Growing Farm Attraction, Piglets in York is awaiting the start of the warmer weather with anticipation so it can make the most of their new Beach area.
Piglets have taken the notion of sand play and extended it to create a significant beach play area, with the addition of waterplay and sand play equipment. This was soft launched last year and was a huge success, so they are ready for it to be even more popular when they relaunch it this year.
Timberplay worked with Piglets to enhance the excellent play value provided by sand play with carefully chosen play equipment.
A Playground Pump is positioned as the watersource into a pebble play stream, providing the magic combination of water and sand. In addition, a Building Site sand transportation system was personalised to transform it into a lifeguard station – fitting the Beach theme perfectly. A play hammock provides the ideal spot to soak up the rays and take a gentle swing.
Piglets has been open as an attraction since 2011, and year on year has added to the facilities, establishing itself as one of the leading family attractions in York. After seeing the queues of traffic leaving the City heading to the coast, owner Ed Sykes spotted an opportunity: “The draw of the beach and the seaside coincides with the first sun’s rays, and it struck me that we were in a great position to offer our own beach facilities to satisfy those who don’t fancy sitting in a car.
“Beaches are one of the best ways of providing play for large numbers of children, and as we have coupled it with water play we can keep children entertained for hours. This is just the first stage of our beach development and we have been delighted with how well it has been received – it certainly bodes well for the future.”
Lining the beach play area are a number of Beach Huts, all named after East Coast towns. As well as adding an aesthetic backdrop to the play area, these beach huts provide excellent secondary spend opportunities, where beach dwellers hire these huts out for the day. A well-placed snack bar for hot and cold drinks, ice creams, sweets and snacks for those enjoying the duration of a day at the beach also helps boost revenue
Timberplay have worked with many farm attractions to create a wide range of water play areas. The Beach at Piglets illustrates how well a theme can support the play provision, and how play can be used very effectively to increase secondary spend.
