Astbury Mere Country Park
A flooded sand quarry ten minutes' walk from Congleton town centre, now fourteen hectares of water, woodland and wildflower meadow with a flat mile long path round it. There is no playground.
Brereton Heath Local Nature Reserve
- Cost
- Free entry, parking £1.80 to £4.30
- Ages
- 3 to 12
- Where
- Congleton, Cheshire
- Weather
- Mostly outdoors
- Booking
- Just turn up
Brereton Heath is a proper Local Nature Reserve and not a park with trees in it. Over fifty acres of mainly silver birch and oak, a fifteen acre lake, heathland, a wildflower meadow and wetland, with kingfishers, herons, grebes, nuthatches and great spotted woodpeckers all on the reserve's own bird list.
What makes it work with children is the permanent orienteering course. Control markers are out in the woods year round, so instead of a walk you have a hunt, and that difference is worth about two extra miles of willingness in a seven year old.
There are recreation areas suitable for picnics and, unlike a lot of Cheshire East countryside sites, actual toilets, including a disabled toilet for RADAR key holders. Angling is members only through Wheelock Angling Society and canoeing is groups only. The water is for looking at.
The parking catches people out. It is pay and display and it is banded, not flat: £1.80 under an hour, £3.00 for one to three hours, £4.30 for three to ten, with blue badge holders free and annual permits at £60 for this site or £80 across several. Closing time moves with the season, 5pm in winter and 8.30pm during British Summer Time, with the gates opening by 8.45am.
What it costs: No admission charge. Pay and display parking is £1.80 for under an hour, £3.00 for 1 to 3 hours and £4.30 for 3 to 10 hours. Annual permits are £60 for Brereton Heath only or £80 for multiple sites. Blue badge holders park free. Canoeing for groups is £14.20 per canoe annually.
Know before you go
- The permanent orienteering course is free to use and turns a woodland walk into a treasure hunt. Pull the map off the Cheshire East page first, because there is no guarantee of one on site.
- Parking is banded: £1.80 under an hour, £3.00 for one to three hours, £4.30 for three to ten. If you are staying past an hour, pay for three and stop watching the clock. Since 14 September 2026 the machine takes cash or RingGo only, because of a phone signal problem, and it gives no change, so bring coins or the app.
- Closing time moves with the season, 5pm in winter and 8.30pm during British Summer Time, with the gates opening by 8.45am.
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