Michelham Priory and spring flowers

Sometimes children really aren’t a pleasure to be round. Thankfully with N it’s not that frequent, but when I’ve taken him on holiday, I’d expect him to be a little more interested and fun to be around.  We had one day on our break where he moaned from start to finish – not helped by a really sore throat I think, but until he told me that and I could get some calpol we had some interesting conversations.

We’d started off at Knockhatch Adventure Park to visit and meet a friend and her children, and he moaned there about seeing owls, the bouncing pillows and more, then I wanted to stop off at Michelham Priory House and Gardens.

I heard the

‘My legs are too tired to walk’ – the 1 minute walk from the car;

‘You always get to choose’ – hmm, that’ll be after spending the morning somewhere that he chose from the leaflet; and

‘I want to go back to the hotel’

amongst others.  Hard luck kiddo, we were going in.  Thankfully it only cost around £13 for the 2 of us, and that included the children’s Easter trail…which he then refused to do after finding the first 2 boards.

Michelham Priory’s in a beautiful setting.  There’s a moat dating back to the 1200s, a water mill near the side of the grounds, the priory itself, a kitchen garden, psychic garden and acres of grounds to walk in.  I’m sure once all the flowers are out it would be a wonderful place to walk round.

Our visit was fairly fleeting, but went round the Tudor house, beautifully decorated with spring flowers.  N did find some interesting pieces to look at and it was interesting to read a bit about the place.

One thing that always goes down well with N, and gets him asking questions is when places have scale models of the buildings and site – whether historic or modern day.  He’ll always point out what he can see and ask questions about why it looks like it does, and how long the buildings have been there etc.  A great talking point.

You can also have a go at guessing the spices in the interactive kitchen, find out about child evacuees and see an example bedroom, or dressing up.

With a 5 year old, every visit is always in a rush.  He didn’t even want to hang around and look at the wonderful old wagons in the outbuildings.

The gardens looked gorgeous, with some interesting sculptures dotted around, a perfectly calm place to sit and relax in the sun…although maybe not when it gets busier with lots of children.

There’s a gorgeous courtyard with a café in it, as well as toilets and the barn where weddings can be held.  We had a nosy – it was all set up with beautiful chairs and decorations.

Michelham Priory also runs different events and activities through the year, so there’s plenty to see and do.  It’s a shame our visit was so brief because there was a lot we missed, but it’s definitely good value to visit.

Have you ever been to look round a priory?  Have you visited Michelham?

Why not take a look at these similar posts

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• Stay in the Grand Hotel Eastbourne