Fairytales come alive on a children's trip to England

by Nancy Eager, Hayward, CA

“Have you ever wanted to jump right into the book you are reading? Here is your chance. Join us on an adventure to discover the real homes of British book characters and their authors. We will see the sights of London, stay on a working Yorkshire farm, live in a gypsy caravan and visit the seaside, three castles and a famous chocolate factory.”

That was the invitation from our daughter, who planned a 26-day trip to England for June ’03 and asked us (the grandparents) to accompany her, her husband and their two daughters, ages seven and almost five.

The route

The girls were well prepared for the trip. They had read or listened to each of the books that were connected to the places we visited, and they knew about Queen Victoria, Henry VIII and his wives and the current royal family. To keep the girls entertained during driving times, there were activity sheets (coloring, dot-to-dot, puzzles) related to the sights.

Our route took us to London, then south to the tip of Cornwall, back up through the center of England to North Yorkshire and the Lake District and back to London through Sherwood Forest and Oxford.

In the process, we visited places connected with Paddington Bear, Peter Pan, Winnie-the-Pooh, King Arthur and Robin Hood as well as with the Beatrix Potter books, the James Herriot books, “The Secret Garden,” “The Mousehole Cat,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “The Wind in the Willows,” “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “Danny the Champion of the World” and other Roald Dahl books, “The Chronicles of Narnia” books, “Thomas the Tank Engine” and numerous nursery rhymes.

London

A wild ride

London makes a good beginning for a children’s book tour of England. We started in Kensington Gardens at the statue of Peter Pan. The Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Playground, just across the gardens from the statue, includes play areas and structures based on the story of Peter Pan. The favorite for our girls was a large pirate ship with a multitude of places to climb in, out, up and down. At the end of four days of sightseeing in London, this playground was their choice for a second visit on our final afternoon.

Also in London, the Museum of Childhood (near the Bethnal Green tube stop) has enough hands-on exhibits to keep the young ones entertained for hours. They were celebrating the 100th anniversary of the teddy bear when we were there; hundreds of teddy bears were on display.

Those who have read “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame will remember when Toad had his wild ride in a gypsy caravan. Our three days and nights in a gypsy caravan took place near the village of Pewsey in Wiltshire at White Horse Gypsy Caravans, owned and managed by Polly Carson (phone 01672 851119 or e-mail polly@pr1ors.fsnet.co.uk).

One caravan had sleeping berths for four people, the other for two. Each had a tiny gas stove and a plastic dishpan for “washing up.” Toilet facilities? At night, we parked the caravans in a field near an inn, where we were permitted to use the facilities. At other times? “You’re gypsies now, aren’t you?” said Polly. “There are lots of trees.”

Polly gave us good training with the horses the first morning and then met us at lunch and night stops to be sure that all was well. In between, we plodded along the lanes and roads, sometimes holding up traffic but always getting a cheerful wave or smile from the people in the cars.

For anyone who wants a totally different experience, we recommend White Horse Gypsy Caravans. The minimum stay is three nights (Tuesday-Thursday or Friday-Sunday); the larger caravan cost us $430 for the three days and the smaller one was $380. (During our visit, a pound sterling was selling for $1.72.)

All about Pooh

For fans of Winnie-the-Pooh, the place to go is the tiny village of Hartfield, south of London. At the Pooh Corner shop on the main street, you can get a little map that shows the trailhead and parking areas for the Hundred Acre Wood (actually called Ashdown Forest).

We collected twigs as we went along the trail through the woods to Poohsticks Bridge, then dropped our sticks over the side of the bridge and watched them float out the other side. It was easy to imagine A.A. Milne and Christopher Robin walking through these woods. The Pooh sites are not at all commercialized (there are no entry fees), which means that you must do some sleuth work to search them out. (For more info, visit www.just-pooh.com.)

A secret garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett had several gardens in mind when she wrote “The Secret Garden.” The one we chose to visit was at Hever Castle where Anne Boleyn lived as a girl. The walled garden here could well be the one that Mary, in the book, discovered.

