October Half Term Warrington: 26-30 Oct, Spooky World £15.50

October half term in Warrington is Monday 26 to Friday 30 October 2026 for almost every school in the borough, and the week ends on Halloween, a Saturday. Birchwood Community High pupils get two weeks, from Monday 19 October. The clocks go back on the Sunday before, 25 October, so the week starts dark by five o’clock.

The quick answer

• Dates: 26 to 30 October at the schools Warrington Borough Council maintains and at Lymm, Bridgewater, Great Sankey, Culcheth and St Gregory’s. Birchwood is off from 19 October; Sir Thomas Boteler breaks up on Thursday 22 October and Priestley College on Wednesday 21 October.
• The big paid day out: Gulliver’s World’s Fright Fiesta is open every day from Saturday 24 October to Saturday 31 October, 10.30am to 4pm. Adult and child tickets are £28 online in advance or £31 on the gate; under 90cm go free.
• For under-12s: Spooky World’s daytime Fun by Day at Apple Jacks farm runs 10am to 4pm every day from 24 October to 1 November, £15.50 over 90cm, with a free pumpkin each.
• Free: Walton Hall and Gardens’ children’s zoo and park (pay for parking only), and Warrington Museum and Art Gallery, which is running free craft activities for children and two exhibitions.

Updated 4 October: Spooky World has published its Fun by Day dates and price, so that section now has them.

Every date and price on this page was taken from the organiser’s own website on 25 September 2026 or later, and the school dates from the schools’ own calendars, which are set out on our Warrington school term dates page.

The dates, school by school

Birchwood’s calendar shades 19 to 23 October as INSET days for teaching staff with the school “closed for students”, then 26 to 30 October as holiday (Birchwood term dates). Lymm’s marks Monday 2 November as a holiday and St Gregory’s takes it as INSET, so both go back on the Tuesday. The clocks go back at 2am on Sunday 25 October (GOV.UK).

Gulliver’s World: Fright Fiesta, open every day of half term

Gulliver’s World at Old Hall is the one attraction in the borough open daily through the week. Its calendar shows the park open 10.30am to 4pm on every day from Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October, having been weekends only (10, 11, 17, 18 October) until then, and closed on Sunday 1 November (opening times and prices). Fright Fiesta is the Halloween dressing: a fancy dress “street parade”, “Gilly’s” themed shows and the park’s rides, and the park says its “tickets from £19” offer applies (Fright Fiesta).

The park calls the online figure an “approximate online discount rate”, and its “book early, save more” pricing means the £19 headline is a from-price, not the half term walk-up rate. Gulliver’s is aimed at children of roughly two to thirteen, so it is a strong pick for the primary years and a weak one for teenagers.

Walton Hall and Gardens: free zoo, adults’ Halloween

The park, gardens and children’s zoo at Walton are free; the charge is the car park. The zoo, with its red squirrels, alpacas, pygmy goats and peacocks, is “open in all weathers come rain or shine”, and there is a large accessible playground and adventure golf (Walton Hall and Gardens). Parking prices and opening hours are on our things to do in Warrington page.

Walton’s dated events either side of the week are for adults or for the very young. Shocktoberfest on Saturday 31 October turns the Old Riding School into “a frightfully fun Bavarian beer hall”, fancy dress encouraged, from £19.25 (Shocktoberfest). The Tiny Tots Zoo Adventure, a hands-on session for preschoolers, is on Thursday 5 November, from £10, the week after half term (Tiny Tots Zoo Adventure). Walton’s Christmas programme, including the Warrington Disability Partnership grotto from 28 November, is on our Santa’s grotto page.

Warrington Museum and Art Gallery: free

The museum on Bold Street is free and opens Wednesday to Friday 10am to 4.30pm, Saturday 10am to 4pm and Sunday 11am to 3pm, so it is shut on the Monday and Tuesday of the week. Its homepage advertises “free craft activities for kids” and two exhibitions run through the holiday: Six Objects in Search of an Artist, until Sunday 1 November, and Autumn’s Hollow Sigh, until 29 November (Warrington Museum and Art Gallery).

Parr Hall: the evening shows

Culture Warrington’s Parr Hall programme for the week is for grown-ups, and worth knowing about for the babysitter budget. All from the venue’s what’s on listing:

• Friday 23 October, 8pm: The ELO Show.
• Saturday 24 October, 7.30pm: The Illegal Eagles, Hotel California tour.
• Sunday 25 October, 5pm: Northern Live, a Northern Soul night.
• Friday 30 October, 7.30pm: Too Much Too Young, a two-tone and ska tribute, from £26.50 plus fees.
• Saturday 31 October, 7.30pm: Lost in Music, a disco show, from £32 plus fees.
• Sunday 1 November, 7.30pm: Guy Martin, Unplanned.

Retro Party Live, which had been listed for Thursday 29 October, is marked cancelled. The Christmas pantomime, Aladdin, opens at Parr Hall on 30 December; our Warrington pantomime page has the dates.

Spooky World Fun by Day: every day of the week

Apple Jacks Adventure Farm at Stretton becomes Spooky World’s daytime Fun by Day event for October (Apple Jacks). Its ticket page lists the dates as Sunday 4 October, the weekends of 10 and 11 and 17 and 18 October, then every day from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November, open 10am to 4pm. Tickets are £15.50 for anyone over 90cm with no booking fee, under 90cm free, and each ticket includes one free pumpkin. (Fun by Day tickets, Fun by Day)

It is aimed at four to eleven year olds and the organiser says it has no scare attractions, though costumed characters are about. Activities include inflatable drop slides and covered play areas, hay bale archery, a corn cannon and a tractor trailer ride; the quad karts and mini diggers take £1 coins. The evening scare events are a different ticket: Spooky at Night for ten to fifteen year olds on 26 and 29 October in the half term week, and Scary at Night, strictly 16+ with photo ID, on the other nights. Our Warrington Halloween page has those and the pumpkin patches.

Holiday club: Warrington Youth Zone

Warrington Youth Zone on Dallam Lane runs a holiday club for seven to twelve year olds, 8am to 6pm, £25 a day or £30 on trip days; membership is required and trip sessions are limited (Warrington Youth Zone holiday club). The October programme was not on the page when we checked.

After the week: Bonfire Night and the lights

Half term ends four days before Bonfire Night, and Warrington’s organised displays are on the weekend of 6 to 8 November rather than in the holiday: dates, prices and which have been confirmed are on our Warrington fireworks and Bonfire Night page. The Christmas lights and the Christmas market follow in mid-November (Christmas lights switch-on, Christmas market).

Still to be confirmed

The Youth Zone’s October programme and any half term events the council adds to its own events page, which listed nothing for October when we checked. We will look again in the second week of October and update this page.

Sources: school calendars linked from our term dates page; Gulliver’s World opening times and prices and Fright Fiesta; Walton Hall and Gardens; Warrington Museum and Art Gallery; Culture Warrington what’s on; Apple Jacks; Spooky World and its Fun by Day tickets; Warrington Youth Zone; GOV.UK clock changes. Checked 25 September 2026, Spooky World 4 October 2026.