Best Free Play Parks in Essex

When the weather is looking good, you often want to go out and enjoy it! We are a bit adventure family at the Hadley-Sullivan household, so we have gone to so many different parks, splash parks, and outdoor areas all year around, to explore what they have to offer. Since we have been to so many places over the years, we decided to put together a bunch of the best free play parks in Essex to visit with your children, to better make use of the summer holiday and sunshine! There are a few play park-adjacent places in this list, but they go well with the getting outdoor and playing activities!

Bounc around at The Bath House Meadow

The Bathhouse Meadow is on Walton-on-the-Naze, a stone’s throw away from the ocean itself. If you are looking to do a bit more than just go to a park, this location can keep you busy for the entire day, between the beach and the park! The park itself is quite large and has a bunch of accessibility options, with lots of unique interactive aspects. Our children really love the trampoline, giant skate board and massive slide! There is a noise machine, a marry go round, and lots of swings too. Right next to the park, there is often a food truck in the summer as well as a big open space for playing ball in or setting up a picnic. There are toilets nearby, plenty of parking, and you can walk across the road and take a dip into the sea.

Find the Gruffalo at the Gruffalo Trail

The Gruffalo Trail is a big walk through the forest, featuring a bunch of statues from the Gruffalo story. You can pick up a free map from the cafe to start your trail, and then wonder around the forest marking off what you have found. All of the statues are so adorable and it’s very fun to spy them out in the forest. The trail is mostly flat and very easy to walk through, often featuring a few dens that have been created by others who have explored the area as well. Dann and I took our children to the Gruffalo Trail a few years back, when they were more interested in the books themselves, which brought a lot of magic to reading!

For information on the Gruffalo Trail, check out their website.

Climb High Harlow Adventure Play Park

The Harlow Adventure Play Park is one that we have gone to all year round, over the course of the last few years. This park is quite massive, with several different areas. We really enjoy the massive spider web to climb, the swings, and the main play area. There is also a zip line that everyone always goes on, as well as a park area focused more on climbing, and another area with more slides. As there are so many aspects to this park, everyone is often quite spaced out and it’s not too crowded. It’s worth noting that in the Harlow Town Park, by this Adventure Play Park, there is a free to use splash park too and walking through Harlow Town Park to get here is a lovely walk through gardens and water spaces too.

You can find more information on what the Harlow Adventure Play Park has to offer on their website.

Try the Zip Line at Central Park Chelmsford

Central Park in Chelmsford has a lovely play park in the middle of a massive green space with gardens, a cafe, plenty of birds to feed and a lot to do. This area is more manicured than a forest walk. The park itself has a lot of fun aspects including a mini-spider web, lots of hanging features like a zip line and spinning pull up bar, trampolines and plenty of swings. There is also a few table tennis tables, if you bring your own table tennis gear. The walk to this park is lovely and there is a skate park right near it too!

You can find more information on the Central Park in Chelmsford on the Explore Essex Website.

Swing about at Hylands Estate Adventure Castle

The Hylands Estate Adventure Castle is one that we have been going to for a couple of years now – often requested by Robin. This park is in the Hylands Estate, which is really fun to explore and often has food market events, outdoor cinemas which are free to attend, and much more going on. This massive park is open all year round and looks like you are entering a massive, wooden castle. It also has many accessibility features, as well as lots of ways to play. Amelia really loves the strange tire swings and Kai has always liked playing pretend on the castle, while Robin never can pick a favorite! Nearby there are tons of picnic tables, great parking, and a little cafe.

You can find more information on the accessibility of Hylands Estate Adventure Castle on their website.

Cool Off at Splash Park Bishop Stortford

The Splash Park in Bishop Stortford is the earliest one that seems to open near us, with one opening this year in Harlow that seems to have more features, but isn’t open for very long during the summer. This splash park is always busy, with a massive main splash area and lots of fountains around it. There are a few picnic tables to sit at and there always seems to be an ice cream van in the area! This splash park is right near a massive play park with all of the traditional park features, however, whenever we are in the area the Splash Park is more of a focus then the play park itself.

You can find opening times for the Bishop Stortford Splash Park on their website.

Find Stick Man at Weald Country Park

Weald Country Park is a massive green space with two different playparks, seasonal trails, and a lovely walk to enjoy. This park has a small park by the carpark, with plenty of slides, but the real magic is in the Stick Man themed park that’s along the trail, beyond the reindeer that always are living there, looking to be fed. The walk takes you around a beautiful pond, into a forest-y area, where you can see tons of natural looking park features along with a big bed with a bit of a story about Stickman. It’s a really fun area to explore and we always enjoy the walk!

You can find more information on Weald Country Park on Explore Essex’s website.

Visit Animals Pet’s Corner Harlow

Pet’s Corner in Harlow is a free to enter petting zoo, right by a lovely little park, that you don’t even need to pre-book to go too. We wrote about this specific place back in 2019, and have visited several times since as it’s just a lovely little day out. There are a ton of different farm yard animals all around this area, from ducks to pigs to sheep. You can walk around and watch the animals, as well as go into some indoor areas which have reptiles to look at, including a new rainforest feature that shows even more tropical animals. Everything is very well maintained and it’s lovely to be so close to nature.

Check Pet’s Corner’s opening times on their website.

Make Music Belhus Woods Country Park

Belhus Woods Country Park is another park that has a lot of different features to it, that we tend to go to all year! Belhus Woods Country Park is the musical park, according to Robin. This park has a bunch of musical instruments, a sand pit area, and a few massive slides. There is a hamster-wheel like merry go round that our elder two really enjoy running on, as well as plenty of swings. Belhus Woods Country Park has a lot of parking, a lovely cafe at the start, and then a small walk to the park through the forest. This walk is often full of dog walkers, who go past the park and along the pond. The pond is big and beautiful great for feeding swans and ducks. There is a little walking trail all the way around too! Belhus Woods Country Park also has seasonal trails set up each year, if you are interested in special walks!

Find out more about Belhus Woods Country Park on their website.

You can check out our other Days Out to see what else we’ve been up too!