Lytham Hall
78 acres of free parkland and woodland around a Georgian hall, with a cafe, seasonal trails and cheap pay-and-display parking. The hall tour is the only ticketed bit, and with kids in tow you can happily skip it.
Lytham Windmill
Lytham St Annes, Lancashire
Everyone photographs it and almost nobody goes in, which is a shame, because it is free and there are four floors of it. Built in 1805, restored by the council in 1989 and now run by the Lytham Heritage Group, it holds displays on milling and on the town: a shrimper's cottage, a school room, the story of the pier that is no longer there.
Treat it as twenty minutes rather than a morning. Small children like the machinery and the climb, they lose interest in the cases, and then everyone goes back out onto the green, which is where the day really is. Windmill, ice cream, a run about, chips in Lytham.
Check before you set off. The opening season runs Easter to mid October, the days change with the season, and it closes completely for the two weeks of Lytham Festival because the green becomes a concert site.
Know before you go
- Opening is seasonal and narrow: Wednesday to Sunday in the summer, weekends only in spring and autumn, and it shuts entirely for the Lytham Festival fortnight in late June and early July.
- The stairs between the four floors are steep and tight. It is fine for a confident five-year-old, awkward with a toddler and impossible with a pram.
Seasonal: Easter to mid October, and closed for Lytham Festival. Check before travelling.
Looking for more museums & science near Lytham St Annes?
Also in Lytham St Annes
Ashton Gardens
St Annes' restored Victorian gardens a street back from the seafront: rose beds, a galleon climbing frame in the play area and the Pavilion tea room. The calm half of a beach day.
Fairhaven Lake and Gardens
A saltwater lake with rowing boats, a playground, crazy golf and a skate park, sat between Lytham and St Annes with the estuary on the other side of the sea wall. Free to walk in, and everything fun on it costs.
St Annes Beach and Pier
Blackpool's seaside without Blackpool's volume: a huge flat beach, a Victorian pier with arcades, donkeys in summer and a paddling pool by the bandstand. The cheap day out on the Fylde coast.