4 Days in the Heart of England

We spent our son's autumn half-term break from school in the Heart of England. Situated, as its name suggests, in the thick of England, this region is a great place to go for a short break. It comprises a number of different counties and from theme parks to world class Shakespeare, there really is something for everyone.

The region is individual, and the real bonus is that it is at the hub of Britain's road network, so exploring (if you have a car) is made very easy.

There is beautiful countryside to explore, rolling fields, winding canals, thriving cities and quaint villages.

We took in a bit of all of this, but our highlights were as follows:

* A visit to Cadbury World in Bournville, a suburb of Birmingham. This is full of fun for all ages. Half a million chocolate lovers visit each year, discovering the history of chocolate, finding out more about Cadbury and how they make their chocolate and seeing how it is made. It really is chocolate heaven.

* Drayton Manor Park in Staffordshire, where we visited the brand new Thomas the Tank Engine land. This is more for quite young children - our son adored it, with rides and attractions based on the famous childrens story. The rest of the park is 280 acres and does have white knuckle rides for older thrill seekers.

* A day in Stratford Upon Avon - the birthplace of Shakespeare, where you can find museums, sites, events, festivals, attractions and tours all celebrating the world's most renowned and influential playwright of all time. As well as all that however, Stratford is an exceptionally pretty and scenic place to visit.

* Sudbury Hall in Utoexeter - another great place to visit. This is a National Trust property, and has beautiful gardens, an interesting old hall and a wonderful, brand new Museum of Childhood which has fascinating and fun hands-on exhibits.

* Crowds of tourists over run Stratford during the summer. However, the throngs dwindle in autumn and winter, so while we were there on this visit, we discovered you could walk on the streets easily and seek out the places of genuine historic interest without crowds of others doing the same.

* Stratford is England's most popular tourist destination outside of London and even in autumn there are plenty of people around. Arrive early, before the large tour coaches arrive and you will get to the front of the queue at many of the attractions.

* By car, Stratford is, traffic permitting, only a short journey from the M40 motorway. However, parking on the streets is limited to 20 minutes and the multi-storey car parks can be expensive. A good option for those day-trippers arriving by car, is to use the Park and Ride scheme that provides regular bus services into the town. It is easy to find, well signposted, and has lots of parking spaces. The buses are also plentiful - we didn't have to wait long.

* Stratford Upon Avon itself, is very easy to get around since the town is laid out in a grid pattern. There are also plenty of distinctive landmarks. You can walk everywhere in the town, however to get to Anne Hathaway's cottage and Mary Arden's house, you need to use a car, or do as we did and take the open-top bus tour. These buses run frequently. You can hop on and off as you please, but be aware, the buses charge for the ride only and entry to the sites is extra. We bought the tour ticket combined with entry to 3 properties and found it to be good value. The first bus we used had a tour guide, the others had guided commentary which you listened to on ear phones. They even had a kids channel with commentary suited to children - it was very interesting.

* Book Cadbury World in advance on www.cadburyworld.co.uk. They have a limited number of people allowed in at timed intervals throughout the day, so to be sure you can gain entry when you wnat, book in advance on-line.

* Allow yourself time after Cadbury World (or before) to stroll around the suburb of Bournville - beautiful and a fascinating place.

* At Drayton Manor Park, save yourself money by booking tickets on-line in advance. As well as being cheaper, you will save yourself time by not having to queue at the entrance. Tickets for adults cost £19.50 on-line and £23.00 at the gate. Children's ticket price is £19.00 on the gate and £16.20 on-line.

* Do the biggest rides in the first hour the park is open or at lunchtime to beat the queues. Also do the wettest rides at the end of the day in case you don't dry out before you leave - more than likely with the unpredictable British weather.

The Lea Marston hotel is set in 54 acres of ground, near the town of Sutton Coldfield. The location is nice, right in the countryside, but also easy to find - just 15 minutes from the motorway.

There are 88 bedrooms, all of which, apparently have a view of either the gardens or the golf course. There is free WiFi access in all the rooms. The hotel and all the bedrooms have also recently been refurbished.

