See castles, forts and prisons at the Landmark Trust Open Weekend

[caption id="attachment_992" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The Martello Tower[/caption]

Last year we stayed in a prison and Jess thought it was possibly the best place we had ever visited! The trip to the House of Correction in Lincolnshire was courtesy of the Landmark Trust which “rescues” historical buildings and opens them up to the public. Now they have announced 50 free open days at Landmark properties across England, Scotland and Wales, in order to celebrate their 50th birthday. And the House of Correction is one of them!

This “Golden Weekend” is to take place from 10am to 4pm over 16-17 May and you are all invited to come along to some remarkable properties. Antony Gormley has designed some special sculptures for the occasion and they will be at five of the open landmarks, the Martello Tower in Aldeburgh, Suffolk (which you can see above); Saddell Bay in Mull of Kintyre, Scotland; Lengthsman’s Cottage at Lowsonford, Warwickshire; Lundy Island in the Bristol Channel and Clavell Tower at Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset. The life-sized cast iron sculptures, together entitled LAND, will be Gormley's only solo outdoor installation in the UK in 2015. They will have full public access and be free for everyone to enjoy until May 2016, not just on the Golden Weekend.

[caption id="attachment_993" align="aligncenter" width="960"] The gorgeous House of Correction, where we stayed[/caption]

The Landmark Trust have rescued nearly 200 significant buildings since 1965, and this is a great way to see see some of its forts, castles, prisons, even an old railway station. Those open on the day include Morpeth Castle in Northumberland, Auchinleck House in Ayrshire, an 18th-century country villa and former home of James Boswell, Clytha Castle near Abergavenny, which dates back to 1790 and overlooks the Usk Valley, The Grange, designed and lived in by Augustus Pugin in Ramsgate, Kent and Alton Station in Staffordshire, where the former ticket office is now a bedroom!

There will even be a “Golden Moment” at 3pm on Saturday 16 May, when local musicians will perform a piece of music at all of the 25 open Landmarks.

Full details of all Landmark’s 194 buildings are available on their website

Read about our trip to the House of Correction.

Travelling Times: Our Top Places to visit in 2014

 

[caption id="attachment_904" align="aligncenter" width="940"] On holiday in Tenerife[/caption]

Welcome to the second annual Family Travel Times Travel Awards! Once again, we have been lucky enough to visit some brilliant places, but which ones were our favourites? Welcome to the 2014 award ceremony and our top places to visit...

Best Day Out

Jess says: I definitely think that the "Art of the Brick" LEGO exhibition was our best day out this year. The exhibition, which is travelling worldwide, is composed of over 85 LEGO sculptures and all of them are fantastic. These sculptures ranged from 3D paintings such as The Kiss and The Scream to a giant dinosaur, and from the solar system to the Venus de Milo! We had a brilliant time looking at the sculptures, watching videos and even had a chance to create our own sculptures at the end!

Alternatively, Burghley house in Lincolnshire is a brilliant place to visit - we visited it over the summer and had a wonderful time. The house, which was built by William Cecil (Lord Burghley) is extremely impressive both inside and outside, as we found out when following the Beastly Boring Burghley tour. This tour was probably the best tour aimed at kids I've been to, and it was full of interesting facts. Afterwards, we loads of fun exploring the gardens, which consisted of a maze, Poseidon’s Grotto, sculptures and lots of fountains to run into.

Robert says:  The alligator tours in Florida was my favourite day out in 2014. It's not every day you get to see real life alligators and hold one too! It was a brilliant experience and I learnt many things like how to tell a crocodile from an alligator or how to spot if it is a male or female. I absolutely loved it and could do it again and again.

Brian (dad) says: I loved my visit to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. I particularly enjoyed the Rocket Garden, seeing the Space Shuttle Atlantis up close, hearing a veteran astronaut giving a talk, and walking underneath the enormous Saturn V rocket.

Best Overall Holiday

Robert says: My favourite holiday of the year was when dad and I went to Florida as I won a competition to go to Space Camp. Everything was great, from the inventive and exciting activities of space camp to the wonderful warm weather - not mentioning the cups and cups of free drinks. I loved learning all about space at Kennedy Space Center and the rides at Universal Studios were brilliant too.

Sarah says: For me, Austria was a perfect holiday. We all tried something different - cycling - and enjoyed the food, the scenery and the many things to do. I was genuinely overwhelmed by how beautiful it was and don't think it gets better than riding alongside Lake Wolfgang with the wind in my hair. It was magnificent.

