Bramall Hall & Park
A black and white Tudor manor house sitting in around 60 acres of parkland with woods, brooks and lakes. The park costs nothing, under 16s go into the hall free, and all-day parking is £3.
Parks & outdoors Stockport
Parks & outdoors in Stockport
Playgrounds, country parks, woodland trails and nature reserves. Most of these cost nothing.
3 in Stockport2 free3 suit under-5s
Lyme Park is the big one and it is a proper deer park: 1,400 acres on the edge of the Peaks with a herd of red deer, and the estate charges for parking unless you are National Trust members. Give it most of a day or do not bother.
Bramall Hall is the closer alternative, a black and white Tudor manor in about sixty acres where the park is free and only the hall charges. Etherow at Compstall is the flat one: a lake crowded with waterfowl, a level path alongside and a cafe at the end of it, with pay and display parking. That is the order to try them in if you are working out which one your family likes.
Parks & outdoors in Stockport
Etherow Country Park
A big lake crowded with waterfowl, a flat path alongside it and a cafe where you left the car: the easiest small-child walk in the Stockport area. Entry is free, the car park is not.
Lyme Park
A proper deer park on the edge of the Peaks: 1,400 acres, a herd of red deer, the Crow Wood adventure playground, and the house from the BBC's Pride and Prejudice.
Parks & outdoors elsewhere in the North West
Walton Hall & Gardens
The reliable default: gardens, a children's zoo, a big playground and plenty of room to run. Pay for parking, nothing else.
Risley Moss
A peat bog nature reserve with woodland trails, a visitor centre and an observation tower the kids can climb. Free, close and short enough for little legs.
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.
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.
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.