It’s the week before the school holidays officially start but, to be honest, my home-school attendance has been dropping so I decided to go for a day out to one of my favourite local places, Sewerby Hall.
We last went last Summer on a scorching hot day, my children have been asking to go back so I took my 2 children and met a friend there (the lovely Hull & East Riding Mumbler) with her 2 children. There were four children ranging from age 5 to 9 years; they genuinely had a great time and so did the grown ups! Here’s how we got on…..
The first thing to say is it is all open but it is being well controlled and their Covid19 measures impressed me. Entry numbers are limited so in order to guarantee access, all customers are asked to book in advance online before their visit (online purchasing is not available for same day bookings). Annual Pass holders can access the site without having to book in advance, although they will have to join the queues on arrival. As we neared Sewerby the skies turned black and it rained for the first hour so I think that put some less hardy daytripper’s off and it was quiet when we were there. There is also loads of hand sanitising points, one way systems and space…
We started as always in the park, this was better than usual as it was just a park that was open so had massive novelty factor! We had a picnic in there too (under the umbrella). The cafe is open but for takeaways only and a queue outside to limit numbers inside, we did pop in for an ice cream later. The ice cream kiosk was also open so there was a choice if one had a little queue.
Then it was off to the zoo, this was well managed with a one way system around the zoo and you needed to leave your details with staff before entering for track and trace. My kids loved seeing the animals, this time our favourite was the talking parrot, the goats and of course the penguins.
It was still raining so we went inside the house – again a one way system around it, you couldn’t move into the next room until the previous family had left it, loads of hand sanitiser and none of the usual toys to play with, dress up outfits etc. We did however get to use a new bit of the house, the servants stairs, and the staff were so friendly and helpful on the way around, even setting questions about items on show in the rooms for the children to work out the answers to (box ticked for home school learning today after all!)…..(now experts on corsets!!).
We came out and the rain had stopped and the sun had come out! So it was off to the gardens and the woodland walk. They had some lovely new wood carvings with very poignant messages and pictures carved on which we spent ages looking at.
On previous visits we’ve stayed inside Sewerby the whole time but with the sun out we thought we’d explore the beach; we’d heard you could access Bridlington North Beach from the Sewerby cliff top but had never tried. There was an extra exit/entrance hut I discovered to leave and re-enter through and we were on the cliff top. Steep steps took us down to the pebble beach and then onto the sand. We spent an hour on sand sculptures and rock hunts, discovering rocks with holes in made by a tube worm! (tick the box again for home school learning!). On the way back in we saw the land train which also caused a lot of excitement.
We ended by playing on the large fields, I’d packed a frisby and there was a lot of tig and general running around to wear the kids out for the car ride home. We had a long, tiring and thoroughly enjoyable day out! We arrived at 11am and left at 4.30pm (although the kids wanted to stay longer). I’d definitely recommend a day out at Sewerby over the summer holidays, it really did feel like a normal day out again. I was very reassured by the social distancing measures and felt comfortable being there and we’ll hopefully be back again soon.
For more information please call 01262 673769 or visit their website here.
Sewerby Hall, Church Ln, Sewerby, Bridlington YO15 1EA.
For the purpose of this review, we were allowed entry.
