Review 2015: Frensham Common

Yay! It’s the first secret review of the year on NorthHantsMum.

Thank you very much to one of our secret reviewers who has done a fantastic job reviewing Frensham Common below!

Review 2015: Frensham Common

We visited Frensham Common near Farnham last Sunday with myself, the husband and the monkey.  A really great childhood memory for me was a family day out here in the sand so I was excited to take my Son.  There is Frensham Great pond and Frensham Little pond and this review is on the Great Pond.

The reason for choosing to visit Frensham is that the Monkey wanted to go the beach but quite frankly we didn’t have time for an hour in the car each way as I needed to be at home doing boring stuff to “reset” the house before starting off our working week again.  Frensham was the best compromise with the beach area on the shore of the lake plus I owed NHM a review on this :-).

It’s only about 30 minutes’ drive from Basingstoke.  You drive through the main Farnham high street area and out the back.

When we drove into the car park there were plenty of spaces in a wooded area.  If you park at the front of the car park you have a good view of the lake.

If you are visiting here you need to pack for a beach visit with swim suits for the kids, towels, spare clothes, toys, picnic, wind breaker etc.  We’d brought along a bucket and spade so our Monkey could dig happily in the sand and if he is happy we are happy.

On the shore of the lake it’s ideal for sand castle building as the sand was quite damp so moulded nicely plus we could build a good moat.  We stayed on the larger beach area for most of our visit, on the smaller beach area on the same stretch we noticed a white froth on the lake shore when we went on our walk and nobody was using this area at all.

What we liked here was the family feel.  There were lots of families sitting on picnic rugs having their lunch with the kids running backwards and forwards to the water.

If you haven’t brought your picnic along there was a kiosk that sold everything you would need including bucket, spades and balls.

There were no whippy ice creams but there were soft scoop ice creams at £1.60 each and lollies.

Lattes available as well as plenty of hot food choices all cooked to order plus picnic tables to sit at.  We only tried out a portion of chips which were good chunky ones.

We did go on a walk eventually when we could prise our monkey away from the beach.  There are 7 miles of footpaths for walkers in the area.

Unfortunately we only had time for a short walk but the countryside was really pretty and we’d like to try it again.

Baby changing & toilets

When we were outside the toilets they didn’t smell very nice but when inside they smelt ok.  There was 1 flap down baby changer unit in the wash basin areas of both the Ladies and the Gents.

Buggy access

Only certain areas are suitable for buggies and your buggy would need to have good suspension to do some of the walks on offer.

Play area

There was no play area with swings, slides etc.  We think they could easily fit this in as it looks like they have the space to do this.

Car parking

There is a car park charge at weekends and bank holidays of £4 per car.  This only applies between Easter and the end of September.  National Trust members and blue badge holders are free to park at all times.  In peak Summer months expect the car park to be full by noon.  You can’t park on the country lane outside due to access for emergency vehicles.

Getting there

The post code for your sat nav is GU10 2QB.  The post code sends you to a lane and not necessarily the car park so they advise you to look at a map before you set off.

All in all it worked out as a cheap day out for us.

We have visited in off peak and it wasn’t busy at all but I’ve heard this place is heaving in the Summer months so visit soon if you want to give it a try.

You can download a visitors leaflet on the area at: https://www.waverley.gov.uk/news/article/354/advice_for_visitors_to_frensham_great_pond_and_common

If you want to find out more about Frensham Little Pond visit http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/frensham-little-pond/

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