Witton Country Park
Blackburn's biggest green space: 480 acres with adventure playgrounds, woodland trails and a visitor centre in the old Victorian stables. Free in, free to park, and it absorbs a whole afternoon without anyone asking for money.
Flip Out Blackburn
Blackburn, Lancashire
In the Soccerdome on Haslingden Road, and it is a trampoline park first: ninja wipeout, an inflatable obstacle course, foam pits, the lot. The soft play is a genuine separate offer rather than a corner of the car park, with a toddler area, a kids arena and a junior section, everything padded.
It suits a family straddling the age where trampolines start being allowed. The small one gets the padded end, the older one gets the ninja course, and nobody spends the afternoon watching from a bench.
Opening hours in term time are the catch. Closed Tuesdays and Thursdays, a late 3.30pm start on Mondays, and full days only at weekends and in the holidays. Prices sit behind the booking system.
Know before you go
- Term-time opening is patchy: shut Tuesdays and Thursdays, and it does not open until half past three on Mondays. Check the day before you drive over.
- Soft play and jump sessions are different tickets. Book the right one.
Looking for more soft play & indoor play near Blackburn?
Also in Blackburn
Corporation Park
Blackburn's showpiece Victorian park: a triumphal arch at the gate, two lakes with swans, a playground right beside them and a lime-tree avenue climbing the hill. Free, and less than a mile from the town centre.
Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery
A proper old-fashioned free museum in the town centre: Egyptian gallery, natural history cases and paintings upstairs, all doable in an hour. Closed Sundays and Mondays, which catches people out.
Funtazia
24,000 square feet in the middle of Blackburn, with go karts, bumper cars and laser tag alongside the climbing frames. Not really soft play any more, more an indoor funfair.
Temple of Fun
Darwen's independent play centre with a sensory room, open five days a week in term time and every day in the holidays. Somewhere to sit that is not a plastic bench.