Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
lets you peer down into many of the enclosures as you travel across the park, which
is noted for its gardens replicating many of the animals' native environments. There
are also play areas, a golf course, and a mini golf course.
Upton-by-Chester.
&
01244/380280.
www.chesterzoo.org. Admission varies by season; in school
holidays, it's £15 adults, £12 children 3-15, with the monorail extra. Open from 10am daily, with closing
times varying by season.
Dewa Roman Experience
HISTORIC SITE Primarily of interest to families,
and best saved for a rainy day, this rather schlocky attraction features some recreated
Roman streets and a studio where you can handle archeological remains and try on
armor and so on. In school holidays it also runs tours of Chester led by Roman soldier
patrols; note that these cost £2 but net you £1 off museum entry.
Pierpoint Lane, Chester.
&
01244/343407.
www.dewaromanexperience.co.uk. Admission £4.95
adults, £3.25 children 5-15. Feb-Nov Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Dec-Jan daily 10am-4pm.
Grosvenor Museum
MUSEUM This otherwise modest museum is home to a
world-famous collection of Roman tombstones. You can also take in art, silver, and
social and natural history collections, and if you're visiting with kids, join in on a rich
program of family events.
27 Grosvenor St.
&
01244/402033.
www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk. Free admission. Mon-Sat
10:30am-5pm and Sun 1-4pm.
CHESHIRE COUNTRY HOUSES & GARDENS
Though there is little to tempt visitors to the other major towns in Cheshire (includ-
ing Warrington, Crewe, Widnes, and Macclesfield), this affluent county beloved by
footballers and their wives and by soap-opera stars, and said to have more millionaires
per square mile than anywhere else in the country (at least in the Alderley Edge area),
has other attractions.
Just outside the pleasant market town of Knutsford,
Tatton Park
(p. 576) is one
of the finest of all British country houses, while about 25 miles east, on the threshold
of the Peak District (p. 534), lies another magnificent estate,
Lyme Park
(p. 576).
Between the two,
Alderley Edge
(
&
01625/584412;
www.nationaltrust.org.
uk), just outside the town of the same name—once home to the Beckhams and still
Cheshire's “capital of bling”—is a dramatic red-sandstone escarpment dotted with
ancient copper-mining relics. With free, open access (parking lot open daily 8am to
5-6pm), it offers woodland walks and lovely views over the Cheshire countryside,
especially from Stormy Point, Castle Rock, and The Beacon, where fires were lit to
warn of the imminent invasion by Spain in 1588. From the escarpment, there's a
pathway to
Hare Hill
(
&
01625/584412;
Apr and June-Oct Wed-Thurs and
Sat-Sun 10am-5pm; daily in May; admission £3.40 adults, £1.70 children 5-15), a
woodland garden with wire sculptures and exotic plants open daily. Refuel at the
Wizard Tearoom
(
&
07742/333463
) or
Wizard Pub
(
&
01625/584-000;
www.ainscoughs.co.uk), both on Macclesfield Road and named after the magician
Merlin (King Arthur and his men are said to sleep beneath the sandstone cliffs here).
To the north, at Styal just past Wilmslow,
Quarry Bank Mill
(
&
01625/445896;
www.nationaltrust.org.uk) gives you the chance to find out all about the Industrial Revo-
lution in the area, with hand-spinning demonstrations, working machinery, steam
engines, a waterwheel, tours of the Apprentice House, which housed the pauper chil-
dren who worked in the mill, and entry to the mill owners' gorgeous valley garden. There
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