Reviews - NorthHantsMum

Review 2018: Pop Up Play Village UK (Basingstoke)

Posted by juliet on 5th March 2018 in Basingstoke, Children, Classes, Local Mum Businesses, Pre School, Reviews, Reviews of Things to do, Things to Do, Toddlers 0 Comment

Pop Up Play Village UK (Basingstoke)

I had only been to a play village on two occasions before with my toddlers, it was a whole new level of excitement for them (which made leaving interesting!) I was always keen to go more often but, being located that little further afield, it just never happened. So when I heard about a pop up play village coming to Basingstoke, I pretty much booked there and then. I wasn’t sure what a pop up version would be like, but I was very keen to find out.

I have to say, I was really impressed. To see my toddlers role-playing is heart-warming, and makes me really appreciate just how much they are taking in nowadays. I am so pleased that something like this is available locally, and we will definitely be visiting again!

About

To quote their website, Pop Up Play Village is “a portable play village that features a supermarket, builders yard, library, hospital, baby nursery, vets and cafe. On our event days, we also feature an art studio where children can get creative by choosing a craft to decorate and take home.” The sessions are aimed from birth to 8 years old and they are offered at various locations in the Basingstoke area. They can also be hired for events such as children’s parties.

The session that we visited was at the Beggarwood Community Centre, next to Beggarwood Park. The hall had been laid out in the different sections listed above, with a clothes rack offering various different dress up. There were large colourful signs indicating the different areas and an impressive selection of accessories in each, all in very good condition. The team kept making sure items made it back to their correct places so the experience continued throughout the session. There was also a cafe available offering a good selection of hot and cold drinks, snacks and healthy snacks for the children.

My toddlers had an incredible time and pretty much tried everything, there were many protests on leaving. I have been trying to find new places to take the boys for a while as they have more or less outgrown play groups and get bored easily, but by the end of this session they were still going strong. Brilliant!

Tips

Make sure you book in advance on the Pop Up Play Village Website.

It is a shoes off environment for children and adults alike, so make sure you bring socks.

Food

There is a cafe selling hot, cold drinks and snacks.

Facilities

Dependent on location. At Beggarwood Community Centre there are toilets and baby changing facilities on site.

Parking

Dependent on location. At Beggarwood Community Centre there is a small car park available for users of the centre as well as a larger car park at Beggarwood shops, adjacent to the centre.

Locations

Please check the Pop Up Play Village UK (Basingstoke) Facebook page for locations and upcoming events.

Rating out of 5

I would have to give it a 5 out of 5. My toddlers enjoyed every minute of it!

For further information visit their Facebook page on Pop Up Play Village UK (Basingstoke) or Pop Up Play Village Website

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Review 2018: Cafe in the Park, Beggarwood

Posted by juliet on 16th February 2018 in Basingstoke, Cafe's, Reviews of Places to Eat 0 Comment

Thank you to Juliet for today’s Review!!

Cafe in the Park, Beggarwood

Cafe in the Park

I was so excited to hear that there would be a new cafe opening up in Beggarwood. I am a serious lover of coffee and cake and was through the doors on opening day, and I was not disappointed.

To date, I have found lots of cafes in Basingstoke that cater for young children, but only one where it has entertained my toddlers long enough for me to actually drink a whole cup of hot coffee before the whining or tantrums start. Until now that is. Cafe in the Park seems to be aimed at all, and this includes those families with young children.

About

The cafe is based at the new Beggarwood Community Centre, at the top of Beggarwood Park with big glass windows offering fabulous views over the park. The Community Centre has already started filling with activities, including Kids Kan Dance and Pop Up Play Village, but check the Facebook page of Hatch Warren Community Centre (who are running both centres) for more information and classes.

Cafe in the Park is run by a lovely group of people who seem really excited at the new opportunity and are actively seeking ways to adapt the cafe to suit the community. This includes holding a Dog Walkers’ Forum in March to discuss how to make the cafe more accessible to dog walkers. The part which interests me the most though, for obvious reasons, is what they have made available to occupy young children.

