GREAT RECOMMEND FOR TRENTHAM GARDENS

<< It would be CRIMINAL not to go! >> by blue_ashleigh - written on 11.10.07 - Rating: (5 of 5 possible stars) Advantages It's amazing Disadvantages The cost of the gardens Me and my boyfriend have “date Wednesdays” – every Weds we take it in turns to take the other on a date. This week it was my turn. I heard about Trentham Gardens on the internet and it sounded like a good place for a day out, and so off we went. Trentham gardens are just to the south of Stoke on Trent. It’s apparently easy to get to by car, rail or bus. We got the 101 bus from Newcastle-under-Lyme and it only took about 10/15 minutes. We arrived at the ‘estate’ just before 10am, as everything opens at 10am. There are seasonal variations to opening times, so I’d check out their website before you decide to go (www.threnthamlesiure.co.uk). There is LOTS to do there, and you definitely need to go for at least a day. There is a shopping centre, garden centre (the largest in Britain apparently), monkey forest, Italian gardens, miniature railway, boating lake, and wooded walks. ~ Italian Gardens ~ We started off by looking around the Italian gardens. They’re quite expensive - £13.00 for the two of us, but they are completely beautiful. There’s a large 83acre lake which is central to the estate around which everything is situated. The gardens themselves aren’t particularly huge, but they are so pretty. There’s a statue of Perseus at the bottom of the gardens which is situated on a ‘balcony’ overlooking the lake. The gardens are separated into sections – the floral prairies and natural meadow, upper garden, and western pleasure garden. There was a fair bit of the gardens that was closed off, and the lake wasn’t open to boating, because they were investigating blue-green algae in the lake. At the top of the gardens were pieces of what was presumably the Trentham Estate. It was very odd! There were random derelict buildings that were boarded up, and no explanation to what they were! It was most peculiar. There was also a large white tent where part of the building presumably used to be, but there was no entrance to the tent or any explanation to why it was there. There was also a lot of rubbish – building tools, plastic sheeting etc. just discarded at the top of the gardens. It was really odd. Apart from that though, the gardens are beautiful. There are temporary tea rooms situated in the garden but they don’t sell a lot, so I would really suggest having lunch somewhere else. There is also a kids ‘adventure playground’ in the gardens. However, it’s not huge and I’m guessing children would get bored fairly quickly. There is a wooded part of the gardens which lead to two bird hides which allow you to look over the lake. There’s a little book in one of the hides with information about the birds you may see there. This was highly useful as me and my boyfriend couldn’t agree on the name of one of the birds we saw – the book proved us both wrong! ~ Monkey Forest ~ GO TO THE MONKEY FOREST!!! The monkey forest is a mile from the Italian gardens, you can either walk by the lake to get to it, or drive there. One of the leaflets say the miniature train (only open seasonally) can take you there- we didn’t go on it as it wasn’t open Weds, but the track only goes half way there so you’ve still got about ½ mile to walk. I would warn you though, that if you are going to walk, the end of the path to the monkey forest is quite steep, and so you may struggle if you are disabled. The monkey forest cost us £11.00 for the two of us, but it is well worth it! The monkeys are kept in a section of the forest and you literally walk around the forest with monkeys on the loose! It’s amazing. The monkeys are obviously used to people and will walk right past you. However, they are not completely tame and you are advised to stay at least an arms length away and be careful! I was threatened by a monkey, I don’t think he liked me much, but apart from making a scary face at me he didn’t do anything –though I did walk quite quickly away! Seriously though, the monkeys won’t harm you and it is so delightful to see the monkeys ‘in the wild’. We saw five baby monkeys while we there and they are the most adorable little creatures. It is fascinating to watch the monkeys as they interact with each other. I really would recommend this place. Even if it is a bit of a trek to get here from wherever you live, I would truly recommend you make the journey. There are feeding times every hour, and there are ‘guides/ ranger’ people around the park who obviously adore the monkeys and can really tell you about them and the social hierarchy among the monkeys. It took us about 30 -45 mins to walk round the forest, but it was so amazing we went round again! We spent at least two hours there, and if we hadn’t been getting so hungry I think we could have spent hours and hours there. There was a school trip there while we were there, but because the forest is quite big we only saw the kids once. I can’t stress how fantastic this place is! ~ Shopping centre ~ We went for lunch in Coffee Revolution which is the café by the Italian gardens and in the middle of the garden centre. They have a good range of food and drink there and plenty of seating. We had two sandwiches, and two cakes and it came to just over £5 as the sandwiches were 2-4-1 which is a bit of a bargain! The shopping centre has about 60 shops which are all in wooden ‘cabins’. The shops are mainly gift shops, and ‘bitty’ shops. I’m going to do a bit of gift shopping there for Christmas, but it’s not really got the shops you’d go to if you were looking for something specific, but mainly if you were just going to browse and pick up unusual objects. ~ Garden Centre~ This is apparently the largest outdoor and indoor garden centre. We just thought we’d have a quick look round before getting the bus home, but ended up spending two hours in there! There’s lots of furniture, house hold items, books, toys, plants, garden furniture etc. There’s so much in there and it’s all beautifully laid out. Outside there’s an ENORMOUS collection of plants etc. There was also a cornered off section with two fire burners (alight) in there – it was lovely, and the smell was gorgeous. There’s a beautiful Italian café and restaurant in there. We sat in the café and had hot chocolates and two cakes. It’s quite expensive in there, but the food is delicious. ~Other stuff ~ There are lots of wooded walks which are free. There are also maps with suggested walks which you can find in the information centres. One of the walks leads you up to a statue which is situated on the top of the hill. However, we didn’t have time to do that walk today. There’s also an aerial extreme adventure park which we didn’t go to. I know I’ve waffled on quite a bit, but this place is lovely and I’ve not done it justice. There’s also so much stuff I’ve not talked about that is there, but I really didn’t want to bore you so much it put you off! I would really recommend you check this place out, especially if you live nearby as it would be criminal not to go. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Trentham Estate Trentham Leisure Limited, Stone Road, Trentham, Stoke on Trent ST4 8AX Tel: 01782 657341 Fax: 01782 644536 Email: enquiry@trentham.co.uk www.trenthamlesiure.co.uk Summary: This is a fantastic place to go