Hylands House — Attraction in Chelmsford

Toilet block by adventure Castle was closed in the AM, with clean & functional demountable open. Then in the PM they closed the demountable & opened the main block but this quickly started to overflow! Water flowing out of the cubical & all stalls blocked up! Lots of people having to visit the stables toilets instead (which were clean and well serviced). I'm sure this problem will be sorted quickly. Looks like a pipe-based drainage issue at the Adventure castle loo.

Aside from the toilet issue, an amazing day out. Incredible play area suitable for all but the very very young-accessible & safe. Plenty of restrictions on dogs (excluded from main play areas, on leads near paths, although two dog-owners were ignoring signs & letting their pets swim after the ducks in the lake!). Abundant wildlife and fragrant flowers galore (you can smell them before you can see them!) Reasonable priced snacks/drinks/ice-cream at the kiosk with fast & freindly service (although coffee was a little gritty). More than enough room for everyone and a respectable crowd today (no boom-boxes or gazebos in sight & today was the first day of 'freedom' from lock-down, so I'd expected a little madness). Parking was more than adequate and unbelievably, it is free!

An absolutely splendid, well maintained, historic and precious resource for the area. Fun for all! Perfect place for a day out, or to...

Location is perfect for a summer wedding, but definitely not for an autumn or winter wedding AND definitely not for asian weddings - staff were not versed in Indian/Bengali traditions. They called themselves wedding organisers or something to that effect, but in reality I'm not sure what they did apart from fetch the occasional drink for the bride and groom, petty conflict resolution, which their immediate family were more than capable enough to do. Generally, staff were highly arrogant, refused to acknowledge immediate family members. If they did, it really would've helped them to manage the wedding day better, but their interference was unnecessary and a hindrance. The whole day was pure shambles. The staff NEED to check with the married couple around who else they need to check in with on the wedding day, especially for Bengali weddings as the bride and groom are truly meant to take a back seat. The bride cannot direct much on the day as she'll be busy with photoshoots. So the immediate family members will be able to step in and manage catering, stage shoots, etc. Like I said, venue is great for simple events, but not for culturally...

Hylands Park is a beautiful, well kept country park. The perfect place for a family day out or a lovely walk with your dogs. However make sure you take your own food. The Cafe has recently been taken over by a new company. We visited there this week and were very disappointed. Poor menu, no freshly made sandwiches or made to order food available. There were some pre made (bought in) sad looking sandwiches in a fridge, a over cooked lasagne and a not very appetizing meat pie to choose from. My friend is vegetarian and there were no available hot options for her. We asked for jacket potatoes but were rather rudely told they had run out and all they had was what we could see! It was 1.30pm. Needless to say we walked out and went for a lovely lunch at the the nearby Ingatestone Saddlery (we can definitely recommend eating there). The previous Cafe at Hylands (Huttons Cafe) was lovely. Their made to order Paninis were yummy, really good hot meals all freshly made. They also had homemade dog treats for sale so your dogs could have a yummy treat too. Very friendly staff. We are very sad that they weren't given the contract to continue...