As you enter the community centre, there is a table in the entrance area with colouring books and crayons, and a few tables and chairs close by. There is a good selection of toys in the cafe area and our toddlers delighted in going back and forth, exchanging toys for new ones. In fact we were ready to leave way before they were, not something that happens often.

As an added bonus, I returned during the week and the main hall (which will going forward be closed off and hired out to local groups and for parties) was open with crafts available for the children. There was play dough, card making and colouring, and lots of toys laid out on tables. Sadly (for me) this will not normally be available. They are, however, hoping to open this area up again during the school holidays, if possible, and have the crafts available once again. This is an awesome idea and I really hope it happens, especially as the vast majority of playgroups and similar groups for little ones close during the holidays. When I left today the main hall was full of kids playing, so there is definitely a need. In the meantime, they will be looking to have a craft available on the table in the entrance hall during term time.

Food

There is a really good selection of hot and cold drinks, cakes and cookies, with prosecco and wine also available (so tempting!) I was also really impressed with the prices of the coffees and cakes.

There are gluten and dairy free options available. I was advised that all cakes are made fresh and they are open to cater for any dietary requirements, so make sure you mention if you have any.

I feel I need to make a separate comment about how good the cake was (and yes, I tried a few, just to be sure).

Take-away hot drinks are available and they hope to have ice creams on sale for when the warmer weather comes.

There are also free dog biscuits, however, dogs are not permitted in the cafe but there is a dog station outside.

Facilities

There are toilets and baby change facilities at the community centre and high chairs are available in the cafe.

Parking

There is a small car park to the front of the centre with additional parking available at the Beggarwood shops’ car park, next to the centre.

Opening Hours

The cafe will be open Wednesdays to Fridays, 9am-11am and 3pm-5pm, and weekends 9am-12noon.

Rating out of 5

5 out of 5. I have had some amazing visits to Cafe in the Park so far. We’ve been as a family, with friends, and a quiet visit with just me and one of our boys. Each visit has been brilliant, we are definitely going to be regulars.

Review 2018: West Green Fruits

Posted by juliet on 1st February 2018 in Cheap, Children, Family, Food, North Hampshire, Reviews, Reviews of Days Out, Reviews of Things to do, Wellbeing 0 Comment

Thank you very much to today’s NHM Secret Reviewer!

West Green Fruits review – pick your own fruits, Hartley Wintney

West Green Fruits

One of my friends had recently told me about how she had asked her little boy where strawberries come from, he answered “the supermarket” (he was a little more specific but I didn’t want to seem bias!)

As it happened, I had already heard of a place called West Green Fruits where you can pick your own produce, and my friend’s experience made me keen to try it out! I had never been to a PYO before, I had been blackberry picking in ‘the wilds’, but I was really intrigued by this and thought it would be a great introduction to where food comes from. My boys were 2.5 yrs so I was a little concerned they would be a bit too young to get it. Fortunately, I was very wrong.

About

West Green Fruits is situated just outside Hartley Wintney, about 15 minutes from central Basingstoke. They are open during the PYO season, which started on 10th June this year. It is a family run business set in 20 acres of farmland and offers a range of fruit including strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, gooseberries, tayberries and more. There is a small shop selling their own homemade jams and Jella’s Ice Cream, made with their produce. They also have produce ready picked for those who would rather not pick their own.

The area consists of a car park, small building and acres and acres of fields. It is a stunning setting. There is also a picnic area and grass labyrinth, although we didn’t get to see these. You collect your punnets from the building by the car park. This is also where you bring back your produce to weigh and houses the shop. The produce currently available for picking are displayed on a board and the lovely ladies – and I do mean lovely, so helpful and chatty with the little ones too – point you in the direction of where to go.

It was wonderful to see both my boys happily trotting along, excitedly carrying their punnets, following the trail. The available fields are well marked out and there was an abundance of fruit to pick. Amazingly both my boys loved the experience, carefully picking out each fruit. I say amazingly as one of my boys is not very good at standing still, so to see him delicately choosing and picking each piece of fruit was incredible. After quite some time we wandered back to the kiosk to pay, and definitely needed to deposit into the ‘sin bin’ (an honesty box for ‘lost’ fruit and the contents going to charity) – red streaked faces making that pretty obvious!