We booked directly with the hotel the previous week, and requested a double room. We were pleasantly surprised upon arrival, to discover we had been upgraded to a suite - the Royal Suite.

The suite was very nice indeed - a really large living room with 2 chairs and a huge sofa which converted into a bed. There was the most enormous plasma television on the wall. The bedroom had a large 4 poster bed, lots of wardrobe space and another giant plasma television. The bathroom was spacious with huge corner bath and a separate shower. There was no minibar in the room, but there were tea/coffee making facilities with delicious complimentary cakes and snacks. The room had a view of the driving range.

There is a gym and swimming pool, which also seemed to be used extensively by the locals. The pool was lovely - 14 metres, with huge glass windows so you could see the gardens beyond as you swam.

There were restricted times when children could use the pool - not after 5pm during the week and only after 9am on weekends. One small negative point was you had to used the towels from your room - there were no towels at the pool for guests to use.

There are 2 restaurants - the Adderley restaurant and Hathaways gastro pub. We were on a dinner, bed and breakfast package so ate in the hotel each evening of our stay.

We had dinner the first evening in the gastro pub. It was quite busy, nicely decorated and had a pleasant atmosphere, but we were extremely disappointed with the service and the food. My husband had overcooked and bland duck, I had an overcooked and bland burger - it came on a bun without any garnishes. The children's menu had 5 choices and was reasonable.

The second and third evenings we ate in the Adderley restaurant - this was a completely different story. Service was excellent, the food was delicious and beautifully presented and we thoroughly enjoyed our experience.

There is a very nice bar area with a glass roof and a lovely fire, where they take your order and seat you before your table is ready in the restaurant.

We were also a bit disappointed with the breakfast at the hotel. We arrived each morning about half an hour before the breakfast service finished. It is a self-service buffet, but each morning when we got there most things had been picked over, one time there was no orange juice or fruit and it really did not look very appetising.

All in all though, we did enjoy our stay at this hotel. The location was very convenient for the places we wanted to visit, the room was very comfortable, the pool area is lovely - just avoid the gastro pub!

Cadbury World is a visitor centre devoted to Cadbury's chocolate - how chocolate is made, where it comes from and the role of the Cadbury family in developing chocolate. Now in its 12th year, it is a fun experience for adults and children.

Initially from the outside it resembles a motorway service station - nothing like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory - however it is an education centre, a good family day out and a great marketing exercise for Cadbury.

It is open most of the year, but it is advisable to book in advance on-line through their website. They have timed entry with a limited number of people allowed to go in at different time slots. To be sure you can go in when you want to, book before your visit.

The experience begins with a stroll through a mock-up of the Aztec jungle over board walks and waterfalls in search of the cocoa bean. They give you a bag of chocolate products before you enter, so you have something to munch on as you go around.

You see the Emperor Montezuma and find out who was responsible for bringing the secret of chocolate back to Europe.

From here, you enter a series of inter-connecting video rooms, each giving a different angle on the story of the Cadbury factory and its origins. The original Mr Cadbury was a Quaker called John, who opened a shop in Birmingham in 1824. People flocked to buy his chocolate and he eventually set up a factory in Bournville, where it remains to this day.

From this point you leave the history of chocolate and the tour focusses on Cadbury itself. The village of Bournville was built by George Cadbury, son of John, to provide a place of "sun, light and air" for his factory workers. The village to this day remains largely Quaker and the train station is painted in the Cadbury colour of purple.

The next auditorium has a scientist on screen telling you where beans come from and what happens to them in the chocolate making process. The theatre has special effects - we enjoyed getting jiggled around on our seats like cocoa beans.

At this point you are given another bar of chocolate to eat, while you enter the Cadbury packaging plant.

Regulations do not allow them to take you into the whole factory, but you take a specially created route through a section of the moulded factory to see how some of the bars are wrapped and packed. It is interesting to watch the chocolates whizzing along the conveyor belts and the smell is delicious.

After this there is a little ride through Beanville - this is very much aimed at young children. You travel in cars through a land where cocoa beans wave at you, pop up and whizz down mountains on skis.

