Picnic Time for Teddy Bears at Shipley Glen Tramway

This Bank Holiday weekend we drove over to Shipley in West Yorkshire to attend the Teddy Bear Weekend at Shipley Glen Tramway!

This historic tramway is the oldest working tramway in the country and it’s located right on our doorstep! What a lovely little piece of British history in Yorkshire.

We parked up at the top of Baildon Moor right by The Old Glen House pub. There was a small car park but we were lucky enough to get a spot. Heading straight down to the tramway, we walked the steady decline down to the entrance. I could remember this well from the couple of times I’ve visited previously. Despite doing a few walks around here I’ve never actually seen it running nor have I been on it!

I didn’t know what to expect from the event but we were just glad to be out of the house on a rare sunny bank holiday weekend with somewhere to be. The event was free and advertised as a chance to bring your teddy bear along for a picnic. So my 2 year old grabbed her Butlin’s Bear Binkie and we threw together some lunch!

We took our giant dog along with us, so we had no intention of ever riding the tram. I’d be surprised if they could fit her on but truth be told we didn’t want to try given her size. The staff were super friendly and as always she got lots of attention.

My daughter didn’t want to carry her teddy so Newkee saddled up and helped out!

We headed down the hill and waved at the passengers as they came by on the tram. We spotted bears through the trees and my daughter kept wanting to be picked up to see the tram go past – Or train as she called it!

When we got to the bottom of the hill we spotted Rupert Bear and Hilda wanted to join him for tea.

There was all sorts going on including ice cream, colouring activities and even Paddington! Because what’s a teddy bear picnic without Paddington to bring his Marmalade sarnies?

We got lucky with the sunshine so we were able to enjoy our picnic on the grass outside the tramway entrance. It was a lovely day and lots of families had the same idea. It was nice to enjoy some quality time together even if our kid was running riot every 5 seconds!

I really liked this event. I thought it was a very cute way of bringing attention to a piece of history. Such a simple idea and easy to implement. I loved seeing all the children with their teddy bears enjoying riding the tram.

It looked like there was a lot to read in the tramway museum and some interesting snippets of history.

After our picnic we walked back up the hill from bottom to top and stopped at the pub this time. Ordering a pint from The Old Glen House and an iced coffee from the tearooms, it was nice to be able to enjoy a drink from each and sit in the shared beer garden in the sunshine.

We headed across Baildon Moors afterwards where Hilda loved jumping off all the rocks. It was a great way of burning energy and she got so much joy from running around and climbing.