We’ve been twice now, strawberries then raspberries, and will definitely be going back soon before the season ends.

Tips

West Green Fruits is seasonal, you will need to keep an eye on the West Green Fruits Facebook Page for their opening dates and for the produce that is currently available. Current opening hours are also displayed there.

Facilities

Worth noting, there are no facilities on site.

Prices

You pay for what you pick, prices are available at the kiosk and based on weight.

I think this is brilliant, as the picking is an experience in itself yet all you are paying for is the produce.

Rating out of 5

5, totally unique experience that we all loved.

Review 2018: Pots To Doodle Do

Posted by lorna on 12th January 2018 in Babies, Basingstoke, Children, Dads, Family, Gifts, Hampshire, NHM: Readers Experiences, Parents, Reviews, Reviews of Things to do, Things to Do 0 Comment

Thank you very much to today’s NHM Secret Reviewer! She’s done a fab job!

Review 2018: Pots To Doodle Do

First of all, I haven’t been asked to review Pots to Doodle Do by anyone – I’m doing it as someone who booked to make some Christmas baubles and was so impressed and pleased with the results I wanted to share!

I booked in to Pots to Doodle Do after seeing a Facebook post about making decorations for the Christmas tree. I have a toddler and a 4 month old and having been to various other places to do such things previously I thought I knew what to expect…..

How wrong was I?? I was slightly apprehensive about dealing with paint and a toddler while no doubt having to feed the baby (always happens doesn’t it?!) but Tracey could not have been more helpful! In other places we’ve just been left with the items we’ve chosen and the paint and got on with it – not this time, Tracey put the paint on the toddlers’ hand and the baby’s foot, stamped it onto the bauble then cleaned them up. Sounds simple but I’m sure parents will understand where I’m coming from……….

We then had access to a huge array of paint, sponges, brushes and stickers to let the creative juices flow. We were given a booklet with some photos of previous creations to give us direction if needed and Tracey made sure everyone got what they wanted from the experience, around to help if needed, checked on us and the progress but we didn’t feel rushed at all – a delicate balance it achieve!

The finished products were collected a week later and are brilliant – well worth the effort and importantly not expensive.

The location in Cliddesden is fairly simple to find and there’s parking by the village pond. Once inside it’s warm and welcoming, there’s hot drinks and snacks available to purchase and Tracey goes out of her way to put you at ease (I was terrified of my toddler and ceramics……..) By far the best experience of all so far!

Review 2017: Farnham Park and Castle

Posted by Louise NorthHantsMum on 21st November 2017 in Family, Free, Hampshire, Outings, Reviews, Reviews of Days Out, Things to Do 0 Comment

We were recently on our travels to Richmond for a day out, pretending to be posh. Except we hadn’t realised that the M3 would be closed and would make our journey epically complicated, so once off the slip road we decided to head home and find somewhere else to go.

One of my friends had recommended Farnham Park to me and as it was on the way back I suggested we check it out. It’s about 20-25 minutes drive from Basingstoke. We had a brilliant time exploring just the park. We then went back a few months later with the same friends who took us to the Castle and Miss NHM and her playmate had a fantastic time!!!

Play

Farnham Park has an AWESOME wooden play park. It’s HUGE! We spent about 1.5 hours playing in the park, playing on all of the different wooden structures

We walked for miles and miles and still only did a fraction of the park. We completely missed one of the play parks which is a bit further round from the Wooden play park!

Mr NHM may or may not have played “I’m the king of the castle” on this structure! lol.

Castle

We then decided to go and look at the Castle. The Castle is free to enter but they ask for a donation.

We had a BRILLIANT time in the Castle! I couldn’t believe that it was free entry!

We spent about 5 minutes in the room which explained the history of the Castle. The children were too excited to stay any longer here as they wanted to explore the castle itself.

We did pick up a leaflet which explained “The Keep at Farnham Castle” and gave a short tour of what it all was.

I didn’t get many pictures of the Castle itself because I couldn’t get any without there being someone in it!!! But we spent ages in the Castle exploring and went down into the Central Tower and the Well. The children were fascinated with the Latrines, as children would be! lol.

We were incredibly lucky to visit on a day when the weather was absolutely glorious. As you can see, the views from the castle across Farnham were spectacular!

