Groomsbridge Place has now closed as a tourist attraction and is re-opening in 2025 as a hotel according to this Kent tourism website. If it does become a hotel it’s probably unlikely they will hold events like the one we went to at Halloween in 2022 but I want to share a few pictures anyway. I actually wrote this blog post just after we visited in October 2022 but hadn’t gotten around to publishing it until now.
To round off our first ever half term holiday as parents, I wanted a ‘proper’ day out and had been looking for ideas when a particular event kept popping up on my Facebook feed – Pumpkins and Pixie Dust at Groombridge Place near Tunbridge Wells. Groombridge described itself as an ‘enchanted forest’ so I was pretty much sold.
There were a few hairy moments on the drive there, along winding country lanes that were barely big enough for two cars to pass – I always hold my breath and hope that we don’t meet anything coming the other way! On arrival at Groombridge we were directed into a field that seemed to be overflow parking; it had rained that morning and was starting to ease off but the field was already getting pretty muddy. I’m glad it didn’t carry on raining all day or it might have been difficult to get the car out!
Then you have to walk up the road from the field to the entrance of Groombridge (there is actually more parking at the top but it was already full). It took us less than ten minutes but it felt like a long walk!
But as we arrived at the entrance we saw Spider-Man and Maleficient which suddenly made it all very exciting! The Halloween event had witches of course but also Disney princesses (and a villain) and for some reason Spider-Man as well. They greeted us and posed for photos then we went to find out friends in the cafe, where we also found Cinderella. My then-four year old was very pleased to meet her!
There were three shows/ interactive events taking place at multiple times throughout the day and as it was busy we made sure we were at each venue a good ten minutes in advance. Adults sat on hay bales in a barn and children sat on chairs at the front to watch the Pumpkins and Pixie Dust show, which revolved around the princesses getting ready for a ball and Maleficient trying to spoil their plans until she gets hit by a magic spell and gets into the party spirit. The princesses sang and danced to various pop songs and I was quite amused when Maleficient had her change of heart and they all performed her favourite song at the end -My daughter loved the show and seeing all the princesses and is now a big fan of the Timewarp too!
Next we headed out through a balloon arch for a ten minute walk along by the river, where we could see lots of Halloween decorations (mainly skeletons and ghosts hanging from trees over the river). It was a nice walk though we were glad we had wellies!
At the other end was a stage where another show took place (that we ended up watching twice), this time about witches. There’s also a large outdoor playground with wooden structures where you walk up steps and across bridges and so on – my daughter and her friends loved it and spent ages there. There was also a toilet block and two snack stands serving food (one had burgers and hot dogs and kids lunch boxes, the other had crepes). We ended up spending quite a while here and got lunch here too.
This is also where the canal boat goes from and we decided to take the boat back rather than walk which was a couple of pounds extra. We got a closer look at the spooky decorations along the river which the kids loved and then got back just in time to watch a birds of prey demonstration on the field.
Finally we did a potion making class where each child had their own witch’s cauldron and chose some plastic creepy crawlies, mixed some coloured liquids and waved their magic wands.. it would have been very popular with fans of Harry Potter and though my daughter was too young for JK Rowling still, she really enjoyed it.
Last of all we did a sort of scavenger hunt where we had to look for pumpkins displaying large letters around parts of the garden; we also stumbled across a Cinderella coach decorated with autumn leaves which the children loved.
We had a brilliant day out with so much to do – if Groomsbridge Place really will no longer be run as a family attraction then it would be a shame but if it does become a hotel I’m sure the guests will love it as much as we did.
Mini Moo Life 
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