Resources for Cambridge Parents

May 4-8th	Ely's Eel Festival
May 5-7th	Tudor May Day Celebrations (Kentwell Hall)
May 6th	Bartlow Three-Counties Walk
May 7th	Reach Fair
May 13th	South Suffolk Show (Ampton Racehourse)
May 13th	Sawston Fun Run
May 26-27th	Duxford Air Festival
June 2nd	Strawberry Fair (Cambridge)
June 3rd	Cambridgeshire county show (Wimpole Hall)
June 3rd	Sawston Fete (Spicers Field, 1pm)
June 9th	Arbury Carnival
June 9-10th	Cambridge Town and Country Show (Parkers Piece)
June 10th	Open Farm Sunday (Knapwell, Hilton, etc)
June 11th	Making buildings and structures (Wandlebury)
June 16-17th	Tudor Midsummer (Kentwell Hall)
June 20-25th	Midsummer Fair (Midsummer common, Cambridge)
June 25th	Making bows and arrows (Wandlebury)
June 27-28th	Royal Norfolk Show (near Norwich)
June 30th-July 8th	Swavesey Festival
July 1st	Park Life (Milton Country Park)
July 1st	Aquafest (Ely)
July 7-8th	Buckden Village Festival
July 8-15th	Shelford Festival & Feast
July 13-15th	The Big Weekend (Parker's Piece)

Museums and Talks

Fitzwilliam Museum - knights and mummies.
Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, in Downing Street
Museum of Zoology (just off Downing Street, Closed until 2016)
Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences (just off Downing Street) - dinosaurs.
Whipple Museum (scientific instruments. Open most weekday afternoons)
Cambridge Museum of Technology, Riverside (open most Bank Holiday weekends)
The Centre for Computing History (near the Beehive centre)
Cambridge Folk Museum, bottom of Castle Street
Scott Polar Research Institute
Burwell Museum, Mill Close, Burwell (open Thursdays and Sundays in summer).
Denny Abbey and Farmland Museum (Waterbeach)
Prickwillow Drainage Museum - Main Street, Prickwillow. Engines for draining the Fens.
Imperial War Museum Duxford Airfield (museums, playground, airliners to go in).
Cromwell Museum (Huntingdon)
Cambridge Science Centre (18 Jesus Lane)

Pubs and Eating places

Cambridge Blue on Gwydir St (has an interesting garden)
The University Centre ("Grad Pad") - for university staff/students. Child-friendly
The Carlton Arms - children welcome in the non-smoking lounge; children's menu; family games and puzzles; comfy couches as well as tables; huge beer garden for nice weather plus heated marquee tent for rest of the year. A bit out of the way for those walking around City Centre, but the C1 bus stops right by the pub (Debbie Grossman)

Shops

Scotsdale, Cambridge Road, Gt. Shelford (Garden centre - Xmas display, fish, PYO sweets)
Burwash Manor Farm, New Road, Barton (refreshments, a play area, and a toy shop).
Lighthouse Toys (Histon)
The Cambridge Toy Shop
Inner Sanctum Collectibles (board games)
Model and Toy Expo (Snetterton Park, Norfolk)

Activity/Spy Worlds

Windmills and Watermills

Downfield Windmill (Fordham Road, Soham) - Working windmill, producing flour for sale to visitors.
Swaffham Prior Windmill - Working windmill, producing flour
Denver Windmill (near Denver Sluice)
Hinxton Watermill
Houghton Mill
Anglesey Abbey Watermill (working 1st and 3rd Saturdays of each month)

Wild Animals

Shepreth Wildlife Park (by Shepreth station)
Linton Zoo (open daily except xmas). Phone 0891 424201.
Mole Hall wildlife park (open Easter - October - includes a butterfly pavilion). Phone 01799 540400.
Hamerton Zoo Park (near Sawtry)
Colchester Zoo
Suffolk Wildlife Park (near Lowestoft)
Raptor Foundation (near St Ives. Open daily)
Sacrewell Farm and Country Centre, Thornhaugh (A1/A47 junction). Tel 01780 782254. Watermill, gardens, etc. Open Summer 9.30-5.
Thurleigh Farm Centre
The Shetland Pony Visitor Centre, Fenstanton, St. Ives. Tel 07979 280337.

Walks

Local Nature Reserves
Clare, Suffolk (castle ruins, nature walk, railway station without track)
Fowlmere Bird Reserve (near Royston).
Welney Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (near Wisbech). Phone 01353 860711
Wicken Fen Nature Reserve - 20 mins North of Cambridge. Last remaining undrained portion of the great Fens of East. Includes working windpump.
Great Fen (north of Huntingdon)
Wandlebury, Stapleford (Iron Age hill fort and nature walk)
The Milton Maize Maze

Pick-your-own

Orchard Tea Gardens, Grantchester

University Botanic Gardens (Bateman Street) - especially the tropical greenhouses. Phone 01223 - 336265.

Wimpole Hall (the farm and the grounds). Phone 207257.

Audley End (just for the 1.5 mile miniature railway). Xmas specials in December.

Miniature Train Rides on Cambridge model engineering society railway at Fulbrooke Road (off Grantchester Road). 2nd Sunday, May-October, 2-5.30pm.

Stansted Mountfitchet (norman village recreation - gory in parts).

Royston Cave - Cave under Melbourn Street with medieval carvings - for older children (see the movie - Quicktime). There's a park nearby

National Express coach timetables

History

Flag Fen (Bronze Age centre near Peterborough)
Warwick Castle (not cheap, but lots to do. The journey's not too bad on Sundays)
Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse
Grimes Graves - neolithic flint mine near Thetford. Pop into the forest too.
Kentwell Hall - Tudor recreations on bank holiday weekends. Also walks, a farm, etc. Between Sudbury and Bury.
Hedingham Castle (Hedingham, near Halstead, Essex, about 45 mins from Cambridge) - Well preserved medieval castle (12th Century) set in nice woodlands. Occasional jousting events.
The East England Tank Museum (south of Thetford - open weekends and Bank Holidays)
Secret Nuclear Bunker (Kelvedon Hatch, south of Stansted airport)

Trains

Bressingham Steam and Gardens
Bure Valley Railway
Colne Valley Railway (Castle Hedingham (near Halstead), Essex) - Reconstruction of a Edwardian branch line.
Nene Valley Railway

WildTracks (off-road activity park, near Newmarket. Open to the public on 1st Sundays of the month.)

EcoTech (Swaffham - between King's Lynn and Norwich). Wind turbine, Discovery Centre

Thetford Forest - including Go Ape

Rochester Turkey Farm (has a big Maize Maze)

Grafham Water - hire bikes/trailers and cycle round the lakes. Also offers weekend adventure courses for 10-15 year olds.

Woburn Safari Park - a hour's drive. Adventure playgrounds as well as the animals.

Cycling - More routes are becoming child-friendly. Try the Cambridge-St.Ives guided bus route if you're ambitious.

Swimming

Cambridge Swimming Club
Abbey Pool, Whitehill Road, near Coldhams Common (big, warm children's pool)
Parkside Pool (Flumes. "They also have a rather nice (and very warm!) mini-pool for toddlers that's got some nice interesting features to keep them occupied ...). They use ozone instead of chlorine to sterilise the water" - jpmg
Jesus Green Swimming Pool
Kings Hedges Learner Pool

Tennis