20 Attractions to Explore Near Someries Castle

Luton Hoo Estate is a traditional privately owned Country Estate that continues to trust in its history and values. A traditional Estate that once included one of England's finest stately homes. Today, the Estate boasts an arable farm (with environmentally-friendly systems incorporated within its techniques), parkland, residential properties, commercial units, a historic model farm and a local food hub.

There’s so much to discover at Stockwood, which includes Beautiful gardens, interactive exhibitions and the largest carriage collection in Europe. The discovery centre displays collections of local social history, archaeology, geology and rural crafts. It also houses the biggest collection of horse-drawn carriages in Europe, the Mossman Collection.

Stockwood is a public park made from the grounds of what was a stately home from 1740-1964. The former walled vegetable garden now has a set of well-maintained period gardens'. They include a Victorian garden, a cottage garden and a knot garden. The surrounding landscape garden has a sculpture by Ian Hamilton Findlay. The park was originally the estate and grounds to Stockwood House, which was demolished in 1964.

Wardown Park is one of seven district parks in Luton, providing a green refuge within walking distance of the town centre. It provides the setting for Wardown Park Museum and offers a wide range of opportunities for formal and informal recreational activities. With its outstanding features and is one of the most visited parks in Luton. It provides an oasis of calm within walking distance of the town center.

Wardown House, Museum and Gallery is situated in the beautiful landscaped Wardown Park, on the outskirts of Luton town centre. The house was formerly the home of the Scargill family, then a military hospital and is now a museum and gallery. It was one of two free admission museums situated in Luton which are part of the charitable trust, Luton Culture.

Woodside Animal Farm in Slip End Village, near Luton, is a great day out. Plenty of Animals on show and lots to see and do, including a Fun Fair and Crazy Golf. It has exotic animals to see and feed. Children are encouraged to get 'touchy-feely' with many, including rabbits, goats, chicks and ducklings. It proves to be an ideal environment for group and educational visits.

Rothamsted Park is a huge 56-acre public park adjacent to the world-famous Rothamsted Experimental Research Centre, which includes a sports centre, a paddling pool and an indoor swimming pool, the park is much loved for its wide-open spaces which provide opportunities for walking and relaxation. There is also a popular children’s play area and the District’s only purpose-built skateboard Park.

St Paul's Walden Bury is a notable landscape garden, laid out in the early 18th-century, covering about 50 acres. It is the childhood home of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The surrounding estate, with its arable and livestock farm and its ancient woodland, is a traditional country estate set in the heart of the beautiful Hertfordshire countryside.

Shaw's Corner was the primary residence of the renowned Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw; The house was designed very much in the Arts and Crafts style with stained glass windows and hearts cut into the banisters. It tells the story of his life and gives a great description of much of his life. The Arts and Crafts interiors are small yet beautiful. The garden contains a revolving summerhouse where Shaw used to work.

Pegsdon Hills and Hoo Bit is a 79-hectare nature reserve in Pegsdon in Bedfordshire. It offers some of the best views in the county. In spring, moschatel, or town-hall clock, named after the arrangement of its flowers, can be found in the woodland, while dingy and grizzled skipper butterflies flutter around in the grassland.

Redbournbury Mill is a fully restored 18th century working watermill on the River Ver just north of St Albans. The mill produces and sells stoneground organic flour, with the adjacent bakery producing a variety of bread from the mill’s organic flours.

Within Zilker Park's 358 acres lies one of the crown jewels of Austin - Barton Springs Pool. The pool itself measures three acres in size and is fed from underground springs with an average temperature of 68-70 degrees, ideal for year-round swimming. The Springs serves as home to the endangered Barton Springs Salamander and is listed as a federally protected habitat.

Houghton Hall was commissioned as a private estate in 1700 by Alice Brandreth, it was part of a much larger land holding of one Henry Brandreth who once owned all of what is now Houghton Regis. It now presents as a path running around the periphery of a number of large fields. Some are mowed and others are left to grow, presumably in order to support small wildlife: butterflies and such.

A beautiful nature reserve that has a large population of the rare pasque flower and several other rare plants are present in the downland, including greater pignut and fleawort. This post is also flourished with different verities of butterflies and the occurrence of springs and a chalk stream at the foot of the valley increases the beauty of this area. Between April and August is the best time to visit this paradise.

Heartwood Forest is an extraordinary and special place that has transformed a vast area of former farmland in London’s greenbelt. It is home to over half a million new saplings, stunning ancient woodland, a native arboretum and a community orchard. Incredibly, it takes just 12 years to turn bare land into flourishing native woodland, complete with a diverse range of wildlife and towering trees.

Approximately 7 miles long, the Nickey Line footpath and cycleway in Hertfordshire is a former railway line. The Nickey Line now forms a pleasant green corridor, a footpath and a cycleway, forming part of the National Cycle Network, providing attractive countryside and woodland walks, as well as a traffic-free route to school or work. The route is approximately seven miles long.

The British Schools Museum in Hitchin bills itself as the 'Home of the Education Revolution', a bold claim but one that has a great deal of truth about it. The museum is built around an authentic early Victorian school established in the 1830s and is remarkably unaltered since it was opened. It includes a monitorial schoolroom based on the educational theories of Joseph Lancaster for 300 boys, which opened in 1837, and a rare galleried classroom, dating from 1853.

Dunstable Downs is the highest point in the East of England and one of the best-known viewpoints on the Chilterns ridge, which was situated in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty on the edge of the Chiltern Hills. It attracts a lot of tourists and also its views are truly mesmerizing.

Knebworth House was the former Home of the Lytton family for over 500 years, Knebworth was transformed in 1843 from a red brick Tudor house into a veritable feast of Victorian Gothic turrets, gargoyles and gryphons, by writer-statesman Edward Bulwer-Lytton. Other notable family members include Lady Constance Lytton, Hertfordshire’s own Suffragette and the Edwardian architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, who married into the Lytton family.

Dunstable Downs is the highest point in the East of England and one of the best-known viewpoints on the Chilterns ridge. The chalk grasslands of the Downs have miles of footpaths and circular walks to enjoy. Because of its elevation, Dunstable Downs hosted a station in the shutter telegraph chain which connected the Admiralty in London. It was one of the iconic locations in this area and it will be a memorable moment too.