Moss Bank Park

In the summer holidays Moss Bank Park has an assortment of fun fair rides and activities, including a bouncy castle, an enormous inflatable slide and a carousel. In winter it is a much more sedate park but that is how I prefer it.   Moss Bank is also home to Animal World, which sounds quite grand and raises your expectations. Grand it isn't, but this is a free attraction and it is definitely worth a visit. You enter via the Butterfly House, which is actually pretty good, with wooden walkways over a running stream where you can see lots of fish, and butterflies are flying overhead in the...

Chocolate Cafe, The

Here you'll discover a ground-floor chocolate shop selling a gorgeous selection of handmade chocolates, and an upstairs cafe offering, amongst other things, 14 different flavours of hot chocolate that you make yourself by immersing a chocolate bar in hot milk!   If you don't want your child to eat chocolate, it is probably best to avoid this place! When we visited mid-week there were lots of mums and buggies - there is a buggy park within the shop that would fit about four pushchairs. The cafe is pleasantly decorated, although I found it a little sparse. However, I was soon distracted from ...

Party and Play Funhouse, Bolton

Party and Play Funhouse is huge and being housed in a massive warehouse, allows the parents’ seating area to be in the middle of all the equipment so you can see your child playing almost anywhere in the room. The giant doors of the building are actually fully retractable, so in good weather they’re opened up making this a great venue even on sunny days.   All the usual climbing structures can be found here – a four-lane wavy slide, a curly tree slide and perspex tunnels to crawl through. There’s a good toddler area for under fours which has the bonus of Little T...

Party and Play Funhouse

Party and Play Funhouse is huge and being housed in a massive warehouse, allows the parents’ seating area to be in the middle of all the equipment so you can see your child playing almost anywhere in the room. The giant doors of the building are actually fully retractable, so in good weather they’re opened up making this a great venue even on sunny days.   All the usual climbing structures can be found here – a four-lane wavy slide, a curly tree slide and perspex tunnels to crawl through. There’s a good toddler area for under fours which has the bonus of Little T...

Cheeky Chimps, Bolton

Cheeky Chimps is based on the first floor of a converted mill in Atherton, with plenty of parking space available. Access is via an old goods lift. There are two toddler areas, one with a slide leading into a ball pit and the other also with a slide plus loads of soft shapes to play with. For older children there is a climbing wall and a football pitch. The main structure is only two storeys but with interactive elements dotted throughout. Because of the style of the building it’s a little dark and you may need to encourage the children to play. There are plenty of tables and chairs and ...

Moses Gate Country Park

Restored from an old industrial site, this beautiful 305-hectare park is a place of national scientific interest due to its unique wildlife. It's easy to find and there's plenty of free parking - we parked at the bottom car park, which brings you virtually straight into the excellent children's playground and the Rock Hall Visitor Centre.   Moses Gate is centred on three lakes with miles of scenic parkland to take a walk in. There are pathways and seating everywhere, and the area we ambled around was nice and flat so access with a pram is easy.   There's no cafe but plenty of wel...

East Lancashire Railway

Arriving at Bury's Bolton Street Station is like stepping back in time. There are traditional ticket booths, lovely signage and helpful staff. We decided to go from Bury to Ramsbottom but for a longer ride you can take the train from Heywood all the way to Rawtenstall. There is a pay and display car park at Bury Station which is free on Sundays.   At Bury Station The Trackside pub, situated on Platform 2, does children's meals at £2.25 for sausage or fishfingers with chips and beans, and they are will warm up bottles or baby food. Baby- changing is in the disabled toilets at the e...

East Lancashire Railway

Arriving at Bury's Bolton Street Station is like stepping back in time. There are traditional ticket booths, lovely signage and helpful staff. We decided to go from Bury to Ramsbottom but for a longer ride you can take the train from Heywood all the way to Rawtenstall. There is a pay and display car park at Bury Station which is free on Sundays. At Bury Station The Trackside pub, situated on Platform 2, does children's meals at £2.25 for sausage or fishfingers with chips and beans, and they are will warm up bottles or baby food. Baby- changing is in the disabled toilets at the en...

East Lancashire Railway

www.east-lancs-rly.co.uk...

Smithills Country Park

Combining a walk in this country park with a trip to the adjacent Smithills Farm and if you're up to it, a tour around the magnificent medieval hall - is a good way to pack a lot into a day trip to Bolton!   We started with a walk around the hall's gardens; they're neither sizeable nor grand, much more country garden style, but in full bloom they're charming - totally enhanced by the backdrop of Smithills Hall. After this we headed towards the surrounding woodland following the shorter red-signposted route. A gravelled winding path led us down quite a steep descent to a bubbling stream ...

Bolton Museum, Aquarium and Archive

This museum houses a diverse collection where you can get to know a little bit about the history of Bolton as well as visiting displays of art, egyptology, archaeology, botany and zoology. There's even an aquarium on the basement level with around 18 tanks of exotic fish to have a look at! We spent the majority of our time in the museum section on the first floor. Exhibits included Samuel Crompton's Spinning Mule, a horse-drawn manual fire engine and antique toys.   Climbing up the stairs to the balcony section we found a great collection of stuffed animals including a kangaroo, an enor...

Zest

I was recommended Zest by my mother-in-law, a local to the area with very discerning tastes. While my husband walked the dog round the adjacent Doffcocker Lodge (a small local nature reserve) on a rainy afternoon, I took the children in for a snack.   The food is sourced locally and absolutely delicious, with a range of sandwiches and light meals, including Blackpudding Tower, Lancashire rarebit and both a meat and vegetarian tasting plate. We opted for a homemade scone and a hot chocolate. The hot chocolate is made with real chocolate and although expensive at £2.95, was quite ho...

Smithills Open Farm

The main attraction at Smithills Farm is the big barn - inside the noise is incredible and the smell is pretty overwhelming too! You can buy bags of animal feed for 50p, which is a must as literally every type of farm animal is available for you to stroke, feed and pet.   We saw cows, calves, pigs, sheep, chickens, plus some overzealous goats that managed to grab the food bag and eat the whole lot! Thankfully, in the same barn and perfect for a quick distraction, there's a seated pets corner, probably our children's favourite bit. They loved holding baby rabbits, guinea pigs and even ti...