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13 Best Parks and Playgrounds In Staffordshire
Arriving is half the decision in Staffordshire, because the car park you pick sets up the afternoon. Cannock Chase Forest is large enough that different entrances give you genuinely different days, and Cannock Chase Visitor Centre, free entry on our record, is the softer landing of the two. Chasewater Country Park, also free on our data, is open water and open ground, which means wind. The National Memorial Arboretum is quiet, deliberate and largely unsheltered. Formal planting sits at the far end with Biddulph Grange Garden and Trentham Gardens, while Beacon Park and Brampton Park do the short, close-to-home job.
Top parks and playgrounds in Staffordshire
Showing 1–12 of 13
Parks and PlaygroundsThe National Memorial Arboretum
Parks and PlaygroundsBeacon Park
Parks and PlaygroundsCannock Chase Forest
Parks and PlaygroundsBiddulph Grange Garden
Parks and PlaygroundsWolseley Centre
WaterWestport Lake Play Area
Parks and PlaygroundsCannock Chase Visitor Centre
Parks and PlaygroundsBrampton Park
SightseeingTrentham Gardens
WaterChasewater Country Park
Parks and PlaygroundsBranston Water Park
Parks and PlaygroundsHockerhill Adventure Playbarn
Only three of the thirteen carry any indoor flag, so this is a coats category rather than a fallback one. Forest tracks on the Chase hold up better under rain than mown grass does, and a formal garden after a downpour is mostly an education in wet shoes. If the weather is genuinely against you, take the forest with proper waterproofs or change plan altogether, because a park entry with a tea room attached is not a wet-weather attraction however it is flagged.
Parks and Playgrounds in Staffordshire: FAQs
Which of these copes best when the ground is soaked?
Forest with made-up tracks, every time. Surfaced and stoned paths through woodland stay walkable when everything else has turned, tree cover cuts the rain reaching you, and a pushchair still stands a chance. Open grassland and lakeside ground are the worst of it, holding water and wind together. Formal gardens sit in between, since the paths are usually good but the thing you came for is diminished by that weather.
When are the formal gardens actually worth the trip?
In the growing months, and it is not a close call. A designed garden is at its point when there is something planted to look at, and outside that stretch you are paying attention to structure that most children have no interest in. Biddulph Grange Garden and Trentham Gardens both reward a visit when there is colour on the beds. Out of season, take the forest or the water instead and keep the gardens for a better month.
Is the Arboretum a sensible place to take children?
It is, with a little preparation. It is a place of remembrance rather than a playground, so a quiet register suits it, and children generally rise to that when told what they are walking into. Practically, it is wide, open ground with little natural shelter, so weather is felt fully and a short visit in a cold wind is more successful than a long one. Warm layers and a plan for where you are heading make it much easier.
How much of Cannock Chase can we take on with small children?
Less than the map suggests, and that is fine. The Chase is big enough to swallow a whole day, but with under-fives the workable version is one car park, one loop and back. Starting at a visitor centre gives you facilities at the point where a small child needs them, which matters far more in cold weather than the quality of the walk does. Save the longer routes and the further entrances for older children.