Fun for Free

ARNOS VALE CEMETERY
Bath Rd , Bristol BS4 3EW . Zone A. Open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm, Sun 10am-5pm and public holidays from Mar-Sept, with shorter opening hours in winter. No vehicle access within 30 mins of closing time. Ffi: 0117 971 9117, www.arnosvale.org.uk • Bristol’s own Père-Lachaise . Yes, really. The biggest and most interesting burial place in the area by a long way. Opened in 1839, it was intended to accommodate the massive overspill of corpses from overcrowded town and city-centre churchyards. It's a huge necropolis - a genuine "city of the dead" - filled with loads of fascinating Victorian memorials, and the last resting place of many of the most important figures in the city's history. Go visit, get the guide booklet and spot saintly orphanage-founder George Muller, or the Wills fags dynasty's memorial, or public health pioneer William Budd, or reformer of bad girls Mary Carpenter. Probably the best-known memorial is the ornate one of Raja Rammohun Roy, the Indian philosopher who's emerged in recent years as a sort of symbol of modern multicultural Bristol. There are the graves of two survivors of the Charge of the Light Brigade, and loads more. On the subject of war, there’s also a big, dignified and very moving memorial to the dead of the First World War. It's now run by the Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust. A major local asset that deserves all our support, so although it's free to get into, do put a few quid in the collection box if you can. There are also regular guided tours - there are separate walks to look at the history and the wildlife. These are £3 and are well worth booking yourself in for – see www.arnosvalefriends.org.uk/tours.htm for dates and booking details.

BLAGDON VISITOR CENTRE
Blagdon Lake, N Somerset. Zone B. Open every Sun 2-5pm from 4 May to 28 Sept, admission free. Ffi: 0117 953 6470 (office hours), www.bristol-water.co.uk • A chance to go behind the scenes at Bristol Water and see what goes into keeping the H2O coming through your taps. The ‘Secret Sundays’ opening days allow visitors to see the giant Victorian beam-engine pumps and interactive displays about water, rain, reservoirs, taps and toilets, plus lots of info on the importance of water conservation. The grounds outside are very pleasant, with a ‘Discovery Wood’ nature trail and trout farm, complete with big bins of fishy pellets that you can chuck in to feed the fish. There’s also refreshments on sale, along with water butts and compost bins. The Bristol Water staff are very friendly and keen to help you learn stuff. If every big company spent money on stunts like this rather than on press officers and advertising agencies, the world would be a much nicer place. A nice no-brainer Sunday afternoon outing.

CREATE CENTRE
Smeaton Rd , Cumberland Basin, Bristol BS1 6XN. Zone A. Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm (Ecohome 12noon-3pm Mon-Fri), admission free. Ffi: 0117 925 0505, www.bristol.gov.uk/ create • "Bristol's unique centre for sustainable development" is housed in a huge great former dockside warehouse and is home to about two dozen different organisations all working on things sustainable and planet-friendly. Features a permanent exhibition on recycling, an environmental art gallery and a caff. The star of the show is the experimental Ecohome, showing off all the different things you can do to make your house more planet-friendly. They're not mad keen on you visiting by car and actually it’s a quite pleasant walk from the docks along by the New Cut. The other half of the building is taken up by the Bristol Record Office which is generally open 9.30am-4.30pm Tue-Fri and 10am-4pm on the first two Saturdays of each month. The BRO is home to over 10 miles of shelves of historic records from Bristol's past and is used by researchers and people tracing their family trees. Even if that's not your bag, take a look if you're in the area; admission is free and there are regular historical or art exhibitions.

CITY FARMS
There are a number of city or community farms around Bristol and Bath these days, offering urban types like us a look at the ins and outs of farming and food production. They're a great hour or two out of the house, especially if you have smaller children in tow. The main ones are:

Bath City Farm Twerton Hill, Whiteway, Bath BA2 1NW. Zone A. Open daily. Ffi: 01225 481269, www.bathcityfarm.org.uk • At 36 acres, this is one of the biggest city farms in the UK. Set up in the 1990s, it boasts an award-winning play team as well the usual chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, cows, etc.

Lawrence Weston Community Farm Saltmarsh Drive , Lawrence Weston, Bristol BS11 0NF . Zone A. Open daily except Mon 9.30am-4.30pm. Ffi: 0117 938 1128 • Small but vibrant little community farm with farm animals, plus smaller petting animals including rabbits and guinea pigs. Soft play area for under-5s and picnic area. Volunteer staff serving tea, coffee and cakes from time to time. Plants, manure, eggs and some produce on sale.

St Werburghs City Farm Watercress Rd , St Werburghs, Bristol BS2 9JY. Zone A. Open daily 9am-5pm ( 4pm winter). Ffi: 0117 942 8241. • Much-loved part of the community with all the usual - goats, pigs, sheep, etc - plus adventure playground and community garden. Runs kids’ activities and clubs. Café has been recently refurbished and should be open again by now.

