Vivary Park, Taunton, Somerset
If you’re spending a day in Taunton when you’re on your large group holiday in Somerset, and you feel in need of a break from the shops and the hustle and bustle, head to Vivary Park. Just at the top of the high street, this is where you can find a moment of calm, somewhere to take five, to sit and enjoy the quiet.
It’s a big one park, this one, covering almost 18 acres and having within its curtilage an 18 hole golf club, a golf and adventure centre, tennis courts, a bowling green and a children’s play area. Vivary Park retains its air of Edwardian elegance – the ornate cast iron gates (closed at dusk every day), the fountain made in memory of Queen Victoria, the historic bandstand and the war memorial. In the spring and summer the flower beds are profuse with colour, in August every year the park is the setting for Taunton Flower Show, the longest of its kind in the UK, and dubbed ‘The Chelsea of the West’.
You might like it here so much that you decide to linger, and why not? Younger children will love playing in the sandpit, or feeding the ducks that live on the tributary of the River Tone that flows through the park; you can all test your putting skills or put your fear of heights to the challenge on the high ropes course at Vivary Golf and Adventure Centre, or make your own fun, playing leap frog on the grass, doing handstands and cartwheels.
There’s a little café on the edge of the park, but if the sun is smiling down upon you, go to Loafers sandwich bar in Bath Place, buy paninis and wraps and find a peaceful spot for a picnic. Sometimes it’s the simple things that are best.
All information correct at the time of writing