Farington Park
Four and a half hectares in Farington with a modern play area, outdoor gym kit, an old mill pond and a patch of woodland. First Green Flag in 2025, and a small free car park at Bashall Grove.
Days out with the kids in Leyland
4 places in Leyland, Lancashire, 3 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
4 in Leyland3 free1 indoor
Leyland built lorries for most of a century, and the British Commercial Vehicle Museum is the town owning it: halls of buses, wagons and fire engines, with cabs to climb into, which is all most children ask of a museum. It is indoors, it is genuinely different from anything else nearby, and it is the obvious card when the rain sets in.
Worden Park is the dry-day half, a big free park ten minutes' walk from the centre with formal gardens, woods and good play areas, the kind of park a town builds its weekends around. When both are worn thin, Preston is fifteen minutes north with the Harris and Avenham Park, free the pair of them. Two honest days and a fast road to more: Leyland is a better base than its reputation.
Places in Leyland
Paradise Park, Leyland
Twenty acres of woodland, glades and pond on the Moss Side edge of Leyland, with a dipping platform on the water. The paths were resurfaced in June 2026, so it is no longer a wellies-only proposition.
Worden Park
Leyland's big free park with a proper hedge maze, arboretum, play areas and a miniature railway running summer Sundays. The maze alone is worth the detour.
British Commercial Vehicle Museum
A big hall of British lorries, buses and fire engines in the town that built Leylands, with a lorry driving experience for kids and a cafe for the grown-ups. Gift Aid your ticket and it becomes a 12-month pass for nothing extra.
What’s on in Leyland
2 dated events coming up, 2 of them this weekend.
Messy Church (opens on St James)
St James · Leyland
19 Sept. Saturday 19 September, 3pm
Join us for a mixture of crafts and activities followed by a story, song, and shared food.
Listed by St James · collected 21 Aug
Sunday Youth during Term Time (opens on Brindle St James)
Brindle St James · Leyland
20 Sept. Sunday 20 September, 10.30am
SUNDAY YOUTH - A SESSION FOR 10, 14 YEAR OLDS * CHILL & CHAT | EXPLORE LIFES BIG QUESTIONS | SUNDAY SCHOOL CAFÉ * DROP-OFF FROM 10.
Listed by Brindle St James · collected 21 Aug
Also worth the drive
Not in Leyland, but close enough for a day out.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach
The big one. Nickelodeon Land covers the primary ages properly while the Big One and the wooden coasters wait for brave older kids. August queues are real; go in expecting them and it is a great day.
Blackpool Tower
The Tower Eye's glass floor 380 feet up, a proper circus that still knows how to play to kids, and the famous ballroom below for a fancy ice cream. Buy the attractions you want rather than the bundle you will not use.
Sandcastle Waterpark
The UK's biggest indoor waterpark, kept at tropical temperature: proper toddler pools and mini slides at one end, big flumes at the other. Rainy-day Blackpool solved.
Blackpool Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, giraffes and sea lions in 37 acres that are actually walkable with primary-age legs - big enough to feel like a full day, small enough that nobody ends up carried.
Sea Life Blackpool
A solid seafront aquarium with an ocean tunnel and rockpool sessions - the reliable wet-weather hour when the beach plan falls apart.
Stanley Park
Blackpool's grand free option: Italian gardens, a big boating lake, one of the best playgrounds on the coast and model boats on the lake. The antidote to a wristband day.
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre
Otters at feeding time, flamingos, pond dipping and a canoe safari through the reeds in season. One of those places that quietly turns a nature-indifferent child into a nature child.
Windmill Animal Farm
A friendly hands-on farm whose star turn is the miniature railway running out across the fields. Animal handling sessions, indoor play for wet spells, and it never feels too big.
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.