The Rye, High Wycombe, Review

I only heard about The Rye in High Wycombe because of Bucks Rocks. It seems that this is one of the best places in High Wycombe to find and hide painted rocks (another great, free, activity to do with the kids.) I’d seen posts about it so often I had to go!

Finding the car park was easier said than done, but that’s my fault really. There are two entrances and (obviously) sat nav took me to the pedestrian entrance. HP11 1QX should get you to the right place.

This is quite a large park right in the middle of High Wycombe. Running through the park is a large stream which is full of ducks and the odd massive fish. The footpath is right at the water’s edge so keep an eye on little ones. At one end there is a place where you can hire boats and pedalos if you want to. You can also fish here.

The walks

The other side of the river from the car park is a wooded area which we didn’t go into this time and there’s a mill as well apparently. They have courts and changing rooms you can book.

The Wycombe Rye Lido is right next to the car park but obviously there’s a charge for that. When we walked past it was pretty packed.

Most of the park is open green space. They make good use of the space by holding event and fairs in this space.

A review of the The Rye in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Review by Free Time with the Kids. Free family days out in Bucks

The playgrounds

There are two playground areas at The Rye; a smaller one that is mainly metal equipment and a bigger massive wooden one. The smaller playground has a soft play surface so it’s mud-free throughout the year. It has plenty of benches, but it doesn’t really have any shade if it’s hot.

A review of the The Rye in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Review by Free Time with the Kids. Free family days out in Bucks

The larger playground has plenty of shade, but it’s all woodchip so there’s also plenty of mud if it’s been raining a lot! There’s still a decent amount of seating though. This park isn’t fenced off and visibility across the playground wasn’t great because the nature of the equipment. There were a few “Where’s xxxx gone?” moments but we didn’t actually lose anyone.

A review of the The Rye in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Review by Free Time with the Kids. Free family days out in Bucks

The wooden playground

The wooden playground at The Rye used to be fantastic. There are lots of different pieces of equipment particularly aimed at slightly older children (lots of clambering and climbing) plus there are trampolines. It’s quite easy for adults to get onto the frame, up to a point. But you do get to a point about half way through where you have to go along rope bridges if you want to go any further. Smallest Child was too small for large parts of it, except the spinning discs when we first visited (she was 18 months).

Unfortunately since our last visit to The Rye this playground has really started to show its age. Just have a look at this basketball court;

And the playframe itself isn’t much better. You can see where they’ve done some patching. But it needs a bloody good sand down, lick of paint and a lot more repairs done. The frame does have his quite funky accessible ramp, but even that was looking in a sorry state.

A review of the The Rye in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Review by Free Time with the Kids. Free family days out in Bucks

The smaller playground

When I returned High Wycombe to review The Rye I thought we’d prefer the wooden playground to the metal one. It looks so cool and I always prefer wooden play frames. But actually the metal one was better. At the centre it’s got a great pirate ship play frame. Actually, it’s almost identical to the one at the Pirate Park in Halton, but without the massive drop for anyone to call down!

A review of the The Rye in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. Review by Free Time with the Kids. Free family days out in Bucks

There’s a range of swings, a roundabout, a surfboard, a rope hammock, a small playframe and even a little helicopter.

Admission Cost

Free


Parking / How to get there

Parking – on-site and chargeable. It’s not a huge car park and I think it gets pretty full but it’s close to town so you could walk. That’s actually what we did on our most recent visi

Address – Bassetsbury Lane, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP11 1QX


Toilets

On-site within the Lido. Only a couple though so at busy times there is a queue. The website says they are at the car park so I wonder if we used the wrong ones! Anyway, there are loos around there somewhere.


Food

There is a cafe counter within the Lido. There’s also a kiosk near the dyke which was reasonably priced.


Our The Rye, High Wycombe review

It’s a good park with tons of space. The river and woodland on top give you extra things to do. Plus the two playground options mean you could easily spend hours here. And there’s the outdoor pool! I don’t know if there are any plans to upgrade the playground at all, but there probably should be!

4 thoughts on “The Rye, High Wycombe, Review

Leave a Reply