Somewhere in North Herts/South Beds and not too horrendously busy to take ds (11 months) and my parents tomorrow

[MuffinMclay]

Ideally with animals of some sort. Not Whipsnade, Willows or Woburn, as I've heard they're heaving at the moment. Anyone been to Standalone Farm in Letchworth?
Can be quite dull. My parents are in their late 60s, but much older in temperament. They'll want somewhere that isn't too busy, with places to sit down and somewhere to get a nice cup of tea. I'm looking for somewhere with 2/3 hours 'entertainment' max, not a whole day out.
Plentiful easy parking would be a bonus.

Doesn't this sound such a fun day out....

I used to volunteer at standalone!! Does get very busy but there's a lot of outlying fields and paths to walk round which are a little quieter. ds is having a strop so can't really type right now, will check back later!!

dp says what about the falconry centre up at shuttleworth? Or wimpole hall? nice cup of tea out of the question at standalone! rspb in sandy is nice, but no animals apart from an elusive flock of sheep (and a lot of birds!).
we took our ds to shepreth wildlife park at the weekend, was busy but not too heaving! Might be wise to take a picnic along there though, food seemed a bit limited! Or Farrowby farm? Come off the A1 southbound at hinxworth (turning before little chef), it's essentially a pig farm (free range!) with a few chickens and rabbits and goats but has a nice cafe and you can stock up on pork products!

If you are NT members then Wimpole Hall Farm will be cheap and it is brilliant, suits everyone: NT gardens for the oldies lots of animals (horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, beautiful chickens, geese, rabbits, pigs) with regular sessions like feed the goat, groom the pony, meet the rabbit etc plus in the farm bit there is aplayground with climbing things, boingy things, mini tractors to pedal around on, and the cafe (in the farm) and restaurant (near the stables/entrance) is very good too. Hoorah! Google it for details like opening time, money.

Don't know much about Benington Lordship but you could google it. Supposed to be ace gardens.

Sorry didn't pay attention to your ds's age - he prob won't care about a lot of the playground stuff (although you might want a go )

woodside near luton is quite nice but might be a bit busy

no animals but we went to st albans today and that was really nice day out there was a little funfair in the park for the kids and they fed the ducks and had a picnic

Brilliant suggestions everyone. Going to check them out now.

I was in St Albans today (without ds and parents) and suggested that we all went there tomorrow. 'Oooh no, we don't want to travel that far' was the response. It takes 20 minutes from here (when I'm driving ).

I like the sound of Wimpole Hall. I've heard a few people speak highly of it in RL too. I might try and persuade them to travel separately so that we can all do the farm thing together, and then I can flee with ds and leave them to wander round the hall and gardens very slowly.

I've got a few great ideas now for places to go with ds once the schools are back.

Thanks!

Mead Open farm near Leighton Buzzard is supposed to be nice.

Aldenham country park is lovely. A Winnie the Pooh walk, small farm animal section, big lake, play area and its only £5 per car. Pay on exit. £4 in term time.

Ashridge is good for walks too. And it has a cafe/coffee shop.

I love Ashridge. DH and I used to go there for long walks with the dogs at weekends pre-DS. We used to live very near to Aldenham too. I think both are just a bit too far away.

Just realised I have no idea where Leighton Buzzard is. I'm going to go and check it out.

Places near to Hitchin and/or the A1(M) are ideal. Just been googling and found that Farrowby Farm is very close to me, and I'd never heard of it until this.

We only discovered farrowby by accident! ds is nearly 3 and it's just about right for his attention span

Thanks for all you're help. We're not going anywhere after all - the pushchair has died....

Oh dear! If you can get to Fairlands Valley park in Stevenage you can park very very near the wonderful playground/lakes/ducks etc AND it's free

Oooh, really. Might try that tomorrow (but without the slow moving parents). Sounds good.

It's a very nice park - if you go there around 2pm tomorrow (Thursday) you might even see me and Califrau and our families! This is what we will look like:
2 tall skinny men
2 shorter fatter women, one with v short hair, one with glorious shoulder-ish length red hair
three boys age 3-6 (all Hairy Maclary fans!)
one baby girl

For best parking look on the map for Shephall View (access via Colestrete) and look for sign to the Scout Hut and Nursery. There is other parking (easier to find!) but this is right next to the playground.