A fab family day out at Groombridge Place – The Enchanted Forest.
By Nina and Jackson of 3 Boys & Me Photography
Last Thursday saw Jackson and I head off to Groombridge Place for a fun day out. We haven’t been here for a good few years now and when two of J’s school friends asked if we would like to join them, we jumped at the chance.
This holiday has been super tricky for me as a working mum. I’ve had a crazily busy time shooting over 30 bluebell sessions earlier in the month (among other work) and had four shoots during half term week. With an older teen revising for year end exams and two other younger ones at home, I’ve really struggled this holiday to find a balance. It has been the case where the boys have had to amuse themselves so I had booked this day off, well in advance, to make sure that we had one full day out this week. This of course, is also a much needed break away for me too!We left reasonably early for the shortish drive down to Groombridge Place which is in Tunbridge Wells (TN3). Parking is nice and easy and whilst the first car park you come to fills up quite quickly, there is a field right behind and both are a short walk to the kiosk to buy your tickets. Tickets are all inclusive and for just under £25 for an adult and a child, are really good value as you can easily spend a whole day here. The only extra we needed to buy, apart from the obligatory ice cream for J (and cake and tea for me!) was a boat ride, which is totally optional, but at only £2.50 for the pair of us, pretty good value.
Once through the main gate, with map in hand, you are free to explore the whole place at your leisure. We always like to start with the maze so us mums sat and chatted while the boys ran around the maze a few times. There are often peacocks wandering around and for the first time in all my years I saw it take its feathers out! It really is amazing, although in this instance, I think it was a defence mechanism as the poor thing had quite a few kiddies near him. We moved on and left him to settle down, just grabbing one very quick picture as we left. There are also some “Zeedonks” here – these really are curious animals, and we were chuffed to pieces to see some of these too!
A lovely walk up through the fields takes you to a board walk, it’s like a wooden assault course with rope swings, things to climb through, up and round! Handily there is a wooden walk way for those who don’t want to climb in and out of things (us mums in this instance! Although my friend Michelle gave it a good go!). The boys enjoyed this so much, they went back and did the whole thing a second time while we sat and chatted on a log.
There are several large tree top swings, not for the faint hearted but the boys had an absolute blast with these. They are on fairly steep areas, so it’s quite a challenge to push the swing, but once they are on board they go extremely high! Needless to say, we spent a long time here!
Next, the boys tried the Tree Top Walkway. This was amazing, and is so high up! They loved this – it really is quite a climb so trainers are a must! Children do need to be accompanied by an adult on this. A short rest afterward, a stop for a drink and a snack, and we headed back down towards the river. Along the way is another swing, some romany caravans, teepees and another play area. There is a big pond here with some massive fish, that we fed with our left over picnic.
After some time in the adventure playground, which has been refurbished since we last went, we caught the boat back up to the entrance, it’s only a very short ride but it’s so lovely and peaceful and all the boys just enjoyed watching the world go by!
Bubblegum and chocolate ice cream (a winning combination apparently) was swiftly followed by a slice of Victoria sponge, copious cups of tea and lastly a walk round the formal gardens which led us to a couple of matches of giant chess while we sat enjoying the late afternoon sun, and then sadly it was time to leave.
I’ve asked Jackson to put the day into his own words: “My favourite bit of the day was the swings because they hung off the edge of very long hills and never ending slopes. I liked the tree-top walk because it was in the air and I liked looking down on the lego sized people below.”We spent a full day here, arriving before 11am and not leaving till after 5pm. We took a picnic which was a good plan as there is plenty to do here. To do the things that we did, you will have a couple of up-hill walks. I did see people with buggies but I think, in parts of the park, it is a bit of a challenge to have a buggy, but there are plenty of bits that are buggy friendly. Take your midge repellent if you, like me, find yourself being someone’s lunch! And don’t forget your water bottles!
During certain times of the year, they put on shows. This week we saw a stage production at the outdoor theatre area of Peter Pan. Some of the younger children had come dressed up which was really sweet. Oh and I saw a lady offering face paints and festival glitter, the latter being my absolute fave! However, I couldn’t talk my friends into getting any, so I’ll have to save that one for another time 🙂
I hope you get the time to visit this wonderful place – if you do, come back and let us know what you thought of it!!
Written by documentary and commercial photographer, Nina Callow of 3 Boys & Me Photography covering Kent and London. To read more of my blogs, please click here.
Author: Helen Loder
Co-Director of Sevenoaks Mums