Blenheim Palace Oxfordshire Review
Blenheim Palace
Oxfordshire
Reviewed by Joanne Hughes
Blenheim Palace is the historical home of Sir Winston Churchill which is set in magnificent grounds. Travelling from the M3 it is very well signposted and easy to get to. There is plenty of parking with a lovely view of the house in front of you (unless you park by the Pleasure Gardens). I took my five year old son, and it was raining on the day, so we donned our wellies and enjoyed jumping in the puddles on the walk to the entrance.
The entrance to the palace is through the shop where there is also a small Costa café where you can purchase a light lunch, teas, coffees, cakes and also ice-creams. Then you go through into a small courtyard where you can exchange your day ticket for a yearly pass free of charge – which makes this attraction very good value for money, especially for those who live locally.
Inside the house you walk around the ground floor through all the delightful rooms, and there is a free tour available at frequent times throughout the day. There is also an exhibition about Sir Winston Churchill and his life, which was good, though housed in a small space which does get overcrowded at busy times. However, I would say that the house was more of an attraction for adults rather than for children, as there were no interactive areas, all the information given is more about the paintings rather than about life within the Palace, and there was little or no information/stories about the families that have lived there and what they would have used the rooms for; also, we went during Halloween week but there were no Halloween decorations around the house, stories of ghosts, or Halloween characters floating around for my son to enjoy.
The grounds outside are extensive, with beautiful fountains and large lakes to walk around, which, when the weather is good, is lovely to stroll, and enjoy a picnic. It would have been nice to be able to walk around the back of the house to the little train, as it was a lot of walking for my son to go around the grounds and then have to return the way we had come to get to the station at the side of the house.
The eateries within the Palace are quite limited and rather expensive. The Costa café does a small lunch menu which isn’t available all day, and the restaurant was for more formal meals and Champagne teas – which are not very family orientated.
The train between the Palace and the Pleasure Gardens was very good, they had decorated the tunnel and there was spooky music playing (though at an extra charge). It would be useful to put on the guide-map the train times as when we arrived at the station it was a twenty minute wait, so we decided to walk. The walk started off on the grass, which was fun with all the leaves on the ground, however, there was no dedicated path, and further on you had to walk along the roadside, avoiding the cars driving past.
At the Pleasure Grounds, we chose to eat at the cafe. The food was nice but it was not an extensive menu – hot-dogs, pizza or pasta as the main meals, no home-cooked foods available. Again, it was sparsely decorated for the Halloween theme, and the building itself was quite cold.
There was a Pumpkin Trail whereby you had to find 10 pumpkins and draw the face onto your card. This was good fun but could’ve been improved with clues to help you find them. The maze was really good fun, and my son enjoyed making the choices of which direction to go next. The play areas, including the adventure playground were suitable for all ages but not all weathers, as there is wooden equipment which gets very slippery when wet. The butterfly farm was a lovely experience, which could be improved with a display area at the end which gives information about the butterflies in the farm.
If you are into historic locations and walking in beautiful grounds, this is a must to visit. Overall, the eateries could be better, less expensive and with greater variety; and the Palace could be improved for accessibility of information for children.
Rating: 3.5/5
For more information on Blenheim Palace and events visit www.blenheimpalace.com.
Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, OX20 1PP