Windmill Hill City Farm Philip St, Bedminster, Bristol BS3 4EA. Zone A. Open Tue-Sun 9am-5pm, shop opens 10am, cafe open Tue-Sat 9.30am-5pm & Sun 10am-4pm. Ffi: 0117 963 3252, www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk • Integral part of the south Bristol community, now over 30 years old, with community gardens, environment trails, adventure playground, cafe and shop selling produce from the city farm and another farm it runs out in the Somerset countryside. Also runs lots of community activities and courses.

MUSEUMS
Many municipal museums offer free admission. In Bristol, this means the City Museum & Art Gallery, Georgian House, Blaise Castle House Museum and Red Lodge. Bristol's museums are efficiently and enthusiastically run, and the City Museum has an excellent programme of events and exhibitions that you'd be crazy not to take advantage of regularly. See Museums, Galleries & Exhibitions section for full details.
In Bath & North East Somerset, the Victoria Art Gallery offers free admission. If you're a B&NES resident, you absolutely need to get a Discovery Card. This gets you into the Roman Baths and Fashion Museumfor free any day of the year, and entitles you to discount admission rates to a lot of other local heritage attractions. They're available free of charge from the Roman Baths and Assembly Rooms in Bath (take along proof of residency, such as a utility bill, and proof of identity, such as a driving licence or passport). A photograph for the card will be taken on the spot. Further details and downloadable application form are also available on the B&NES website - go to www.bathnes.gov.uk and click on 'A to Z', choose 'D' and scroll down to Discovery Card.

PARKS
Bristol and Bath both have several parks and open spaces that cost nowt to frolic in, and this guide kind of takes it for granted you know about Bath Skyline, or the Downs or the Clifton Suspension Bridge. The Suspension Bridge costs money to drive across, but if you can shed your glass and steel shell for a moment, you'll find it costs nothing to walk across and has all sorts of views. In 2006 the bridge got some new lights in honour of Brunel's 200th birthday, so it's dead romantic to walk across at night. Bristol's parks also host lots of events over the summer months. There should be leaflets on these in local libraries and tourist information centres nearer the time, or failing that, visit www.bristol.gov.uk/parks

WALKING & CYCLING
There are plenty of great places to go for a rural or semi-rural adventure in Bristol and Bath. Leigh Woods just over the Suspension Bridge in Bristol and the magnificent Bath Skyline Walk, are both run by the National Trust, who host occasional family events there.
Bristolians will know all about Ashton Court Estate and the Downs, but it's amazing how few know about the very pleasant Frome Valley Walkway and Oldbury Court Estate. For more on this, visit www.fromewalkway.org.uk
Another local walk worth mentioning is the River Avon Trail, a route taking you through lots of places of wildlife/heritage interest. Indeed, if you do the whole route (probably not on the same day, unless you’re very hairy-chested), you'll come out with quite a fluent understanding of the relationship between geography and local history. It runs along the Avon, from Pulteney Weir in Bath, through the wooded valleys and water meadows of South Gloucestershire, through some former industrial areas of Bristol and on to the Bristol Channel at Pill: all clearly marked, and with boards en route to give historical/scientific info. For more, visit www.riveravontrail.org.uk

If there's a waterway round these parts that's even more popular than the muddy old Avon, it has to be the Kennet & Avon Canal, which runs all the way from Bristol to Reading. Lovingly restored by enthusiasts in recent decades, the K&A is popular with walkers, cyclists and people who get their jollies driving canal boats. The best-walked stretch round these parts is around Bradford-on-Avon on account of the pleasant countryside, the lovely pubs and the genteel exchange of abuse between walkers and self-righteous oafs on mountain bikes. For more, see www.visitkanda.com

For more canalside fun, you might want to try the Gloucester-Sharpness Canal, a wide waterway running parallel to the Severn for a lot of the way and with pleasant wide paths and lots of wildlife to spot. You can walk/bike it from Sharpness itself, though we’d recommend the village of Frampton-on-Severn as a better starting point, since it’s an interesting place in itself and has a couple of pubs. They even play cricket on the village green in summer. Oh, and there’s a few ponds in the village which only children under the age of 13 are allowed to fish in!!

If you're even just a bit interested in walking in and around Bristol and Bath, the most important show in town is the Forest of Avon, which is actually not just one forest but lots of them. Well, woods mostly. The FoA team are busily covering the area in trees, and they'll tell you where to find them. For lots of ideas for woody places to go walking and picnicking, see their website at www.forestofavon.org.uk Even if you think you know the area inside out, you'll find lots here that you didn't know about.

Further afield, there are a number of areas that can be relied on to offer good walking/cycling, such as...

Exmoor See www.visit-exmoor.info and/or visit the Exmoor Visitor Centre at Dunster.