Tips

You can’t park at the Castle unless you have a disabled badge, so we parked in the car park which said it was for the Golf Course which was about a 5 minute walk away. There is lots of parking and it’s for users of the gold course and the park, but it can get VERY busy after lunch and people park in very haphazard ways, so be warned if you have toddlers who like to run of!!

The steps into the Castle itself are very steep so it’s not recommended to take a pushchair. If you can take a sling that would work although it is possible to park your pushchair down at the main entrance. It is a very steep set of steps into the castle though.

Definitely pick up one of the leaflets which explains where everything is. This helped us to ensure we’d explored everything.

Food

The Cafe is very independent to the point where dogs are allowed in the cafe! It’s like going back in time to 30 years ago when dogs were allowed everywhere! Which I love but I know lots of people won’t.

The price of food is really cheap and it’s very popular so you can sometimes queue for a bit. If you like golf, the golf shop is also attached. I can imagine the cafe being very busy in the summer with all of the requests for ice cream!

Facilities

There are toilets in the Cafe in the park and also really good toilets at the Castle.

Baby Facilities

There are baby facilities but the ones in the Castle are better.

Parking

As mentioned above, there is no parking at the Castle for the general public so you can either park in Farnham and walk up the hill or park in the golf course car park and walk round. You can either walk through the park and then along the castle ramparts to get to the castle or there is a path which is very close to the main road but has a flimsy fence. Keep a very close eye on little people as the cars go really fast.

Prices

It was free to park.

The Park is free to enter and so is Farnham Castle.

Rating out of 5

5 out of 5. Miss NHM and her friend absolutely loved the open space, the wooden playground and exploring the castle. Even better that the whole day out was free!!!

Review 2017: Beale Park

Posted by juliet on 9th October 2017 in Babies, Berkshire, Cafe's, Children, Family, NHM Readers, Outings, Picnic's, Pre School, Reviews, Reviews of Days Out, Things to Do, Toddlers 0 Comment

Thank you to the NHM Secret Reviewer who wrote today’s post.

Review 2017: Beale Park

Like many other afflicted parents, I have a boy addicted to trains. I made the mistake of promising a train ride all week, and today I had to deliver. Fortunately I live in an area where there are quite a few options that aren’t solely about trains, and today was Beale Park – a stunning wildlife park and gardens with a fantastic selection of children’s play areas. Perfect!

Beale Park website

Beale Park Facebook Page

About

Beale Park is a wildlife park and gardens about 30-40 minutes away from Basingstoke, between Lower Basildon and Pangbourne, by the River Thames. There are three main features to the park:

Wildlife:
The park has a collection of small exotic animals, farm animals and birds, including meerkats, wallabies, coatis, owls and peacocks to name but a few. The train passes many of these areas, which can be very useful for tired little feet, although the paths are pushchair friendly. There is also a deer park set in a large open space with picnic area and zip wire. We haven’t been that far yet though.

Attractions:
The park’s miniature train runs every day during their open season and your first ride is included with your entry ticket. There is an additional charge for further rides. There is an amazing Little Tikes Outdoor Village, indoor play area, adventure playground, paddling pool, sandpit, Roplay area and aerial cableway. To be honest, there is so much at the central play area alone, we could spend the whole day there and our boys would be happy (with a train ride of course).

Gardens:
We have so far managed to convince our boys that the way to the main play area is through the Jubilee Water Gardens. That’s not strictly true but the gardens are so stunning we don’t see the harm in being a little sneaky in order to enjoy the amazing walk. With a beautiful oriental feel, I can’t imagine leaving them feeling anything other than relaxed. There is also a ‘Dry Garden’ running alongside the inner lake making it a wonderful feature.

Conservation

Not only is Beale Park an amazing day out for all, it is committed to conservation of rare and endangered species, managing several projects and supporting others. Always a bonus having a great day out and knowing you are contributing to a wonderful cause.

Food

The Peacock restaurant offers a good range of hot and cold food and drinks. I was also surprised and impressed to see on our way out a table offering fresh milk for tea/coffee etc, including soya milk. I don’t know if they cater for special diets, but I will definitely be checking next time!