Summer adventure and family fun at Trentham Estate - in photos

Staffordshire’s Trentham Estate already offers its visitors the chance to discover ‘fairies at the bottom of the garden’, meander in a maze and get naked from the knees down…along with strolling amongst free-roaming monkeys, and enjoying high ropes adventure.

Add in to that mix an award-winning gardens and parkland, including newly extended lakeside meadows, open air theatre and lakeside concerts, and it’s not hard to see why Trentham, on the edge of Stoke-on-Trent, proves a popular spot for a top day out.

Whether the sun shines or not, Trentham offers a hot summer of family fun from stunning gardens to children’s adventure play area and exhilarating high rope adventure Aerial Extreme to the unique Monkey Forest, home to 140 endangered Barbary Macaques.

New for 2017 is a toddler zone with a natural and nautical themed adventure area, part of the ever-popular adventure playground within the gardens. At its heart is a large sand play area with diggers and activity tower, as well as a new nest swing, toddlers’ seesaw and springy bees, plus additional cradle swings and extra seating. The new-look toddler zone also now includes three activity boats, one of which is wheelchair accessible, on a “sea of sand”. There’s more sand-themed fun between Monday, July 31 and Wednesday, August 2 with sand sculptors in the gardens, where you can watch as stunning sand sculptures come to life in the lakeside activity area.

Open-air theatre also returns to Trentham Gardens for 2017, with An adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood with 2pm performances takes place on August 27, while visitors can share a helping of world-class outdoor performance art with a dash of the unusual and a splash of the unexpected when the Appetite Taster Tour brings a bit of extra magic to Trentham Gardens on August 9.

The gardens and parkland always offer a colourful floral sight, as well as the chance to go track down the 15 fairies on the Trentham Fairy Trail which winds around the lake, woodlands and gardens or discover more about wildlife with the Staffordshire Wildlife Trust at a Wildlife Discovery Weekend (August 12-13). Other seasonal favourites on offer include the Barefoot Walk, a chance to get naked from the knees down to tantalise your toes with an array of testing textures including mud, bark, babbling streams, grass, pebbles and clay, a gentle cruise along the mile-long Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown designed lake aboard the Miss Elizabeth, or a ride around the lakeside aboard miniature train The Trentham Fern. Trentham also hosts lakeside concerts every Saturday night until September 2. While tickets have been selling faster than hot oatcakes, there is still availability for six concert nights. And for more musical treats, pull up a deckchair, sit back and relax to the atmospheric sounds of a local brass band for Brass Bands Sunday lunchtimes at the amphitheatre on July 23 and August 6 and 13.

Enjoy summer evenings at Trentham Gardens – the perfect place for an evening picnic whilst watching the sun set over Trentham lake. The gardens are open Sunday to Friday until 9pm in July, and Sunday to Friday until 8pm in August. Discounted evening tickets are available from 5pm until one hour before closing time.

The Trentham Estate also boasts a range of shops, cafes and restaurants and – with one eye on the weather getting warmer – ice cream parlours at the Shopping Village. For full details of all events, admission and booking, Visit www.trentham.co.uk for more details.