In addition, Hever Castle has a hedge maze that is fun for wandering, plus a water maze where you never know just where a fountain of water is going to erupt and drench you. The idea for adults in the water maze is to get through it without getting wet; for our kids, the idea seemed to be to get as wet as possible!

The castle itself, which dates from 1270, has in it several of Anne Boleyn’s possessions, including two of her Books of Hours, signed and inscribed in her handwriting.

Encountering Alice

In searching out “Alice in Wonderland” spots we came to Daresbury, north of Gloucester. This is the town where Lewis Carroll was born, and the townspeople are proud of this connection.

The Daresbury church has a series of stained-glass windows depicting characters from Carroll’s writings. One panel shows Carroll and Alice in church.

On the roof of a building in town, we spotted a weathervane with the Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit and Alice. 

Yorkshire farmstay

Our farmstay was the beginning of our tribute to James Herriot, the Yorkshire veterinarian whose books are popular with both adults and children. We chose Nutstile Farm (phone 015242 41752), just a few miles out of Ingleton in North Yorkshire.

Stephen and Carol Brennand and their children have dairy cattle and sheep plus wonderful views over the dales. They operate a bed-and-breakfast service (four bedrooms available, two of them with private bathroom facilities, the other two sharing a bath). The rooms were cheerful and clean, the full English breakfast each morning was beautifully and tastefully prepared and the family members were friendly.

Our granddaughters enjoyed watching a sheep shearing, the cows being milked and the animals being herded from field to field. The cost was $34 per person per night.

A day trip from Nutstile Farm took us to Thirsk, where James Herriot had his veterinary practice. His home/veterinary clinic is now The World of James Herriot museum — well worth a visit (open 10-6 daily).

The ground floor is just as it was when the veterinarian lived and had his office there. The kitchen looks like the family just finished a meal and left the dishes in the sink. Upstairs is a museum of veterinary medicine, where visitors can help to deliver a calf (from a plaster model of a cow) or pull a horse’s tooth.

We rounded out the day at the North Yorkshire County Show in South Otterington, just a few miles from Thirsk, where we watched sheepdog competitions, horse pulling and livestock shows.

Alternate accommodations

For accommodations when not in the gypsy caravan or on the farm, we used the Travel Inn chain, advertised as a “family-friendly” place. Each room at any one Travel Inn is the same price, regardless of the number of children. (They put in cots for the children.) In metro areas our room was about $129; in the suburbs, $95, and in other areas, $77.50.

There’s no search for a place to eat at the end of a long day of traveling, since each inn has a restaurant. Also, the two Travel Inns that we used outside of the London metro area had nice playgrounds for the children.

There are some negatives, we felt, to the Travel Inn chain. The food in the restaurants did not seem like a good value to us ($7.75 for a limited Continental breakfast, $11.20 for an English breakfast and over $20 for most entrées at dinner), though children eat free at breakfast and have a kid-friendly special menu for other meals.

Also, we are accustomed to having shampoo and often other small amenities in a hotel room, but Travel Inn provides only a small bar of soap. A sign suggests that other toiletry articles and hair dryers are available at the registration desk, but there is an extra charge for each of these.

In spite of these negatives, those traveling with small children might want to consider using the Travel Inn chain. You always know just what you’re getting, and they’re located in many convenient places across England.

Getting around

When in the London area, we used the underground to get around. Outside London, we rented a 7-passenger van from Direct Car Rentals (phone 0118 9423301 or e-mail directcarrental@compuserve.com). Though their quoted price was competitive (17 days with unlimited mileage for $1,462), we would not choose this company again. They do not have a desk at Heathrow Airport nor nearby, so pickup and dropoff is awkward.

We had to start by paying the parking fee to get out of the airport garage and later had to make several calls to their office to arrange the exact time of dropoff or risk further charges. The “confirmed inclusive price” of $1,462 ended up being $1,909 when a mandatory refueling charge of $103 and a damage deposit of $344 were added.

Traveling with small children has its special challenges, but a well-planned itinerary and advance preparation for what they will see can make it an enjoyable journey.

If anyone is interested in British children’s books and would like a detailed itinerary of this trip, I would be happy to send it out. You can contact me via e-mail c/o ITN.