5 Great Family Days Out

Spring into action when the flowers start to bloom with one of these fun family days out in Telford! Stride up a hill made by a giant, breathe life into Roman and Victorian history, or explore an award-winning park that has everything you need to keep the whole family happy for an hour, an afternoon or even a whole day.

Adventure Day packed with big-park energy 

No wonder Telford Town Park was voted the UK’s Best Park. There’s loads to keep families busy, whether you’ve got one hour or one day. This park is huge, with 14 miles of cycle paths, heritage and nature walking trails and four fishing ponds. That’s plenty of room for little legs to let off steam!

You can hang out with your favourite fairy-tale characters in Wonderland, ogle the snakes at the Exotic Zoo, and have a high ropes adventure at Sky Reach. Or get the family competitive spirit going with disc golf and the 12-hole adventure golf course.  Want a completely free day of fun? Take your pick from the play areas. Toddlers can be digger drivers in the sandpit, older kids can clamber up one of Britain’s biggest spider web frames, and teens can shoot hoops on the basketball court. There’s a super-fun splash pad and an all-inclusive playground, too. Grown-ups can sit back with a coffee under the blossoming cherry trees or work up a sweat on the Trim Trail – or both! When hunger strikes, pick up something from the café, spread a picnic on the grass, or stroll over to one of the family friendly restaurants in Southwater from Wildwood Kitchen to Wagamamas.  

Take a giant journey with little explorers

Enthral little ones with the story of the Wrekin Giant as you climb to the top of Shropshire’s 1,335ft ‘little mountain’, The Wrekin. Legend has it that a Welsh giant with a grudge against the people of Shrewsbury created The Wrekin when he hatched an evil plan to flood the city. But, thanks to the quick thinking of a local cobbler, instead of carrying his massive spade full of soil to the River Severn, the giant got grumpy and tired and dumped it here. Then he scraped the mud off his boots, making Little Ercall Hill beside it!

You’ll walk through the Wrekin Forest coming into bud on your way up. And the 360-degree views from the top are enough to blow a giant’s mind, let alone your little explorers’! You can see out across the rest of the Shropshire Hills AONB and, on a clear day, across 17 counties.

March into history at Wroxeter Roman City

Five thousand Roman foot soldiers, cavalrymen and the tradespeople needed to support the troops used to live at Wroxeter. Spreading over 78 hectares, it was the fourth-largest town in Roman Britain. That makes it comparable to Pompeii! March back through the millennia and discover what daily life was like for the Romans. Imagine the townsfolk washing, exercising and socialising in the enormous bathhouse, see the country’s largest piece of free-standing Roman wall, and meet a centurion or two. Little ones love comparing domestic Roman life with their own as they walk through the reconstructed Roman town house, complete with dining room and replica Roman furniture.

Take to the skies at RAF Cosford

RAF Cosford is the closest you can get to fly the RAF’s legendary and cutting-edge aircrafts without actually boarding a plane! Fly with the Red Arrows in the 4D theatre, pilot a VR Spitfire and zoom over the Lake District in a Typhoon Jet simulator. The museum’s collection of fighters, bombers and poignant stories covers air conflicts and advances in aircraft technology from the Great War to the Cold War and through to the present day. It even has what’s believed to be the world’s oldest Spitfire among its awesome collection of models, missiles, tanks and aircraft. The collection of luck charms carried by crew is particularly touching. You’ll never think of gremlins in the same way!

Fire up little imaginations at Blists Hill Victorian Town

Steam into Victorian Britain at Blists Hill. You’ll trip back to a time when steam engines were puffing into the history books and fish and chips were cooked in beef dripping – and they still are at this open-air Victorian town. The area, once dominated by foundries, mines and factories, has been transformed into an industrial town typical of around 1900. Victorian buildings have been relocated here brick-by-brick or built from scratch using traditional materials around the original canals and blast furnaces. 

Children adore the traditional fairground rides and the little train that chuffs into the mine. They can have real conversations with the Victorian townsfolk who work in the factories, shops and fields. As well as the blast furnaces, blacksmiths and cobber’s shop, there’s a butcher, a baker and, yes, a candlestick maker! And their little jaws will drop when they see the colourful jars in the 19th-century sweetshop. Happily, they can exchange their modern pocket money for pounds, shillings and pence at the bank and buy some old-fashioned goodies to take home!