www.southnorthants.gov.uk Explore Family Fun in South Northamptonshire 1 ©National Trust Images/John Millar Images/John ©National Trust ©National Trust Images/John Millar Images/John ©National Trust Cameron Commission/Isobel ©Forestry Contents Get Out & About Annual Events Get Out & About 2 South Northamptonshire is packed with interesting Annual Events 3 and fun things to do for the whole family. This guide APRIL AUGUST The Big Outdoors 4 provides lots of ideas to help you keep your children • Towcester Racecourse, • Blakesley Agricultural Show Great Places to Walk 6 entertained at weekends, bank holidays and during Easter Family Fun Day • Blisworth Canal Festival Animal Connections 8 school holidays. We hope you find it useful when • Stoke Bruerne, Pirate Weekend Happy Holidays 10 MAY planning your next family outing. • Towcester’s Annual Duck Race Where to Play 12 • Lois Weedon and Weston Love Learning 13 The district has miles and miles of ancient forests, May Day Fayre SEPTEMBER Eating & Shopping 14 country footpaths and canals just waiting to be • Battle of Edgecote Moor JUNE explored; village playgrounds, soft play centres Tournament and Re-enactment • Brackley Carnival Key and children’s farms that will keep the young ones • Harpole Scarecrow Festival • Brackley Soap Box Derby entertained for hours; child-friendly historic houses, • Stoke Bruerne, Village at War Dog-friendly • Stoke Bruerne, Gala Weekend museums and landscaped gardens; and fun packed Free entry • Syresham Scarecrow Festival OCTOBER activity programmes at our leisure centres and Picnics • Towcester Mid-Summer • Deanshanger Feast libraries. Refreshments Music Festival NOVEMBER WC Toilets The activities included in the guide are suitable JULY • Silverstone Bonfire for children up to the age of around 12, although Shop • Brackley Music Festival many of the things listed are also suitable for older DECEMBER Wet weather • Grafton Regis History Fayre children. Check websites of individual organisations, • Stoke Bruerne, Illuminated towns and villages for up-to-date information about Boat Procession and Carols opening times and events. Seasonal events are held in most towns, villages and at the venues listed in this guide. Our villages also have a rich tradition of church fetes, allotment shows and festivals. For further information, go to the ‘What’s On’ section at www.southnorthants.gov.uk. Northants Touring Arts puts on a range of high quality family events in village and town halls, including storytelling, theatre, music, dance and comedy. www.northantstouringarts.co.uk 2 3 ©Forestry Commission/Isobel Cameron Commission/Isobel ©Forestry Cameron Commission/Isobel ©Forestry Being a largely rural district, South Northamptonshire is a SALCEY FOREST great place for the kids to spend time outside, playing in the www.forestry.gov.uk/salceyforest fresh air, walking, cycling and seeing the wildlife. One of the highlights of this former royal hunting forest is Salcey’s famous Tree Top Walk. Rising to about 15 metres with an Forests and Woodland 18 metre viewing platform, it looks out over more than 1000 acres of ancient woodland, EVENLEY WOOD GARDENS including 500-year-old oaks. The activities www.evenleywoodgarden.co.uk here are endless – cycling and horse riding, A 60-acre private woodland garden dog walking, den building, pram push, known for its lovely displays of spring and wildlife spotting and nature trails with a summer flowers. There’s plenty of space Forest Ranger. There’s also an enclosed to run around on the wide grassy paths, natural wood play area and seasonal events little streams and bridges (perfect for HAZELBOROUGH AND such as a Halloween trail, Myths and Magic poohsticks!), birds, butterflies and ducks BUCKNELL WOODS walk and a Christmas festival. Open all year. on the pond. Open weekends and some www.forestry.gov.uk WC bank holidays from February to the end Clearly marked footpaths are suitable of October. for buggies. There are piles of logs for WC climbing on, beautiful springtime displays of bluebells, cowslips, primroses and violets Cameron Commission/Isobel ©Forestry and lots of wildlife. Open all year. WHITTLEwood FOREST www.wakefieldfarmshop.co.uk A 15 to 20 minute circular walk through the ancient Whittlewood Forest starting at Wakefield Country Courtyard shopping centre. Wildlife includes barking deer, rabbits, hares, foxes, woodpeckers and a large variety of other birds. No dogs allowed. The woodland walk is accessible from April to October. ©Forestry Commission/Isobel Cameron Commission/Isobel ©Forestry 4 5 Great Places to Walk Cameron Commission/Isobel ©Forestry South Northamptonshire BODDINGTON RESERVOIR SILVERSTONE BROOK, TowcESTER THE WATER MEADOWS AND BURY has many miles of easily Situated close to Byfield and set in rolling www.towcester-tc.gov.uk MOUNT, TowcESTER countryside, this 72 acre reservoir is popular A landscaped footpath, with a separate www.towcester-tc.gov.uk