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Howard Davis Park discovery in St Helier

ByEmma

Our holiday to Jersey seems like a lifetime ago now. Every so often I look at the photos and remember how good a break, and what fun we had.

One of best and most simple things we did was go to the park near our hotel. Every day, in fact several times a day, because it was the nicest way to walk into town.

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N loves a park, and the Howard Davis Park in St Helier is a pretty good example of a city park.

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There was plenty of grass for sun bathing, playing football or just generally running around.

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Winding paths to walk along and enjoy some shade.

Flowers galore. Not only the hydrangeas along the paths, but there were a couple of lovely garden areas.

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One in a slightly oriental style with a little bridges and tall plants to walk through.

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The other was a beautiful rose garden, with a wonderful walkway of flower trellises and goldfish pond. N hated that all the flowers meant I was always stopping to take photographs. It was so beautiful I couldn’t resist. The only thing was expecting the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland and her playing card Jacks, to turn up to paint the flowers.

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N’s favourite area of the park was obviously the children’s playground. Every evening before (and sometimes after) we’d gone out for our evening meal, he would have a stop to play in it. It was perfect for under 6s, with plenty of equipment to go round including a bendy bike he loved, and a little trampoline.

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Only once was there a problem with some older children loitering and taking over one evening. There were 3 dads and 1 other mum in the playground with their children, all younger than N. But I was the only one who mentioned that maybe they were over age to be in the playground.  Of course, I got a sarky comment back although that boy did back off. Until a lippy one got on the equipment again, and started making comments about me moaning. Well, I’m not one to stop if someone’s in the wrong. And other parents were starting to leave.

I couldn’t believe not one other parent said something to them to back me up. Even N stood at the top of the climbing frame and told the boy that he would break the bendy bike because he was too big. Good on N who’s usually really quiet, for speaking up. What made me laugh was that some of the friends were then telling the kid to not swear in front of young children and just to leave it. Of course, this kid didn’t take any notice.

In the end, N wanted to go. He told me he didn’t want to go back to the playground again the next day because he was scared of them. I was so annoyed with them, not realising how scared young children may get, and how there’s a reason why play equipment and play areas have age restrictions.

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We went back to the playground before we left, and our feelings about the park being a lovely place returned.

One lunch time we had a lovely picnic in the sun, and N took his ball out for a brief kick around as well.

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We didn’t find time to have afternoon tea in the tea rooms there. For facilities it’s a great park.  It’s always handy to have decent toilets available when you’re spending so much time in a park.

I don’t think our trip to Jersey would have been quite the same without the relaxing time we spent in the park.

Do you look out places like this when you go on holiday?

Why not take a look at other day out ideas in Jersey.

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18 Comments

  1. This looks like such a lovely park, and it is such a shame the older children ruined it (thankfully only once). I purposefully don’t go to parks when there are older children around (we do keep away in the school holidays) – they are always congregated in giant groups on the child equipment (not even using it) and the sarky comments drive me up the wall so I keep away. I’d have backed you up 🙂 #CountryKids

  3. That park looks amazing! So many bits to explore and such beautiful flowers, I hope the boys in the playground didn’t spoil the day too much for you.

    Popping over from #CountryKids

  4. My son tend to be the first victim if theres a big bully in the playground as he is small. So when there are older bully kids I am the one who backs out. I wish I can be like you who is brave enough to say whats on my mind on situations like that. We are experienced lots of those last summer =(

    #countrykids

  7. Ohh yes this does look like a lovely park. A good park is always an essential find for us too as the girls can then run off energy without any cost. We loved our holiday in St Hellier a couple of years ago and I’d like to go back. Mich x #CountryKids

  8. Ohh yes this does look like a lovely park. A good park is always an essential find for us too as the girls can then run off energy without any cost. We loved our holiday in St Hellier a couple of years ago and I’d like to go back. Mich x #CountryKids

    1. It is a lovely place. I think it’s better for older kids if you’re relying on wanting to go round a lot of the tourist historical places though.

  9. Jersey does know how to do a good flower bed. Their displays are always good. It looks a good play park. Good for N standing up to the older boys. That takes guts. So glad you went back and cance’lled out the bad memories. #CountryKids

  11. What a perfect route to the city centre. I always like to go through a park rather than along a road if I can, even if it is a bit further. It really does look beautiful and well maintained. What a shame about the older boys, they can be so intimidating. I remember a similar experience when Theo was young. He was 5 or 6 and tall for his age. He had a favourite beanie cat that went out everywhere with him but some boys at a park told him he was too old for teddies and he never took his cat out again. It made me very sad. I’m glad you went back to the park and finished the holiday with happy memories.

    Thank you for sharing your holiday park with me on #CountryKids

    1. I guess a lot of people don’t want to rock the boat nowadays. A shame, because it’s not great when children get scared. Thanks for commenting Becky

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