The Forest of Dean A vast green area for playing on, on foot and on bike. For many people, the problem is that the forest seems so big that they don't know where to begin. Well, there's always the Dean Heritage Centre at Soudley, near Cinderford, but note that this isn't free to get into (£4.90 adult/£4.30 concs/£2.50 child). The Forest of Dean tourism website at www.forestofdean.gov.uk is a good intro to the area, but if you're just after a very pleasant and undemanding introduction to some of its delights, try walking the Forest of Dean Sculpture Trail near Cinderford - this is completely free, though there's a charge for parking at the Beechenhurst Lodge site, which has a cafe, adventure playground and nice big green area for barbecues and cricket games.

The Mendips Right on your doorstep, and with loads of places to wander in. If you don’t know your Mendips, do so now. The area is hugely popular with walkers, even gnarled old veterans of the Ramblers' Association, not just because of all the natural and historical interest, but also because most of the pubs are marvellous. If you've never explored the bizarre lead-mining landscape around Velvet Bottom (fnar-fnar!), the spooky Dolebury Warren or the environs of the to-die-for village of Priddy, you really ought to start soon. One of the our favourite Mendip places is Goblin Combe. Get to Cleeve along the A370 from Bristol to Weston-super-Mare, turn into Cleeve Hill Road next to the Lord Nelson pub in the middle of the village. There is a car park a wee bit up the road, which is also your starting point for walks through the splendid Goblin Combe. Loads of wood, interesting rock formations and some rare flora (stinking hellebore, apparently). Small children can be induced to join an expedition here with the possibility of meeting goblins (local legend) and the definite prospect of seeing aeroplanes up quite close as they arrive and depart from Bedminster International airport nearby. Not at all suitable for wheelchairs and pushchairs as there's a lot of steps. Some fabulous views up the top.

There is a superb website at www.mendiphillsaonb.org.uk, packed with ideas for Mendip adventures, including downloadable walking routes and mountain-biking guides (click on ‘publications’).

The Quantock Hills are brilliant. They're over in the less-populated end of Somerset and lots of tourists pass 'em by without stopping as they head for the better-known delights of Exmoor. But the Quantocks offer a lot in the way of walking, biking and scenery, as well as frequent outbreaks of strangeness and historical spookiness. Best beauty spots would probably include Holford, Bicknoller and the area around Fyne Court near Bridgwater. Fyne Court, the official Quantock Hills Visitors Centre (National Trust-run, free admission), is a big old house that was once home to Somerset's own Dr Frankenstein. See also www.quantockonline.co.uk for other Quantocky ideas.

For slightly more adventurous walking and cycling, try the Government. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs have a website (http://countrywalks.defra.gov.uk) with an immense searchable database of country walks - The Conservation Walks & Rides Register, to give it its proper title. You can specify whereabouts you want to go walking, and what sort of things you want to see. DEFRA is working with landowners to open up new walks all the time, so it's worth coming back to the site from time to time. The site looks very pedestrian (sorry), but the content is brilliant, and it deserves some sort of award.

Then there’s the Forestry Commission. They run the famous Westonbirt Arboretum (see Animals & Nature section) but are also responsible for forests and woodlands around the country. Plenty of suggestions for woody walks on their website at www.forestry.gov.uk.

If you're really serious about walking, then join the Ramblers Association. The Bristol branch is particularly active, organising walks of all shapes and sizes both at weekends and during the week. It's a great way of discovering the countryside and making new friends while you're at it. You have to pay a membership fee, but you're generally welcome to go along for one or two walks to try it out before committing yourself. More at www.bristolramblers.org.uk There's also a Bath branch of the association - see www.bathra.org.uk - and a website for Ramblers covering the whole of the former Avon at www.avon-ramblers.org.uk

If it's plant and animal life you're looking for, then the Avon Wildlife Trust run a number of nature reserves in the area - some very big, some compact and bijou. Details from the AWT website at www.avonwildlifetrust.org.uk Not all of these will want people coming through on bikes, mind.

Every hardened cyclist knows that Bristol is home to Sustrans, the very wonderful people behind the National Cycle Network, which pretty much started from the disused railway line that became the Bristol to Bath cycle path, which the powers-that-be apparently want to build a bus lane on. Wonder which bleedin’ genius thought of that one. Find out more about Sustrans' car-free or car-lite cycle routes at www.sustrans.org.uk

If you like your cycling and politics all mixed up, get in touch with the Bristol Cycling Campaign, people who love bikes, hate unnecessary car journeys and who go in for social rides as well as campaigning. If you're new in the area and/or are looking for like-minded, bike-minded friends, this is a great place to start. Ffi: www.bristolcyclingcampaign.org.uk

If you'd like to get out on your bike more, but don't feel too sure of yourself, or are looking for some moral support in getting other members of the family (or even your workmates!) on their bikes, then check out Life Cycle, a Bristol-based charity who promote cycling. They even - get this! - run adult cycling lessons. So now even complete cycling virgins have no excuse! Ffi: www.lifecycleuk.org.uk

The Cyclists' Touring Club (or CTC as it prefers to be known nowadays) is a national organisation for cyclists which also gets involved in campaigning issues. There are local branches with very active diaries of rides. The website also has bags of information on possible routes to explore. Ffi: www.ctc.org.uk