Prescot Museum
Knowsley's free local history museum, upstairs in Prescot Shopping Centre next to the library: watchmaking, pottery and coal mining, plus a kids corner with quiz sheets, trails and an apothecary chest to rummage in.
Days out with the kids in Prescot
6 places in Prescot, Merseyside, 2 of which cost nothing. Everything below is within easy reach if you live locally.
6 in Prescot2 free4 indoor
Prescot's pitch is simple: the safari park is on the doorstep. Knowsley Safari's five-mile drive-through puts lions, rhinos and the notorious baboons a few minutes from town - take the baboon-free route if you value your windscreen wipers - and the foot section and sea lion displays carry the rest of the day. It is a proper full day, and locals barely have to leave the postcode for it.
In town the offer is more modest and more useful: Spaceworld's four tiers of soft play and Family & Friends for the under-fives cover the wet-Tuesday problem without hurting the budget. For everything else Prescot leans on its neighbours, and they are good ones. Liverpool's free museum quarter is twenty minutes one way, St Helens' parks and World of Glass fifteen the other. One giant day on the doorstep, cheap fallbacks in town: a fair deal.
Places in Prescot
Stadt Moers Park
Bring the bikes or you will see one playground and go home. Knowsley's biggest park at roughly 220 acres, either side of Pottery Lane in Whiston, with playgrounds, a cycleway, a fishing pond and an outdoor gym.
Family & Friends Playcentre
A small play centre in the old Prescot Gospel Hall built for under-fives, with a role-play street, a soft play house with slides and a ball pool, and a baby corner. Weekday mornings only, closed Tuesdays, and adults go in free.
Knowsley Safari
Drive through the reserve from the car, then the sea lion and birds of prey shows. Reviews are split on value, and several warn that families expect a full zoo and find fewer headline animals, so set expectations first.
Spaceworld Play Centre
8,000 square feet of frame over four tiers on a Prescot business park, built round a 20ft rocket, with a 25ft spiral slide, spinning poles and an elevated football pitch.
Shakespeare North Playhouse
Prescot's playhouse has a proper family strand: weekly Baby Bards, short shows for the under-fives, half-term drama workshops for older kids and a performance garden outside. Better than it has any right to be for a town this size.
What’s on in Prescot
11 dated events coming up, 2 of them this weekend.
Baby Bards
Shakespeare North Playhouse, Learning Centre · Prescot
until 15 Dec. Tuesdays, 13 October to 15 December, 11.15am
Baby Bards is a 45-minute story and early phonics session for 18 months to 4 years at Shakespeare North Playhouse, every Tuesday until 15 December. £6 covers a child and one adult, with no booking fee.
Written by us
Halloween at Knowsley Safari
Knowsley Safari, Prescot
until 1 Nov. Daily, 24 October to 1 November
Half term at the safari park done in Halloween dress, with the drive-through reserve and the shows running as usual underneath it. The car is the ride, which suits children who have had enough of queuing.
Written by us
Baby Bards (opens on Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot)
Shakespeare North Playhouse · Prescot
3 Nov to 15 Dec. Every Tuesday, 11.15am
Runs on 7 dates. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Listed by Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot · collected 1 Nov
Home Education Seniors (opens on Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot)
Shakespeare North Playhouse · Prescot
5 Nov. Thursday 5 November, 2pm
Starts at 2pm. Times, prices and tickets are on the organiser's own page.
Listed by Shakespeare North Playhouse, Prescot · collected 1 Nov
Prampushers (opens on St James, Eccleston Park)
St James, Eccleston Park · Prescot
5 Nov. Thursday 5 November, 9.15am
Prampushers is a toddler group welcoming all Parents, Grandparents, Auntie, Uncles and Childminders.
Listed by St James, Eccleston Park · collected 1 Nov
Enchanted Christmas light trail at Knowsley Safari
Knowsley Safari, Prescot
20 Nov to 23 Dec. Selected evenings, 20 November to 23 December
The safari after dark: an extended light trail through the Foot Safari with animal light installations and fire pits, and an optional Santa's Grotto where every child gets a large plush toy. The £9.95 is the starting price, and refreshments, rides and the grotto all cost extra, so budget for the add-ons before you promise anything in the car. Book before 1 November and marshmallow toasting is thrown in.
Written by us
Everything on in Prescot5 more not shown here
Also worth the drive
Not in Prescot, but close enough for a day out.
World of Glass
Free to get in and better than it sounds: hands-on stations on glass, lenses and fibre optics, a Victorian street and the old Tank House, with live glassblowing around midday and 2pm for a small extra charge. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
Sherdley Park
St Helens' biggest park. Play areas, open space and a walled garden, and it costs nothing.
Dream, Sutton Manor
A 20-metre white head rising out of a reclaimed colliery, with woodland trails around it. Genuinely strange and memorable for kids, and a short walk rather than a hike.
Sankey Valley Park
A green corridor of canal towpath and parkland running from St Helens down towards Warrington. Flat, traffic-free and ideal if the bikes or scooters are coming.
Holiday Clubs (HAF)
Funded holiday clubs with food included, ages 4 to 18, for families on benefits-related free school meals. Worth a look even if you assume you won't qualify.
World Museum, Liverpool
Five floors, free, and it covers three things small children reliably love: giant dinosaurs, an aquarium and a space gallery. The best wet-weather day within half an hour.
Speke Hall
A Tudor hall with woodland walks, a maze and a natural play area in the grounds. Free if you have National Trust membership, and the indoor house is a good rain fallback.
Formby Beach & Pinewoods
Huge sand dunes, a proper beach and red squirrels in the pinewoods behind it. The dunes alone will occupy them for an hour. Free entry if you have National Trust membership.
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.