Best in London

Robert says: We have been to some truly amazing things in London this year and my favourite has got to be ClueQuest. We had one hour to find a way to get out of a locked room. Everything was a clue from books to bottles, playing cards to tables. It was so fun and exciting but a bit stressful when we only had a few minutes left. It was an amazing day out that really pushed our minds to the limit.

Best View 

Jess says: The views at the top of the Schafbergbahn in Saint Wolfgang, Austria have to be the best I've ever seen. The summit of the mountain was 1,783m high and there were 360º beautiful views over the lakes Wolfgangsee, Irrsee, Mondsee and Fuschlsee. It truly was phenomenal.

[caption id="attachment_903" align="aligncenter" width="940"] The waves in Tenerife were captivating[/caption]

Sarah says: Obviously I loved the views in Austria, but I could also have watched the waves crashing onto the shore near our apartment in San Miguel, Tenerife, for hours. There were hardly any people around and we just sat and enjoyed the spectacle. They were just so dramatic, such an illustration of nature, that they were incredibly special. We have just come back from Tenerife - posts to come...

Best Place to Stay

[caption id="attachment_513" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Outside the House of Correction[/caption]

Jess says: The House of Correction in Folkingham, Lincolnshire was probably my favourite place to have ever stayed, and I would love to go back. The house belongs to the Landmark Trust and is built on the site of a big medieval castle. The house was a small prison for minor offenders and was initially built in 1611, but replaced in 1808 and enlarged in 1825. It was then closed in 1878. It is absolutely magnificent and only one family can stay at a time, making the experience even more special.

Best Ride

Robert says: I have been to two amazing parks this year which have both been full to the top with amazing attractions, so it was very hard to pick the winner for best ride. Instead I decided to pick three! The first is from Universal Studios in Florida and is the fast paced, scary indoor roller coaster Return of the Mummy. Most of the ride is in pitch black so it added extra suspense as you didn't know when there was going to be a drop. The first time I went on it I was scared out of my skin when we plummeted down into the red steaming smoke.



The next two winners of this category are from Siam Park, the Water Kingdom in Tenerife (post coming soon). Everything there was wonderful but I decided my first pick would be the Mekong Rapids that dad and I went on four times throughout the day. After a long tiring walk up hundreds of stairs we got to a small pool of water where inside we climbed into a yellow dinghy and then zoomed off down the tunnel. It was so fast and very wet. Dad was screaming like a baby the first time as there were so many drops. I loved the next ride, the Kinnaree the scariest ride we went on, but dad definitely didn't. However, it was still loads of fun. Of all the rides we went on this had the biggest drops and at some points we felt like we were going to go upside down. The ride was so cleverly made and I loved it but I don't think the guy next to me who was swearing the whole time did though.

Best Beach

Jess says: We travelled to Tenerife over Christmas, and the weather was lovely and the beaches superb. Although we had a lovely time at Los Cristianos, my favourite was the Playa del Bobo in Adeje. Not only was the sand lovely and soft, but the waves were brilliant and it was perfect for swimming and paddling. It wasn't too busy and was the perfect spot for a walk. There was also a delicious ice cream store nearby!

Best Educational Day Out

[caption id="attachment_171" align="aligncenter" width="504"] The actors at the Drake Fun Day[/caption]

Robert says: As we have been learning about World War II at school as a class we went to the Churchill War Cabinets and Churchill Museum. The audio tours were very detailed and informative. I learnt a lot about where the prime Minister of England stayed during WWII. I preferred the Churchill museum to the war cabinets as it was much more interactive. There was a table that told you what event happened on your birthday during the war, I got to hold Winston Churchill's teddy bears from when he was younger (they were so cute) and I even got to use a typewriter. It was a very interesting and fun day out.

Jess says: We also thought that the Drake Fun Day atop the Golden Hinde II (a replica of the ship which Sir Francis Drake used to sail all round the world) was fantastic. We played games and learned facts from the Captain and his strange assistant, Fart - this was lots of fun and very interesting! The event was two hours long and consisted of firing guns, learning a code and exploring the ship. I would recommend it to children aged 6+.

