Halloween and Pumpkin Picking at Boughton House

The pricing here works the other way round from most places. You buy a child ticket, and two accompanying adults come in free alongside it, which makes a trip with a parent and a grandparent considerably cheaper than the usual per head arithmetic.

What the ticket buys is an outdoor trail drawn from Boughton's own history and legends. Children are given a magical booklet and work their way through the Duke's riddles, with hands-on games, interactive challenges and storytelling built into the route.

The pumpkin patch is set up in the Courtyard and laid with hay, and the pumpkins are grown on the estate itself. Mini wheelbarrows are there for little ones to wheel their own back. Each child ticket comes with a £3 token to put towards a pumpkin, which covers a smaller one outright or takes a chunk off a larger one.

Visits run to one of two arrival slots rather than an all day open door, so you are choosing a morning or an afternoon at the point of booking. The Tearoom serves a seasonal menu with a Halloween twist if you want to stretch the visit out, dogs are welcome on a lead in the Courtyard and Gardens but must be kept off the pumpkin patch, and car parking costs nothing.