They have a demonstration area where you can see chocolatiers in action making and decorating specialist chocolate products. There is also an area where you can write your name in liquid chocolate - easier said than done!

Purple Planet is an interactive exhibition area - we most enjoyed "growing" cocoa beans and making statues of ourselves in chocolate.

Outside the main building there is a nice children's playground where they can run off some steam before going into Essence - another exhibit where they tell you the secret behind Cadbury's most famous bar of chocolate - Dairy Milk. When you leave this area they give you a tub of warm liquid chocolate - you can add biscuit, mint chips, jelly babies or a number of other things to make your own concoction.

There is also a Bournville exhibition in this area. Most people seemed not to vist, but I found this one of the most interesting parts of the day. They have information and exhibits all about Bournville village - the history behind it, why the Cadbury family built it for their employees and some interesting stories. We liked the story where if a poor employee did not have enough money to pay his rent, he could use fruit from the 3 fruit trees all houses had in the gardens to supplement it.

This exhibition is perhaps not so interesting for young children, but the exhibition area has large windows looking into the factory, so while we read the information, our son enjoyed watching the giant robot arms whizzing around and packing the chocolate.

There is also a fun interactive area here where you can design your own packaging and advert for a Cadbury chocolate product. It then appears in the window of a little shop.

We arrived at Cadbury World at 1pm and left at 5pm. This was enough time to do everything without rushing, and also to have a stroll around the "Birdcage Walk" - a walk around the outside of the factory which is interesting.

Bournville is a village on the south side of Birmingham best known for its connections with the Cadbury family and chocolate - including a well known dark chocolate bar in the UK called Bournville.

We spent the afternoon at Cadbury world, but as the history and architecture behind Bournville is so interesting, it is well worth allowing time in your schedule to visit this area and walk around.

In 1879, George and Richard Cadbury moved their cocoa and chocolate factory from central Birmingham to a greenfield site 4 miles to the south. They chose the location because it was regarded to be cleaner, healthier and more amenable to long term expansion plans.

The Cadbury family named the place Bournville and began to develop their factory in the new suburb. Loyal and hardworking employees were treated with respect and relatively high wages and good working conditions. Cadbury also pioneered pension schemes, works committees and a full staff medical service.

In 1893, George Cadbury bought 120 acres of land close to the works and planned, at his own expense, a model village. By 1900 the estate had 313 cottages and houses set on 330 acres of land.

Many more similar properties were built in the years up to World War I with smaller developments taking place later in the 20th century. The houses were traditional in design but had large gardens and modern interiors. Each house had to have 3 fruit trees in the garden. If employees could not afford the full rent, they could supplement it with fruit from their garden.

The design of these houses in Bournville became a blueprint for many other model village estates around Britain.

The Cadbury family were Quakers, so no pubs were or ever have been built in Bournville.

As well as having good housing, the Cadburys were concerned with the health and fitness of their workforce and incorporated parks and recreation areas into the village plans. They also encouraged all sorts of outdoor sports.

Extensive sports facilities were developed with no charge to use them for Cadbury employees and their families. Cadburys also built an outdoor swimming pool, a boating lake and a cricket pitch.

The Bournville Village Trust was set up int 1900 to control the development of the estate - independently of the Cadbury family and company. It focussed on providing schools, hospitals, museums and reading rooms.

The area is now a conservation area, so part of the job of the Trust is to accept or reject plans for building extension and modification. Now there are 7,800 homes on 1,000 acres of land with 100 acres of parks and open spaces. Cadbury Schweppes is still one of Birmingham's main employers.

We enjoyed just wandering around Bournville. The architecture and style of the houses is lovely - they are similar but no two are exactly the same. Apparently it is still a very desirable area to live today - a walk around it and you can see why. As well as the attractive houses, there are lots of green spaces, trees, parks and a lovely feel to the area.

We strolled along the Birdcage Walk which takes you past the outside of the Cadbury factory, and from there you can walk past the station (painted in the Cadbury purple colours) and through the village. There are guided walks and excurisions which I think would be very interesting to go on, but as we were limited for time, unfortunately we could not do this.

