Portland Basin Museum
Tameside's free canal-side museum, with a walk-through 1920s street and a play zone for under fives. Closed Mondays, open bank holidays.
Days out with the kids in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
6 places in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside, Greater Manchester, 3 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
6 in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside3 free3 indoor
Tameside is half a dozen towns sharing one borough, so this page covers the lot rather than Ashton alone. The free end is good. Portland Basin Museum sits on the canal in Ashton with a walk-through 1920s street and a play zone for under fives. Stamford Park, on the Stalybridge side, has a sandpit playground, water jets in the warm months, a boating lake and a little train at £1.50 a ride. Werneth Low above Hyde is the hill: 200 acres, a view to the Welsh mountains on a clear day, and very little else.
The paid days split by weather. Cockfields Farm Park on the Oldham border is the big farm day, listed at £18.95 a head and given over to pumpkins in October and a Christmas village from late November. When it rains, Adventure Medlock in Droylsden does caving, high ropes and Clip 'n Climb at leisure-centre prices, and Hyde Leisure Pool runs its wave machine and rapids in 90-minute fun sessions on Thursday and Friday evenings and at weekends. Those sell out, so book.
Places in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
Stamford Park, Stalybridge
Tameside's all-rounder on the Ashton and Stalybridge border: a big sandpit playground, summer water fountains, a boating lake, a miniature train, crazy golf and an aviary. Free to get in, pocket money for the extras.
Werneth Low Country Park
A 200 acre hilltop above Hyde with views across Manchester to the Welsh mountains on a clear day, and a proper hill for a kite. Very little else, and that is the point.
Adventure Medlock
A council-run indoor adventure centre in Droylsden: Clip 'n Climb walls, a 54 metre crawl-through cave, a high ropes course hung from the ceiling, bouldering and soft play, at leisure-centre prices. Weekends and school holidays only for most of it.
Hyde Leisure Pool
Tameside's fun pool, with a wave machine, a wild water rapids ride, bubble beds and the Red Ripster slide. Only open for fun sessions on Thursday and Friday evenings and at weekends, and they sell out.
Cockfields Farm Park
A big family-run farm park on the Ashton and Oldham border: feed the cows, alpacas and goats, hold the rabbits, then lose an hour on the jumping pillow. Card only, and from October most days are ticketed events.
What’s on in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
8 dated events coming up, 2 of them this weekend.
Lego Club at Failsworth Library (opens on Oldham Libraries and Heritage)
Failsworth Library · Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
until 19 Dec. Every Saturday, 10.30am
Come and join the fun at Failsworth Library’s Lego Club.
Listed by Oldham Libraries and Heritage · collected 21 Aug
Bounce & rhyme at Failsworth Library (opens on Oldham Libraries and Heritage)
Failsworth Library · Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
until 16 Dec. Every Wednesday, 1.30pm
Join our playful sessions and meet new friends, explore the library spaces, learn new rhymes and songs and enjoy some sensory play in our Bounce and Rhyme Sessions.
Listed by Oldham Libraries and Heritage · collected 21 Aug
Family Storytime at Failsworth library (opens on Oldham Libraries and Heritage)
Failsworth Library · Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
30 Sept. Wednesday 30 September, 1pm
Bring the whole family along and enjoy some shared story time and guided reading activities.
Listed by Oldham Libraries and Heritage · collected 21 Aug
Pumpkin season at Cockfields Farm Park
Cockfields Farm Park, Ashton-under-Lyne · Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
3 Oct to 31 Oct. The Pumpkin Patch every weekend from 3 October and throughout October half term; the smaller Mini Pumpkin Patch on term-time weekdays, 5 to 23 October, 10am to 4pm (last entry 2pm); Pumpkin Patch After Dark on the evenings of 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31 October, 5pm to 8pm
Thousands of pumpkins to pick from, and every paid ticket (bar under 1s) takes one home. New for 2026 is a spooky walk-through and a Halloween show, on top of the usual barn animals, tractor rides and the bouncy pillow. Two cheaper versions run alongside it: a Mini Pumpkin Patch on term-time weekdays, with a haunted tractor hayride and a not-too-spooky story, and a Pumpkin Patch After Dark in half term that the farm says suits all ages.
Written by us
Family Storytime at Failsworth library (opens on Oldham Libraries and Heritage)
Failsworth Library · Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
31 Oct. Saturday 31 October, 1pm
Bring the whole family along and enjoy some shared story time and guided reading activities.
Listed by Oldham Libraries and Heritage · collected 21 Aug
Family Fireworks at Cockfields Farm Park
Cockfields Farm Park, Lees New Road, Ashton-under-Lyne · Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside
5 Nov to 8 Nov. Thursday 5 to Sunday 8 November: farm open 4pm to 8.30pm, fireworks at 7pm
A low-bang display set to Disney music, with animal feeding and a carousel beforehand, run over four nights so you can pick the least chaotic one. Built for families with small children, and priced by date, so check a few.
Written by us
Everything on in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside2 more not shown here
Also worth the drive
Not in Ashton-under-Lyne & Tameside, but close enough for a day out.
Zip World Manchester
The cheapest real activity anyone is recommending, and it's indoors. An hour of play for a fiver a head, with picnic benches for when you need to sit down.
Pennington Flash
A big lake with easy flat paths, bird hides and a decent play area. Free, close, and a good one for scooters and a picnic.
Science and Industry Museum
Working steam engines, the story of Cottonopolis, and hands-on galleries in the world's oldest surviving passenger railway station. Free, and the live demonstrations are the bit kids actually remember.
Manchester Museum
A T. rex skeleton cast, live frogs in the vivarium, Egyptian mummies and a genuinely good natural history floor. Free, university-run, and less overwhelming than the big London equivalents.
National Football Museum
Shirts, trophies and match footage across six floors, with penalty shootout and skills games that football-mad kids refuse to leave. If yours do not care about football, skip it - it is exactly what it says.
Imperial War Museum North
War told through people's stories in a building designed to feel like a shattered globe. The hourly Big Picture Show projections fill the whole gallery and stop everyone mid-step. Heavy themes, handled well - better for the top end of primary.
RHS Garden Bridgewater
One of the biggest garden projects in Europe, and more fun for kids than a flower garden has any right to be: a huge walled kitchen garden, lake walks, and space to run that feels endless.
Legoland Discovery Centre
Two rides, a 4D cinema, build zones and Manchester's skyline done in miniature bricks. Squarely aimed at 3 to 10, and it knows it: adults can only visit with a child.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.