 caches hidden around its stunning parkland.
5. Into the Hills
Already some 1,000 badges have been issued, with requests for many more. Visit ggsw.org.uk/resources1; or surreyhills.org/surrey-hills-60 for more visit ideas.
How do you get kids out into the countryside for a walk? With badges, of course!
The volunteer-run Surrey Hills Society has linked up with Surrey girl guiding to create a new badge challenging Rainbows, Brownies and Guides to explore the fantastic country on their doorstep by visiting places within the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), either with parents/guardians or with their guiding units.
There’s an online resource with over 60 suggested sites, including lovely St Martha’s Church – once a stop on the Pilgrims’ Way, near Guildford – the ornate Lovelace Bridges at East Horsley and Gibbet Hill on Hindhead Commons, where three villains were hung for the murder of a sailor nearby.
6. Outdoors at the Palace
Ah, the joys of a pile of logs! Using timber from onsite tree work, the team at Fulham Palace has designed this brilliantly simple natural play space where kids can clamber and balance and get muddy in the gardens without disturbing the botanical collections.
Built by Conservation and Access – who built the natural play trail at Box Hill – it has been set up to encourage rough and tumble play and draw more families to the palace, where a three-year £3.8m restoration project has improved visitor access, created a new museum and breathed fresh life into key historic rooms. Admission is free!
