TGF Rated Review: Woburn Abbey & Gardens

What is it?

Woburn Abbey and gardens, which is part of The Treasure Houses of England.

Who is reviewing it?

 Me Claire, Paul, Ethan (7), George (5) & Baby Harry.

Set Up

Woburn Abbey is set in a beautiful 3,000 acre deer park and we had the pleasure of visiting last Saturday, once you have gone through the entrance its a lovely drive through the deer park up to the abbey, where the boys could spot the deer’s and watch out for ducks too!  Once parked we had our picnic, there is a picnic area but we chose to eat in the car as it was a little chilly to be sitting on the ground.  Once lunch was done we headed for the gardens which features Woburn Artbeat this is an annual project now in its 3rd year joining with Woburn Village to promote original art. 

The gardens feature a sculpture exhibition with about 80 sculptures,  Ethan had the guide and led George off to find the different sculpture’s and find them in the book, we all really enjoyed the gardens especially the sculptures.  We then visited the Abbey which is beautiful, again the boys were kept busy as they were given a quiz trail to complete with the offer of a prize at the end they couldn’t resist and encouraged us onto each room to find the answers.  We weren’t able to take the pram around the house, but the staff were very helpful and looked after it for us, all the staff we met as we wondered around the rooms were all very helpful and gave the boys hints to the answers for the quiz if they got a little stuck.

We then visited the Duchess Tearooms for a drink and cake, which we thought was good value for money and the cakes were tasty. 

As we left we popped into look at the pottery shop and the gift shop to collect the boys prizes. 

We really enjoyed our visit to the Abbey and were surprised at how much Ethan and George enjoyed it and we would definitely want to visit again.  The Abbey has lots of events on during the year including Sporting Events, Jubilee fun days and Open Air Theatre which this year will be showing Black Beauty , The Tales of Beatrix Potter, Jane Austen’s “Emma” and King Arthur & The Sword in the Stone, which would be lovely to watch with a picnic in such lovely surroundings.  Lastly they also have a function room and we were lucky to see a bride and groom arrive in vintage car, what an amazing setting for a wedding.

Overall

We thought all the facilities were excellent and our only slight negative would be that in the picnic area it would have been nice if there was some picnic benches.

TGF Rating

5/5

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