Summer of Play

Running throughout the School Summer Holidays, most National Trust properties are hosting a Summer of Play, encouraging families to enjoy an active summer across the beautiful properties the Trust manages. This weekend we chose one of our nearest properties to explore; the beautiful house and grounds of Erddig in Wrexham, North Wales.

For once this summer the weather was on our side, and we had beautiful blue skies overhead. Knowing how changeable this can be, though, we skirted the house first and made our way through the stunning gardens to the wild-play area, The Wolf Den. This natural woodland clearing has been woven through with obstacle courses, climbing frames and swings, and children (and their adults!) are encouraged to build dens, climb trees, and get covered in mud, which Olivia did with wild abandon! It is lovely that this sort of natural playground exists alongside the traditional manicured lawns and ornamental gardens of the stately home, and we did spend quite some time here before playing games of racing, skipping, and hide-and-seek at the play stations set up in front of the little lake. We've been to Erddig before and I'm sure they'd had more activities set up on previous visits, but maybe the unpredictable rain was the reason there were fewer outdoor games this time.

National Trust cafes are always nice, and we appreciate the reasonably priced pick-n-mix lunchbags for children, as Oli is able to choose what she wants to eat and pack it all herself. There's also a nice selection of food, and the novelty of all the bits means she usually eats it all. The food for adults is expensive, however, but it is tasty so we did decide to treat ourselves this time rather than taking our own picnic as we usually do.

The conservators at Erddig are in the process of cataloguing the beautiful Dolls' House in the nursery, so this room had been covered over and we watched a couple of ladies recording, in painstaking detail, the items taken out of the Dolls' House, including a miniature umbrella stand complete with umbrellas and a tiny pram! Oli asked how many items there were in the house and was told "We'll let you know in two months once we've got through it all!" They certainly have more patience than I do! Because of this work, many of the toys from the nursery had been hidden around the house; teddies at tea in the dining room, or bunnies tucked up in bed with a book. It was like a little treasure hunt trying to spot where the toys were in each room and Olivia definitely enjoyed it when she was the first to see them.

There's so much to see and do at Erddig, and it's the kin of place that a family could spend the whole day at, ambling around the grounds and exploring the house. With National Trust membership it's free to enter, or prices start from around £37 for a family ticket otherwise. It's one of our favourites to visit, and we'll definitely be back again soon.

Do you have a favourite National Trust property?