Brigg is a lovely market town in North Lincolnshire. It has numerous cafes, pubs, restaurants, shops and a canal to walk along. My favourite places are:

The Heritage Centre and library

If you’re looking for somewhere to take the kids for a couple of hours this is a great find. The Heritage Centre, located at the Angel, has local history to look at. It also has plenty for children to do. There are a number of toys and lots of dressing up outfits. They also usually have colouring sheets and pens/pencils out. In a different area they often have a wigwam and a puppet style show set up. Within the same building there is also the library. The children’s library is upstairs and is lovely. My youngest always enjoys playing with the gruffalo puppets/soft toys. They also usually have some colouring out here.

In addition, the Heritage Centre does a craft session for children every last Saturday of the month. We’ve been to a few of these – they are really nice. Find the timetable on the website here. The ladies who run this are volunteers (as are the people who work at the Heritage Centre) and they put a long of effort into planning these sessions. You pay for what crafts your children do (there are tables with different crafts set up) but expect to pay no more than a few pounds per child. They also do a summer craft session on Fridays (cost £5 per head) and have various adult craft sessions (which are around £15) such as making greeting cards.

The Rabbit Hole Bookshop

This is a wonderful independent bookshop. It was a regional winner of ‘independent bookshop of the year’. Downstairs they have the children’s books and they also have an area with some toys that little ones can play with, such as a train play table etc. So little ones are keen to come in here. The Rabbit Hole has recently opened a second book shop in Grimsby, The Rabbit Hutch. As well as it’s shops, the owners do plenty of community based events. I took my youngest two to an author/artist draw along for children which they enjoyed, and I even joined in, it was great. They also organise the ‘No Limits’ Festival which is a literature festival. I took my daughter last year we had a fabulous time!

The Steel Rooms

The Steel Rooms used to have a lovely cafe/gift shop which has closed but they still have an upstairs space which does various workshops such as making clay objects/animals (some are suitable for 3+ and some for 13+). They also do sessions for adults such as yoga sessions and yoga workshops, soundbaths, new year retreat etc if you are into that sort of thing!

Brigg Garden Centre

This is a must visit in the run up to Christmas as it has fabulous seasonal displays, and decorations to buy. You can also usually arrange a visit to see Santa at Brigg Garden Centre. As well as the plants, various shops selling all sorts of homeware, gifts, toys, and a restaurant, there is also plenty to keep children entertained so it works well as a play date venue. In good weather there is an outdoor playground with the usual equipment plus a pirate themed sandpit and a zipwire and ride on toys. For the colder months there is a soft play area (charged) which also has lots of little rides which require coins such as a peppa pig car and octonauts vehicle which kids love! It is probably suited more to younger children so may not take my 12 year old here now. There is an aquarium so young children often enjoy a visit to see the fish too. They have activities on over the summer holidays too.

Fun Forest

For a larger soft play in Brigg, Fun Forest is a good one. It also hosts parties. During the week it has ‘toddler time’ between 9:30 and 3 for £4.75 which is a real bargain as includes a squash and a coffee/tea (you can upgrade to a latte for a small fee) and it has a breakfast menu with everything being a pound (such as bagels, waffles, pancakes, toast).

Brigg has many other shops, restaurants, and cafes and you can enjoy a walk along the canal here and may get chance to feed the ducks.