Shropshire visitor attractions: Find out what's on this Easter holidays

A taste of adventure and chocolate awaits both children and adults as they take part in Easter trails at many local venues and these include a Dinosaur Egg Hunt at Park Hall Countryside Attraction at Oswestry.

Staff have planned a Jurassic Easter, where children hunt for dinosaur eggs along the trail which is open until April 24, and they will receive a small chocolate treat in return.

The egg hunt costs 80p on top of the usual admission charge.

A free competition involving a dinosaur egg trail, where children collect numbers to crack a code to open a treasure chest which then entitles them to a chocolate egg, is also planned.

Visitors can also meet a dinosaur and Easter Bunny for a photograph and watch staff taking part in a Bunny Run as well as see the usual pig race.

Telford's Exotic Zoo is expecting a bumper Easter with a chicks and lambs among more than 60 different species at the venue.

As part of the Easter events, the zoo will also be providing lamb feeding sessions – which will be pay on the day only – as well as an egg hunt.

Visitors to the zoo will also be able to see some of its newest residents, four otters who are making the venue their new home after arriving earlier this month.

People visiting Powis Castle and Gardens at Welshpool will be able to enjoy an Easter and Adventure in Nature Trail from April 13 to April 18.

There will be a £3 charge per trail plus the usual admission fee at the National Trust property.

At Chirk Castle, another National Trust property, there will be fun and games to enjoy as well as Easter egg hunts from April 11 to April 24.

A £3 charge includes a map, pencil and children receive a chocolate egg at the end of the trail.

Dudmaston Hall, near Bridgnorth, with its 17th Century house and wooded parkland and sweeping gardens, will be opening an Easter Trail from April 10 to April 24 and from April 15 to April 18 the trail will be based at nearby Comer Woods.

Once again visitors can discover interesting points along the trail and take part in various activities.

Water sport enthusiasts will find a lot to interest them at Alderford Lake at Whitchurch with paddle-boards, kayaks, canoes and aqua-bikes among the activities.

The Aqua Park and Escape Island Adventure has to be pre-booked, but from now until April 24 staff are offering an Easter Egg Hunt with admission £2 for an adult and £1 for children, with under-threes free-of-charge.

Staff at Cambrian Heritage Railways at Oswestry will be running diesel trains on April 15 and both steam and diesel locomotives on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the Easter break.

Children will also be able to enjoy an Easter Egg Hunt and make their own Easter bonnet.

The cafe and Stonehouse Brewery will be open and adults will be able to ride the line all day for £8 admission charge and children for £5.

On the Severn Valley Railway, running between Bridgnorth and Kidderminster, services are running every day until April 20.

From April 21 to April 24 the railway will be running its Spring Steam Gala with three guest locomotives on the line alongside the home fleet.

Films and crafts will be on offer at Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery with a print-making workshop being held on April 11 and experimental book-making on April 12.

A story, music and craft workshop, entitled What the Ladybird Heard, will take place on April 13 as well as the film Beauty and The Beast being screened.

The Chocolate Ladybird-Making workshop, with Toot Sweets Chocolatier Julia Viani, will be held on April 14 and the film Cinderella will be shown on April 20.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Lego workshop will take place at the museum on April 21, followed by a Creative Gold Work event with Hanny Newton on April 23.

Visitors to RAF Cosford over the Easter holidays will be able to find out whether they have what it takes to become an RAF pilot.

The RAF museum has partnered with re-enactors from Up an’ At 'em! History to offer children and their families the opportunity to take part in pilot training sessions.

Families who take part will undertake five different missions, from basic fly training and strategic decision making, to keeping your nerve when defusing a bomb or the airfield is under attack.

A spokesman for RAF Cosford said: “The ‘scramble’ mission will test your speed, dressing in flying gear as fast as you can in a race to the aircraft.

“Visitors will be able to pretend to be a Spitfire aircraft during the Battle of Britain using tactics and formation of the time in a formation training session.

“They will be able to re-enact a battle in the skies during the ‘dog fight tag’ mission, by pretending to be RAF and German aircraft in the Second World War.

“The ‘stop the Blitz’ training will require those involved to act fast to tackle the Blitzed street and fight ‘fire’ with pumps and buckets.

“Finally, visitors can test their nerves and see if they have a steady hand to tackle a butterfly bomb in ‘bomb disposal’ training.”

The sessions are suitable for families with children aged five and above and will run from April 15 to 18, from 10am each day.

Participation in all five of the missions is £5 per person for the pilot passport.

Chester Zoo is hosting a ‘storytelling spectacular’, with more than 100 ‘pop-up’ events take place during the Easter period.

It is is kicking off the holidays with an assortment of events running until May 2. From song and dance, to puppetry and performances, there will be a range of events every day at the zoo for more than 30 days.

Experts at the zoo are looking to ‘rewild the imagination’ of visitors and inspire youngsters and families to act for wildlife conservation.

The zoo’s Annabella Bashforth said: “We’re incredibly excited to bring the storytelling pop-up extravaganza to the zoo. Our activities include tales about wild antics of the Lemurs of Madagascar with illustrator Nikki Pinder and a concert from singer-songwriter Ashley Fayth and miniature theatre from PuppetSoup who will be using traditional Brazilian puppetry to tell stories of the zoo’s incredible animals.”

“The Easter celebrations will also include a brand new interactive trail through the zoo, with a whole range of animal-inspired activities to get involved with – from creative writing to building your own animal inspired puppets, as well as a programme of stories from our own zoos rangers.

“Every visit to the zoo helps our mission to prevent extinction, and we hope that by visiting us over Easter, people will rewild their imagination and connect much more closely with the natural world, all while enjoying a fantastic family day out.”

All of the events are free with a zoo admission ticket.