The Nature Discovery Centre — Attraction in Thatcham

Good for a walk around to get outside and of course see the local wildlife and birds. Great for if you have a young family and want them to appreciate what nature has to offer.

However I do have a couple of gripes:

The first is the amount of litter that is scattered and not by the people walking round. The bins around the path were overflowing quite literally people resorted to putting rubbish next to the bin and on top of it and they aren't small bins so again they haven't been emptied or tended to in a fair while.

Secondly, The toilets such as the disabled toilet and Baby Changing absolutely smelt terrible and had spillage/flooding on the floor judging by the smell I assumed the worst not ideal in a environment you wish to change your childs nappie in. This doesn't precisely scream clean however this isnt an isolated incident or a one off we were there for over 4 hours this time and the same spillage was on the floor for the duration. This isn't the first time we have been here and on both occasions the toilet hasn't been up kept, so not sure if it's regularly checked or cleaned so your mileage may vary.

And finally if you wish to use the cafeteria on the site I honestly wouldn't bother unless you want to take out a bank loan, if you were at a theme park or fair ground I could just about understand and justify the extortionate prices charged but for essentially a walk around a lake that will pass an hour or two i would highly suggest stopping to a shop 2 minutes down the road, the local Tescos for a meal deal or bring your...

We love NDC, we have 2 boys 6 and 9. It's so peaceful and the children can go "off lead" relatively safely. The loos outside are a bit... rough around the edges but inside are fine. The cafe has finally got sorted out but is pricy for food (£4 for a sarnie). The play ground is a hit with our boys, and they live sitting in the the woodland hide watching the garden birds on the feeders. The water birds are also a hit (duck food is available in the centre, don't use bread). Now the boys are a bit older we venture into the reed beds; there's 2 nice walks one across the railway line and right along the canal through the reed beds (2 miles ish, way marked trail) and one that goes left along the canal up to Crookham Common, through Bowdown Woods and back through the reed beds (5ish miles, need a map). Events like Nature Rangers are great and Kat the leader is awesome with our eldest that has additional needs. It's a place that everyone is welcome. We can spend a very happy day here climbing trees, feeding ducks, playing, walking and just watching the wildlife. Easy...

We (4 adults 1 child) had a great time here on a cool spring day. The car park is a bit bumpy but plenty of space and it's free, though they adk for a donation which is reasonable. The center itself is modern and had nice indoor and outdoor seating. We had excellent coffees. Very surprised by that, was nicer than some coffe chains. The kids acitivitesnindoor were nice touch too and the little shop was quaint. The play parks are modern and great for all ages. We did the short walk round the lake with some bird feed we bought for £1.50. Birds were lovely. My daughter enjoyed spotting the different kinds of birds, bugs, and frog spawn in the pond. Lunch time was busy and the cafe only had toasties available when we were there though saw a couple people with sausage rolls. We waited a 30 mins for our toasties that came with 5-6 crisps. I imagine in peak summer you could wait an hour. Apart from lunch time we had...