'Best Outdoor Play Venue'

Hobbledown has been named the Best Outdoor Play Venue in the South East.

We were given the title in the prestigious Outdoor Play Awards run by Britain’s biggest parenting site Netmums.com.

Owned by Richard Farley and Nick de Candole, Hobbledown opened in 2012 and boasts a variety of adventure play equipment including towers, underground tunnels, a daring High Ropes Course, sand play zones, mazes, aerial walkways, jumping pillows and much more. It also has its own Zoo Licence.

General manager David Long said: “We are delighted to win this award. It’s wonderful to be recognized for what we do. There’s nothing like letting kids run free outdoors and now we hope to welcome even more families after being recognised by Netmums as the area’s best outdoor attraction.”

The latest figures show the outdoor attractions sector is worth £480m to the UK economy and the awards were set up to recognize the growing number of outdoor attractions catering for families across the country.

Recent studies have found modern kids spend only ten per cent of their time playing outdoors, four times less than their parents’ generation – but parenting experts are calling for youngsters to spend much more time outside.

Over 1.7 million mums, dads and childcarers who are registered Netmums members were eligible to cast their votes in the awards, to find the UK’s best-loved outdoor attractions.

Netmums.com local editor Michel Munro said: ‘We are so lucky that we have lots of fantastic outdoor venues to choose from, but mums and dads rated Hobbledown as somewhere extra special. It’s fantastic to know children can enjoy the great outdoors safely and happily at such a lovely venue.”

The award adds to Hobbledown’s existing trophies for ‘Best Business in Epsom and Epsom Downs’ and runner-up in the Gatwick Diamond Business Awards for ‘Best New Business’.