Rufford Abbey Country Park — Local services in Newark and Sherwood

Good stuff; the foods and coffees pretty good and well priced, always have lots to do through summer and things like Easter, good new play park, started doing outdoor cinema which I haven't been to but looks brilliant.

Bad stuff; in the last 2 years parking has gone from £3 to £4, and the year pass from £30 to £40. Not all that bad however you used to be able to get your day parking money back from spending so much in the shop but not anymore. Parking used to get you 2 car passes and also at Sherwood forest but when I went to buy them last year it didn't say you got Sherwood forest and you also only got 1 car pass! And it used to be free parking midweek in term time during the colder months but now its £2 and only November to January when 95% of the time it's too damn cold, wet and windy to walk round there with a toddler and dogs. And speaking of dogs there are plenty of signs saying they must stay on a lead and not allowed in the new playground. Noone bothers paying attention to them, noone enforces it and if you tell people when they're dogs are coming up to yours who get protective of your child they just hurl abuse at you and staff just don't care when you tell them. The biggest reason I took my dogs there was because of them not supposed to being off the lead, it made it safe for us all when out...

This place used to be a place of conservation, there were voles, nesting swans, breeding owls, and so much more..I have not seen a heron or kingfisher since this place was taken out of the hands of the rangers!! You once could volunteer here..but the council let a group of Jokers run the park..now it is run by people who do not work with nature nor have respect for the historical buildings. At present their is a roaring path..laid out without imagination..just like last year's.. plastic dinosaurs..stuck in the trees with plastic lions?? no sense of the historical periods..no imagination, the noises frighten dogs and other wild life!! Their boats on the lake disturb breeding birds and the accident?? How can this be an accident please judge...the flood gate has to be opened by a special key, that only the staff have access to, as it is kept in the old rangers office, in a cupboard..they opened the flood gate and drained the lake in the breeding season!!!! To see the lake so low, would have damaged the eco system, so important to the welfare of the wild life at Rufford and below on the river. Bring back the rangers and staff who cared...

Great country park and site but the Coach House cafe let the place down on this occasion. At ten to one pm food choices were running low and first choices were unavailable. I had a small, rock hard jacket potato with the most minute and flavourless baked bean filling. The others in the party had flavourless, seemingly uncooked, quiche with chips. The food pricing is on display but unclear due to poorly designed signage in relation to people entering the queue along with the system in place, leading to a culture of rushing customers in their choices. In addition, one of the portions of chips was cold the other was hot but dry. The children's meal offer was advertised to include a choice of sandwiches but at the counter we were told that the offer only included "snack attack" despite the notice. Staff are generally polite but the overall experience was awful. Fantastic place but they need to get the...