Despite a fascinaing history and being a charming, well preserved town in its own right, Stratford's worldwide fame and magnetism for over 3 million visitors a year is the generally agreed greatest playwright and poet of all time - William Shakespeare.

As he was born, educated and buried here, there are a number of buildings open to the public which played a part in the life of Shakespeare.

We took an open-top bus tour - a good way to get an overview of the town and its attractions and an introduction to the main sites. We enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it. Stratford is a small place and easy to walk around the town centre on foot - however 2 of the Shakespeare properties are quite a way out of the town.

We caught the bus outside the Pen and Parchment pub - it is very easy to spot. We bought a combined bus ticket and entry to 3 of the Shakespeare properties. On the advice of the guide, we chose to visit Ann Hathaway's cottage, Mary Arden's house and Shakespeare's birthplace. Due to time constraints, we could not have fitted in any more and his recommendation was perfect. They accepted credit cards as well.

On the first bus we used, there were the 3 of us and one other couple. It was too cold to sit up top, but you could get a good view from the bottom deck. This bus also had a tour guide, who was full of fascinating information and gave a great commentary. Subsequent buses we hopped on, had recorded commentary you listened to using earphones. This was fine too - they even had a special commentary for children.

We got out first at Ann Hathaway's cottage. It is in the village of Shottery and was Shakespeare's wife's childhood home. The site dates from the 15th century. The surroundings are beautiful and the house, with its thatched roof (just redone at a cost of £77k) is really impressive.

The Hathaways were farmers and their descendants lived in the cottage until 1892. As a result it was never renovated and gives a rare insight into the life of a family in Shakesperean times. Shakespeare was only 18 when he married Anne. There are many original furnishings, including the courting settle - the bench on which he was said to have wooed her.

There was a guide in the house who was fascinating. She told us lots about the house and the way of life of its inhabitants, and enthralled our son by showing and telling him about the jobs a 5 year old would have done in the kitchen in those days.

After visiting the house, it is nice to linger and have a wander around the gardens and the orchard.

Mary Arden's house in Wilmcote was our next stop. This is where Shakespeare's mother grew up and it also houses the Shakespeare countryside museum. This is a great place for children - lots of rare breed animals, including Gloucester Old Spot piglets and long horned cattle, as well as farm outbuildings and lots to explore.

In Palmer's farmhouse there are guides in costume going about daily chores and giving displays.

Mary Arden's house is small but also interesting - there was a guide there who told us about the house and its inhabitants.

Outside there is an adventure playground, walks and they have falconry displays at different times throughout the day.

Our last visit was to Shakespeare's birthplace - a must see. He as born here on April 23, 1564 and died on the same date 52 years later. The house is filled with memorabilia and has furnishings of the writer's time. It is half timbered and was bought by public donors in 1847.

You can visit the living room, the bedroom (where he was probably born) and a kitchen of the period. Costumed guides give you information and interact beautifully with the children. Our son loved the workshop - Shakespeare's father was a glove maker and here they had skins and things to touch.

Next door is the modern Shakespeare Centre, where there is a great little exhibition illustrating the life and times of the poet.

The other Shakespeare properties you can visit are Nash's house - the home of Shakespeare's granddaughter and her husband. It stands next to New Place, the house Shakespeare bought in 1597 and lived until his death in 1616. Unfortunately it was knocked down. Hall's Croft was the home of his daughter Susannah and her husband Dr John Hall. Apparently it has a very interesting dispaly of medical tools.

We walked the short distance to Holy Trinity Church. This is a beautiful parish church in a wonderful setting near the River Avon. Shakespeare is buried here. The Parish Register records his baptism in 1564 and burial in 1616. Copies of the original documents are on display.

Shakespeare's tomb is in the chancel - a privilege bestowed on him when he became a lay rector in 1605. Alongside his grave are those of his widow Anne and his daughter Susannah. Nearby on the north wall is a bust of Shakespeare that was erected about 7 years after his death - within the lifetime of his widow.

There is no charge to view the graves, but they do ask for a donation for the upkeep of the church.

