dog friendly | Why don't you kids

Name of park Priory park
Location Elizabeth way Bishop’s Waltham SO32 1SQ
Parking? yes
Toilets? no
Dogs allowed? yes to the field but not into the play area
Coffee Shop? no
Comments Try googling Priory park and you won’t find a single image of it, is there a conspiracy to stop people finding the park? A chance post on Facebook group lead me to Priory park and I’m so glad it did. The park is tucked away behind a housing estate on the edge of Bishop’s Waltham and is surrounded by fields. Even from the car park you can’t see how great this park is as you the bowling club is between you and the park.
When you have walked past the bowling green you can look down on a huge fenced in area with play equipment suitable for all ages. As usual our 6 year old loved the zip wire.
The 3 year old liked the climbing frame and the slide.

Whilst the visiting nearly 2 year old enjoyed the bouncy see saw.

There was amble play equipment to keep them all amused for an hour, toddler swings, child swings and bucket swings, a suspended roundabout, a balance trail, a climbing wall, several play structures, a stand up see saw and some smaller toddler toys. Outside of the main play area was a football pitch and a big muddy field for exercising dogs and jumping in puddles.

If I’m honest I prefer to see a little separation between toddler and older children’s play areas, if only to avoid having a heart attack when a toddler runs under the zip wire. But otherwise this is a great playground, one that is worth travelling for especially if you have children of mixed ages.
Of course Sunday was a cold day so we just had to revisit Josie’s to warm ourselves up with tea and cake.

Name of playground Waltham Chase Recreation Ground

Location Winchester rd Waltham Chase
Parking a small free car park
Toilets no
Dogs Allowed? yes on playing field, not in fenced play area
Comments
Waltham Chase is not usually our area but today my youngest had a swimming lesson in Shirrell
Heath and I promised the girls that if they were good we would stop at a playground on the way home. This playground is on the main road through Waltham Chase so was an ideal location.

The playground consists of a large fenced in field with football goals, a teen shelter and space for dog exercising. To one side of the field there are play structures suitable for older children and a fenced in play area for younger children.
I like that the two play areas are so close together, I felt comfortable with my eldest moving between the two freely. The smaller play area included a set of toddler swings with the 2 swings join ed together, this enables one parent to push 2 children easily. There was also a mini roundabout and a low level climbing structure complete with scramble net and slide. Both my girls liked this area which also had several benches for mums to relax on.

The mini roundabout

The older children’s play area has a massive zip wire, a traditional large slide, several balance walks, a hanging roundabout, and a really big climbing structure with scramble net, fireman’s pole and a suspended bridge. Whilst this provided a challenge both the girls were able to climb up different areas and go down the slide. As always my eldest spent the majority of her time on the zip wire. Despite all the more modern things my youngest loved the traditional slide, there is something about climbing to the top of a really high ladder and then wizzing down a slide…. Shame this one was not built for mum bums!

Shame my hips are too wide!

This is another playground that if we were passing with time on our hands we would stop and play at, but we probably wouldn’t go out of our way to visit. There is enough there to entertain children of a range of ages, there is plenty of space to kick a ball, chase a dog around, learn to ride a bike but it’s not somewhere to spend a whole day.