Queenswood Country Park hosted a fantastic family event on Saturday 8th April – a Gruffalo’s Spring Picnic – which saw hundreds of families joining in with activities, meeting the Gruffalo and exploring the woods.

The site had a wonderful festival feel on the day with live music, drumming workshops, face painting and arts and crafts spread out under the trees, storytelling and yoga workshops in the yurt and WildPlay activities – including the always-popular mud kitchen and den building – through the Arboretum.

Event organiser, Hayley Herridge commented: “With the sun shining, the day really could not have gone any better. It’s great to see so many children outside enjoying themselves, getting enthusiastic about all the activities and exploring the woods too. We had lots of fantastic volunteers working so hard all day – we couldn’t have done it without them – and their efforts really paid off.”

The event was funded by the Big Lottery’s Celebrate programme and was the second Gruffalo-themed event that has now been held at the site since the trail was installed by the managing partnership of Herefordshire Wildlife Trust and New Leaf ; the Gruffalo launch party welcomed a similar number of visitors last autumn.

This event was just part of the Easter holiday programme at Queenswood with Adventure Club, Get Crafty & Play and Lake Play sessions running each week as well as an Easter trail which is running every day.

Images © Paul Cooper