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Last weekend we climbed the Malvern Hills, drank the Queen’s favourite water
from a holy well and joined other families, their dogs and their picnics, on
a ridge with 360 degree views across to the Chilterns in one direction and
Wales in the other. Riffs of funfair music drifted up the hill from the
Three Counties Showground below. It reminded me how many glorious outings
cost nothing.
The Malvern outing was magic. Victorian gas lights line some of the steep
roads into the hills and, bizarrely, appear in the woodland at one point.
This is said to have inspired the light in CS Lewis’ 'Narnia' books. So the
game is to guess which of the lights became his muse. My vote goes to that
in the woods between Holywell Road and the Wells Road. Countless springs
bubble out of the hillside, some of them enclosed by wells. The Holy
Well at Malvern Wells is regarded as one of the ‘best-dressed wells’
being set in a roomy shrine where visitors leave flowers, poems and letters
of thanks and mourning.
The whole experience reminded me how much you can do for nothing this summer.
And here are some of my suggestions for other free summer outings.
LONDON has got its own excellent site listing
of free events for everyone including families. The ones which caught my
eye included Spitalfields
City Farm (just down the road from The Times office and I’d never
noticed it, I’m ashamed to say) and WOLDwrite’s
free film training - OK this is not until October but what an
opportunity for teens.
Since the government did away with entry charge to museums like the V&A,
visitor numbers have soared. All the museums in Exhibition Road offer great
days out – but there are other equally alluring museums
in the capital.
LIVERPOOL
Tate Liverpool in Calderstones Park is south of the centre and, with a car,
can be combined with visits to Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s childhood
homes. Liverpool
World Museum includes a planetarium as well as a mass of hands-on fun
for kids and more serious stuff for serious people.
MIDLANDS
Coventry
Transport Museum, has the biggest collection of English road vehicles in
the world from bikes to lorries and plenty of luscious sports cars from an
age before carbon emission guilt. East
Midlands Aeropark has some vintage aircraft on display plus a chance to
plane spot on East Midlands Airport. Bizarrely one of the airport’s parking
companies has come up with an excellent site about local
attractions which includes some free days out.
DERBY is not the most glamorous city in the country but does offer Pickfords
House Museum which has been restored to look as if Joseph Pickford, the
man who owned it in the late eighteenth century, is still living there
(albeit with a 1940s air raid shelter in the basement). The Industrial
Museum in a sense takes up history when Pickfords leaves it: this is a
birthplace of the industrial revolution and home to full-size RollsRoyce
aero engine. Train enthusiasts can climb aboard a steam train cabin. The
Central Museum is in easy walking distance.
NORTH EAST
what about the manchaster industrial museam
u geeza, cheshier, la anglatair
Tate Liverpool is on the Albert Docks, and not based in Calderstones Park.
S Arnold, Liverpool, UK