Puxton Park

A different kind of day out at the new farming and food experience at Puxton Park near Weston Super Mare is awaiting you.

A family facility has recently opened in Hewish near Weston Super Mare, the park still in its infancy has a huge farm shop and deli selling farm produce and organic vegetables all sourced from local West Country producers. You walk through the shop into the large airy self service restaurant/café, the restaurant has high vaulted ceilings with allows the light to stream in, the farmhouse style seating with an additional section of intimate seating areas with brown leather tub chairs and dark stained chunky coffee tables. The menu is small but adequate; the day we visited they were just putting out the lunch dishes of salmon pie, vegetarian lasagna fresh vegetables and organic potatoes, and jacket potatoes with choice of filling. As it was late morning we chose a snack and had a couple of  eccles cakes  a coconut and jam cake, 2 large lattes and a drinking chocolate, the bill came to £8.60p so not cheap but not expensive either.

You can visit the café and shop without going into the play park this is free of charge; this is probably of interest to many people either without children or just interest in to the local produce that is available.

The park itself is entered via a large reception building, you can either pay admission by the day, a day pass for Adults costs £7.50p children 4- 16year £6.50p (3y and under go free) Concessions £6.50 or family tickets 2 adults and 2 children £25.00, however if you live within driving distance you can buy an annual season ticket £25 an adult and £20 per child, this is particularly good value if you are likely to use the facility more than half a dozen times. The indoor play barn is one of the best if not the best I have seen, the barn with a separate area for toddlers and numerous climbing, tunnels and sliders, a death slide for the daring plus a six lane slide which comes with the obligatory coconut mats that can accommodate adults as well as children. What particularly impressed me was the fact that there were several member of staff at the top and bottom of the different slides at all times, a safety procedure that is sadly lacking in many of the play parks in Bristol and the surrounding areas. The play barn has its own café’ with seating area, the day we visited was a wet and miserable day and the play barn was extremely busy with hardly a table free, I think the owners will probably have to re-think the seating arrangements as the park becomes more well known and will probably want to add more tables and seating for the cafe plus extra seating for parents/grandparents/carer’s that just want to keep an eye on their want to just sit and watch the kids as they play.

Outside there is a huge inflatable circle rather like a giant trampoline, suitable for all ages, a large patio and grassed area and an old tractor for the children to climb onto and pretend to drive, there are waste bins for cans and general waste scattered about the park so the owners are thinking of the environment from the offset, what is lacking however is the shortage of picnic tables and benches for the many people who will probably want to bring a picnic and spend the day at Puxton,  plus of course umbrellas for the sun (or for that matter the rain!)  There were very few animals to be seen apart from a couple of pot bellied pigs, and if you wanted to venture much further that the outside of the play barn you needed to have brought your wellies.The park is expecting a new heard of cows shortly and will also be introducing other animals to the park as well as Birds of Prey displays on the weekends, there will also be demonstrations, walks, conservation and shows.

The park has six differently painted rooms that are available for birthday parties; these are situated above the play barn.

Puxton Park is in my opinion NOT an amusement park but a family educational day out.

Give the Park time to get established, iron out all the creases one encounters with a new venture. Once the shows are organized Puxton Park will come into its own and become a great place to spend the day, take a packed lunch or lunch out and of course pray for some good weather! The kids will thoroughly enjoy the play barn, walks on offer and be able to experience some of the many things that take place on a working farm, weather permitting, I think they will thoroughly enjoy the conservation lake and grounds and what they have to offer.

The Park is full accessible to the disabled with disabled toilets throughout the park, restaurant and play barn; wheelchairs are available from the reception and are free of charge.

The toilets have baby changing facilities and the restaurant provides microwaves for warming baby’s bottles.

Puxton Park is situated just off the M5 at Junction 21.
Hewish is around a 1/2hours drive from Bristol and around 45minutes from Bath.

C Heal
July 2007