Find a unique gift, your next learning course and something to do with the kids as you explore.
The garden offers something for all ages, including activity trails for families and a children’s garden.
The botanical garden has given over 100 years of enjoyment to younger visitors. You’ll find plenty to amuse babies, toddlers and older children alike around the site making a trip to Winterbourne an ideal family day out.
There are plenty of activities available all year round for children so no need to worry about what to do in the school holidays. With attractions ranging from spooky Halloween trails to a summer Family Themed day you’ll find something to keep both older children and toddlers entertained.
Facilities and Activities
- Under 5s visit for free
- Family memberships available
- Children’s garden with willow tunnel and picnic tables
- Highchairs and children’s food options in the tea room
- Pushchair access to the house and garden
- Baby carriers available to borrow
- Baby change units
- Breastfeeding friendly across the site, but staff will try to make a private space available should you need it
- All year round children’s activity trails
- Interactive exhibits bring history to life
Due to the likelihood of balls going astray or damaging plants or flowers, we ask you very kindly to leave sport equipment in the car, and the same applies for tricycles or scooters. Well behaved teddy bears are welcome if accompanied by their owner, but pets do have to stay at home!
“The Garden is singularly well-furnished, and the path below the terrace fringed with a wealth of flowering shrubs and aubrietias’€¦Unhappily however, there is no subject to which the camera so steadily refuses to do justice, and this outcome of Mrs Nettlefold’s taste must therefore go unpictured.”
Winterbourne is one of the best surviving examples of an Edwardian Arts and Crafts suburban villa garden in Birmingham. The garden was lovingly created by the homeowners, Margaret and John Nettlefold, using the books of Gertrude Jekyll as guides and inspiration.
Today the botanical garden is Grade II listed and offers colour and interest throughout the year. The restored walled garden complete with crinkle-crankle wall, is a riot of rainbow shades from May until October. The lawns are fringed with striking colour themed borders, and beyond lies an original sandstone rock garden and a woodland walk through Gunnera leaves and Rhododendron displays. The botanical garden contains plants from around the globe with collections of plants from China, North and South America and the Alpine areas of the world.
Winterbourne’s Terrace Tea Room is not to be missed and is open to visitors to the house and garden daily. With picturesque views over the garden and a hearty menu of soups, sandwiches, daily hot specials and the quintessentially English afternoon tea (not always easy to find in the West Midlands), there is plenty to tempt you all year round. View the afternoon tea menu.
Serving tea, cakes and other refreshments throughout the day, meals and hot snacks are available from 12-3pm. Highchairs and child-friendly meals are also available; just ask when placing your order at the counter.
As the Tea room is designed to serve visitors to the house and garden, tables are first come first served. If you’re in a larger group do give us a call before planning a visit to make sure we don’t already have some large groups visiting the site that day. We also suggest that if you have a particular diet or an allergy, that you give us a call the day before visiting so that we can try our best to cater for your needs.