This theme park is located around the former home of Victorian Prime Minister Robert Peel, near Tamworth in Staffordshire. It is the UK's largest family owned theme park.

This year they opened Thomas Land - the reason for our visit. This is the biggest collection of rides and attractions based on the famous British children's story - Thomas the Tank Engine, outside Japan. This was where the original Thomas Land was set up in 1998.

The Railway Series books in which Thomas appears, began with their creator - the Reverend W Awdry narrating the stories of steam engines Thomas, Gordon, Henry and Edward on the Island of Sodor railway to his son, Christopher, in bed with measles. The first book was published in 1945. The books and television series are a favourite with the youngest member of our family - hence this visit.

A total of £5.4 million was spent on developing and creating the rides in this area of the park. It occupies 6,000 square metres, has 12 themed rides and is very much for younger children.

The gates to the whole park open at 9:30, but the rides do not actually start running until 10:30. We spent that hour wandering around their zoo. It is not very good, but it did pass the time.

Our son had a great time in the Thomas themed area. The rides are brand new, imaginative, some are quite thrilling and all are faithful to the stories.

Aside from the 5 minute train journey ride on board Thomas and the little rollercoaster, we did not have to queue for anything.

The rides are aimed at younger children, but we felt our son, at 5, was the perfect age. He was not too old to enjoy it all, but could go on all the rides, drive the cars and thoroughly enjoy everything. Not all the rides are suitable for very young children.

As well as Thomas Land, there are 5 other areas in the park:

Action Park - thrills and spills
Aerial Park - rides that go into the sky
Fisherman's Wharf - a water themed area
Pirate Cove and the zoo.

We went on some of the other rides in the park, but most were either too extreme for our son to enjoy, or a bit "past it". The setting and location - all around a large lake - is very pretty though.

The park closes at 5pm. We found that we had more than enough time to do everything in Thomas Land, explore the rest of the park and then return to the Thomas area to repeat our favourite things, without any time pressure.

We had a lovely time here and were pleased Reuben had seen Thomas Land, but we probably would not return.

Sudbury Hlal is a country house - one of England's finest Restoration mansions and is a Grade 1 listed building. It was used as the internal "Pemberley" scenes in the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.

The house was built in the 1660's - there is a mixture of architectural styles inside and lovely formal gardens. The Long Gallery, at more than 138 feet is especially impressive. The Great Staircase is also apparently one of the most elaborate of its kind in any English house.

The property, gardens and museum are owned and run by the National Trust. We are members, so decided to pay it a visit as it was a good stopping point on our journey back home from Stratford Upon Avon.

The house is beautiful and very impressive. Inside they have children's activity sheets - things for children to look out for and do inside the house, so it makes the whole experience a bit more interesting for them.

The Museum of Childhood, housed in the 19th century wing of Sudbury Hall was particularly interesting and enjoyable. It has fascinating displays about children from the 18th century onwards. It reopened in March this year after a £2.2 million transformation. We loved it - our son also learnt a lot about childhood experiences from the past to the present.

You start off with a walk through a Victorian street. There were lots of toys for playing outside - especially enjoyable were the hands-on areas where you could play marble games, skip etc.. They also had areas where you could listen to accounts of playing and games from the past.

The Work Gallery was next - it had lots of information about how children were employed in the past. They even had a chimney climb - a mock up of a chimney in a house, where children could climb up and experience what it was like to be a chimney sweep.

The Home Gallery had a great display of dolls houses and board games, and cleverly had 3 typical bedrooms for children from 3 diffferent time periods on the ceiling!

The Victorian schoolroom was our favourite part of the whole thing. You experienced a lesson from Victorian times - complete with a teacher, wrote on slates, someone wore the dunce's cap etc.. It was so well done. Our son was particularly thrilled to be chosen to ring the bell for the end of the "lesson."

There were other rooms dedicated to babyhood, books and stores and upstairs 2 large galleries full of old toys and a craft area.

There is a very nice cafe/restaurant in the courtyard, and some lovely walks through the gardens.

All in all this was a very interesting and enjoyable place to visit.