ByTheWay Park and Field in Wimborne is a wonderful place to visit with a fantastic play area for children and acres of green space to explore.

The car park entrance is located on Leigh Road (BH21 2BZ) and you’ll find parking right next to the play area.  The large enclosed park was opened in 2016 and has play frames with slides, traditional and basket swings, a wooden trim trail, seesaw and picnic benches.  With the sun shining we were more than happy to sit and relax while the children played games and explored all of the equipment.  Luckily I’d thought to take drinks because there’s nowhere nearby to buy anything, this includes toilets too so you’ll need to be prepared.

Through the trees you can just about make out the pond and beyond there is a beautiful 40 acre meadow.  ByTheWay is a SANG which means ‘Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace’, in other words it’s a great diverse place for people and wildlife.  Leigh Common is a woodland area which sits next to ByTheWay Field and this is somewhere we’ll look to explore next time we go.

We had a lovely long stroll in the meadow before returning to the play park an hour or so later for a bit more fun.  By now I’d run out of drinks and snacks and us girlies were really starting to need a loo so we jumped in the car and went off to the pub haha.

Please note, the car park isn’t huge and there’s a height restriction on entry so you won’t be able to go in if you have a large vehicle like a Landrover or van.  There are currently no parking charges however like anywhere, this may change in the future.

WOW, what a show! ‘Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World’ is an empowering, funny, mesmerising, enlightening feel good pop musical which brings some of history’s greatest women to life on stage.

Jade is an 11 year old girl who accidently gets lost on her class trip to a local museum and ends up taking a peek in the Gallery of Greatness.  Jade feels like she’s not being heard by anyone in her life and with the help from some inspiring women from the past she is shown that every woman can change the world just by being in it.

The inspiring women who are brought to life include Amelia Earhart who was an American pioneer and author and the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Marie Curie who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the author Jane Austin who was so funny she had me crying with laughter, Emmeline Pankhurst who started the Suffragette movement and helped women win the right to vote and Mary Anning who was the palaeontologist that discovered an Ichthyosaur skeleton on the Jurassic Coast at just 12 years of age.  There was also the famous Rosa Parks, Gertrude Ederle and Sacagawea to name just a few.

We have all heard of these great women however we often aren’t aware that some were not given credit for their discoveries or they were told they would not be good enough simply because they were a women.

All of the actors and musicians are incredibly talented however the inquisitive heroine Jade (Fayth Ifil) is an absolute delight to watch and can hold an audience in the palm of her hands, which is quite an achievement for a young woman.  She definitely belongs in the Museum of Greatness.

The empowering stage show is brought to life by an amazing all-female creative team and the story is based on the award winning book of the same name by Suffragette descendant Kate Pankhurst.

I really hope the show will run for many years to come so that I can take my daughter when she’s older.  In the meantime I’ll be looking to buy the book so we can read all about the greatest women in history.

Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World is on at the Lighthouse in Poole from Thursday 9th – Sunday 12th June 2022.  And, exclusive to Dorsetmums, there's a special offer of 2-for-1 on adult tickets across all performances. Enter promotion code FGW241 to receive 2 for 1 tickets.  (Ignore Groups 10+).

Offer will apply to adult only tickets however all ages are welcome and please note a small booking fee of £1.75 will be applied to the free ticket.  A limited number of tickets are on offer which are allocated on a first come, first served basis.

To book, visit Lighthouse Poole or call the Ticket Office on 01202 280000 if you have any queries.
Recommended age 7+.

Image credit: MAST Mayflower Studios

Dorsetmums was invited to Lighthouse Poole for the purpose of a review however all words are my own.