accessible and well-marked with local fishing and sailing clubs. It is cycle route part of the way, from Towcester Grade II listed water meadows covering public rights of way, including suitable for walking and buggies as it has Leisure Centre through the centre of town 33 acres of parkland, woods and grass. a solid footpath around much of the out to the River Tove and Water Meadows. There are three waterways, the River Tove, sections of the long distance perimeter. Open all year. Open all year. the Mill Stream and Silverstone Brook and footpaths, The Midshires, lots of wildlife, including 70 species of birds, butterflies, bats and bees. Adjacent Grafton and Knightly Way. GRAND UNION AND OXfoRD CANALS is Bury Mount, the site of a 12th century www.canalrivertrust.org.uk Norman motte, which is great for climbing BELL PLANTATION GARDEN A seventeen and a half mile stretch of the and cycling. A wide stone path dissected by CENTRE, TowcESTER Grand Union Canal passes through South an historic time line, winds its way to the www.bellplantation.co.uk Northamptonshire, starting at Cosgrove in top from which you can look out over the Adjacent to the garden centre is a specially the south, ending near Nether Heyford in the roof tops of Towcester and watch the cows landscaped, 35-acre dog walk with grass north. There is a well-maintained footpath grazing in the Water Meadows. Paths are footpaths, woodland, activity areas, jumping along the entire route with bridges, locks and suitable for buggies and bikes. Open all year. and tunnelling. Open all year. marinas at regular intervals and plenty of WC family-friendly pubs. There’s also lots to see, including the ten metre Iron Trunk Aqueduct at Cosgrove, various species of flora and fauna, brightly painted narrowboats and the busy canal village of Stoke Bruerne. You can take a boat trip, or hire your own boat at Blisworth, Cosgrove and Stoke Bruerne. Details of walks are available on A short but pretty section of the Oxford Canal ST JAMES LAKE BRackLEY individual village websites (for a list, go to www.southnorthants.gov.uk). also passes through the district at Aynho in www.brackleynorthants-tc.gov.uk Excellent free walking guides for Brackley the south west. A man-made lake, rich in wildlife, with bats, and a number of villages detail circular butterflies, dragonflies and birds. The path walks through the local countryside. is suitable for pushchairs and bikes. Open These are available to download at all year. For full information about all there is to see and www.southnorthants.gov.uk and to pick do along our canal network, see the South up from Brackley Information Centre in Northamptonshire Canal Guide, which is available to the Courtyard Mews, libraries, local download at www.southnorthants.gov.uk, or to pick shops and cafés. A similar guide for up at local canal venues, shops and attractions. Towcester is in production. 6 7 Animal connections Kids love getting close to CATANGER LLAMAS OLD DAIRY FARM CENTRE RookERY OPEN FARM animals and here in www.llamatrekking.co.uk www.old-dairy-farm-centre.co.uk www.rookeryopenfarm.com Llamas make great walking companions A highlight of the year is lambing weekends Providing a safe environment for kids to learn South Northamptonshire, through the peaceful South in March and April (a small charge is made about animals, this working commercial farm we have lots of animals for Northamptonshire countryside. The new for going into the lambing sheds). Year- introduces them to many farm and domestic visitor centre shows how their fibre is used, round, young visitors will enjoy seeing the animals. Lambing and calving takes place them to get close to! with a working rug loom and spinning ducks, Mable and Daffy, two Kune-Kune from mid-March to the end of April; there is wheel. Private parties and catering can also pigs, sheep, cockerels, hens, budgerigars, a a large pets’ corner and incubator hatching; CASTLE ASHBY GARDENS be arranged. Catanger’s llamas have been parakeet and cats. Various family-friendly plus chickens, ducks, pigmy goats, pigs FARMYARD featured in various TV shows and films, from events are held here. Suitable for all ages. and horses. There are extensive indoor soft www.castleashbygardens.co.uk Blue Peter to the Horrible Histories. Suitable Open all year. play and outdoor play areas, with farmyard for children from the age of eight. They must bouncy castles, tractors, sand pit, go-karts, WC The beautiful setting of Castle Ashby be accompanied by an adult and bookings mini combine harvester, climbing frames, Gardens is home to a children’s farmyard, must be made in advance. Open all year. swings, slides and Daisy the milkable cow! where you’ll find pigs, sheep, goats, guinea Special events include a Reptile Roadshow WC pigs, rabbits, a Shetland pony, a donkey, and sheep shearing displays. Suitable for all rescue animals and rare breeds. There is a ages. Open mid-March to late October.