Best Hidden Gem

[caption id="attachment_151" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Robert at Groombridge Place's Mystic Pool[/caption]

Sarah says: Groombridge was gorgeous - and a surprise! We had gone to Kent for the weekend to visit Hever Castle where Anne Bolyen had lived, and as a Tudor aficionado, that was intended to be the main event. However, we decided we should visit another "attraction" too and that turned out to be Groombridge. We were so pleased we went as it was perfect for families, with gorgeous grounds and in particular many hidden treasures inside the woods. We'd highly recommend it.

Best Food

Robert says: For me the best food in 2014 came from VegFest, the big market where all the food was vegan. I had so many tasters of all the sweets, crackers, dips and drinks and I even had a go at using an electrical massage machine. I ate stuff that I had never seen before like bread crisps and I had salt and vinegar flavoured bread. Everyone was so nice and insisted that I should have more - how could I resist? It was a delicious day and I'll be coming back for more next year.

Thanks for reading Family Travel Times this year and enjoy 2015!

Read our Travelling Times awards for 2013 and let us know your favourites too!

 

Staying in a prison! The House of Correction from the Landmark Trust in Folkingham

[caption id="attachment_513" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Outside the House of Correction[/caption]

How would you like to stay overnight in a prison? It may not sound too appealing, but we did just that, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

[kad_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyXGPmuWMNg&list=UUb5SbkeTeDXX_HICEFC5-eg" width=460 height=315 ]

Of course, our prison was not your usual jail. True, it contained handcuffs and leg irons, but it also boasted a kitchen, two bedrooms, a living room and a garden which was just perfect for playing catch.

As you may have guessed, the "prison" or house of correction is no longer a place for criminals. Instead it's part of the Landmark Trust's amazing properties. These really are astonishing, ranging from railway stations to castles and taking in lighthouses (we have one of these on our wishlist) libraries. The Trust, which was set up in 1965, exists to "ensure that buildings of the past survive". It rescues historic buildings, providing very special places of "landmarks" for people to stay in.

The buildings are full of history, and great for couples, groups of friends or families, as you can self-cater, and also have the flexibility of more than one bedroom (unlike a hotel!). But let me tell you more about ours, which was so wonderful that Jess thought it was the best place we'd ever stayed!

The House of Correction is in the tiny village of Folkingham in Lincolnshire, just off a main road. You approach it up a little drive, and have to unlock the gates first. This made us feel very special.

It is built on the site of a big medieval castle, and the moat still exists. The House of Correction occupies the site of the castle and was once a small prison for minor offenders and the idle (no jokes please). It was initially built in 1611, but replaced in 1808 and enlarged in 1825 when it was given its magnificent entrance. It was then closed in 1878.

What's fantastic about the building is that it's so unusual! Only the grand entrance survives and when you walk in, you look in front of you and see the way out! It must be the thinnest house we've ever been in. But it's also great for a family.

[caption id="attachment_515" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Jess in the kitchen[/caption]

Once you go in, there is a well stocked kitchen to the right (and nearby, in Bourne, there is a helpful Tesco), and then upstairs there is a bathroom and main bedroom (with double bed). If you go left as you come in, you go into the living room (no TV, and yet we coped) and then the kids' room. If you have small kids, it probably isn't suitable as they aren't near you or the bathroom and their room is up some steep stairs, but it was perfect for us. The living room also boasts an open fire.

It was also incredibly peaceful. We played catch and threw a ball around outside, plus read our books and played board games inside (and cooked). We walked into the village (which had an interesting little church plus a couple of shops) and marvelled at how peaceful it all was. We also loved seeing the rabbits running around outside at dusk. Honestly, it was magical.

[caption id="attachment_517" align="aligncenter" width="940"] I thought these little wild flowers were gorgeous (they were happily growing outside our accommodation!)[/caption]

There is ample parking, and we drove to Burghley House one day (it was about 40 minutes away). We stayed two nights, but generally the visits are either Monday to Thursday (four nights) or Friday to Sunday (three nights). We would have loved to have made it longer.

All in all this was a really special (I know, I've used that word before) place to visit. We live in a big dirty, busy city and this was a little bit of unusual, quiet, beautiful, unique, country heaven. It was a pleasure to be an inmate!

Read about our visit to Burghley House in Lincolnshire and watch Jess's video above.

Disclosure: The Landmark Trust kindly let us stay at the House of Correction on a complimentary basis, but all our views are our own. Four nights cost from £297 (more details here)

Read more about the amazing properties owned by the Landmark Trust.