The Dragon’s Lair play area – popular with children and families visiting The Bishop’s Palace and Gardens in Wells – is due to receive a boost following the planning approval of a magical, water-themed Splash Play Zone.

The existing Dragon’s Lair Play Area already provides a creative space for children and families to enjoy outdoor play within the historic grounds of the Bishop’s Palace. Drawing inspiration from local folklore, it features play areas and equipment that encourage imaginative and active play in a natural environment including a carved dragon, a ‘dragon’s wings’ climbing structure, a waterwheel and a series of structural tree pods.

The new Splash Play installation now aims to develop further on the unique stories of the Palace, with water at its heart. The area will now be enhanced by a magical raining water tree,  generating a light spray of water; a living canopy of plants; babbling boulders which will spray small jets of water, and a shallow paddling pool.  A bat house and bird box will be also be added to the area to encourage biodiversity.

The Palace Trust will also ensure that they follow their environmental objectives with the installation of a new water tank, pump and pipework, which will mean that spring water from the well pools will be used to supply the splash park.

It’s a development that’s been championed by Palace CEO Merryn Kidd who said “The Dragon’s Lair is already very popular with our younger visitors, who we consider to be the audience of the future. We’re delighted to be able to further enhance their visit with this exciting new Splash Play zone, which introduces one of our key themes – the Wells that give the city its name!  Given the hot weather spells that we are experiencing more frequently each summer, we know that our younger audience will really benefit from somewhere to keep cool on a hot day. We were particularly keen to design it with sustainability in mind, so being able to draw the water used from our own springs is a fantastic achievement”.

The Palace has appointed creative play specialists Green Play Project, whose mission is “to design and build handmade playful spaces that are sustainable, inclusive, interesting and good for nature”, to help co-create the splash play zone, and it is hoped that the facility will launch later this year.