Frensham Great Pond

In Berkshire, we are a long way from the seaside.  The next best thing is Frensham Great Pond - a lakeside beach in the heart of Surrey. 

All the fun of the British seaside!  Well apart from arcades, fun fairs and candy floss. 

There is a man made beach and an area of water which is roped off.  Of course, the level of water can't be guaranteed because of the nature of the ground. 

It becomes obvious after a while that the sand isn't washed clean as it would be by the sea, so your children may be rather grey when they leave!

If you have the weather for it, then this is definitely a full day activity.  Swimming, sandcastle building and digging!  Remember to take a picnic, plenty to drink and sun cream. 

Reading Museums

Reading has three museums close to the town centre. Admission to all is free.

Reading Museum is the largest of the three and is located in the Town Hall. It’s fairly easy to find from any town centre car park. Just follow the signposts. It’s quite easy to while away a whole afternoon studying the natural history area, Britain’s own copy of the Bayeaux Tapestry, Victorian classroom and Huntley and Palmer section but the area we always enjoy most is dedicated to Silchester, a Roman town. Children can make their own mosaics, dress up in togas and view all sorts of exciting archaeological finds. There are always plenty of free holiday activities.
Museum of English Rural Life is located near The Royal Berkshire Hospital. It has a free car park, which even during special events, seems to have plenty of space. The museum itself is very small and if there are no special events then you might like to combine it with one of the other museums or a visit to Reading town centre (which can definitely kill a few hours!). However, the school holiday events are well worth a visit.
The smallest of Reading’s museums is located at Blake’s Lock. Riverside Museum has to be one of the smallest museums in the country. It is certainly the smallest I’ve ever seen! Situated in two buildings by the riverside, the turbine building houses turbine machinery and the Screen House houses a gypsy caravan. It is not worth making the trip especially for this museum. I would only visit if going to the nearby retail park anyway. Hidden costs: Reading town centre car park charges for Reading Museum. Parking for the other museums is free.

Uffington White Horse and Wayland's Smithy

This figure, cut into the chalk hillside, is the oldest chalk figure in the country.  It is a short walk from the White Horse car park (see map), but it can be combined with a 3 mile walk to include Wayland's Smithy.  The hill side has a steep drop so keep an eye on little ones. 

If you are not familiar with this area of West Berkshire then you'e in for a treat. The drive takes you through some beautiful countryside and views were among the best I've seen in the South East.

With walks such as this, we will usually time it to arrive about lunch time and start the trip with a picnic.  This National Trust car park has a picnic area with fantastic views and a great way to get set to go.  

The walk we took includes part of the Ridgeway National Trail and can be found on the Walking Britain Website.

The first leg of the walk took us along Ridgeway. The sun decided to join us today and made for the kind of weather you'd hope for at this time of year.

The wind rippled through long grass (wheat, barley?) in all the surrounding fields which created the illusion of long soft fur. Even the hills were rippling like green sea.

Making a start along Ridgeway

"How much further?!" 

The path to Wayland Smithy was a short straight stroll along the chalk path.

After several junctions and changes in weather we reached our first goal...

Wayland Smithy - iron age long barrow

The boys had a great time investigating the burial chambers

DS2 even found this replica leather pouch

Stones along the length of the barrow

Three of us at the entrance to Wayland Smithy

Following the return journey along the Ridgeway we climbed the hill path, which was, of course, very chalky. Luckily it we weren't visiting in heavy rain, or I think the fun with splashing in chalk puddles would have been too hard to resist.

We were all quite excited when DS3 Spotted a lizard on a style (we're easily pleased!), but it was too quick for me and I'm afraid I didn't get a picture.

The earthworks of the old hill fort - Uffington Castle.

Walking down from the castle it isn't immediately obvious where the horse is, but it was signposted and in the end was hard to miss.

The horse is quite an abstract figure and upclose it's very hard to make out. In the background you can just make out Dragon Hill - small flat-topped hill.

From the top of the steep hill, looking back towards the chalk horse.

The clouds finally started to break on our way back down the hill.

Even close to the "viewing point" it is hard to make out the horse on the top (left) of the hill. Apparently, the best place to see it is from the air!

Hidden costs: National Trust pay and display car park. Ice cream van in the car park may be just too tempting!

The Big Idea

The inspiration came from a  BBC Article describing how families have been priced out of day trips and many people will be spending the summer "cooped up at home". Of course, things are becoming more and more difficult but why is poverty so often used as an excuse for doing nothing?
Then there's the ever popular (and infuriating mantra) "there's nothing for kids to do around here" - these poor children have no hope! This lack of imagination got me to thinking that there must be easily 100 places to go for free within an hour's drive of our home in Berkshire. This immediately became a challenge - I can't make a claim like that without backing it up! Within five minutes I had already thought of a bucketful: Uffington White Horse; Silchester Roman Walls and Amphitheatre; Reading museum(s); Windsor Great Park; Swinley Forest walking or mountain bikes; Caesar's Camp; play parks (too many to count); Runnymede; Box Hill; Frensham Great Pond. Some of these are even walkable from our home.
The challenge now is to write about a hundred days out to inspire those of us who know that life is what you make it. We are going to have such a great summer going to different places every day where we can enjoy ourselves without spending a penny!

Even if you don't live in the South East, I hope you can find inspiration from my blog and find some exciting days out in your own area.
I don't want to underplay the friendliest and cheapest place of all - home! There is absolutely no need to think of this as being "cooped up". If you are reading this then you no doubt have the internet - get googling - there's so much fun you and your kids could be having that doesn't involve TV or consoles! We have had a big re-think of the time spent relying on electronic entertainment in our house. We have restricted it to one hour in the evening during the week and two hours at weekend. The children don't even realise this was our plan, we have just made an effort to play games with them and take them out. This weekend I spent hours making a wooden train and constructing lego creatures with my youngest and I think we both benefitted hugely from it! And no Disney Channel!