Easy to find as it's well signposted, with a generous (but uneven gravel surfaced, so watch for pot holes) car park, free toilets and cafe restaurant offering drinks, snacks and main meals, activities fr children and of course selling a lot of candles and candle related items as well as general giftware; the Candle Workshops is a nice morning or afternoon out for any age.
Also nearby are Cheshire Ice Creams (more family orientated, with play area, cafe, shop and viewing of animals), Beeston Castle ruins- rather steep and not very disabled access friendly) and plenty of country walks across lovely green landscapes. A combination of these with the Workshops would provide a lovely whole day out.
I've been visiting the Candle Workshops for years, as a young child I can remember making my own dip dye candles there and being fascinated by watching the huge mill wheel go round and dip candles as it went. Today I take my little cousin who like me loves making dip candles for about £1.50 for 2 dinner candles and spends an inordinate mount of time picking out shades of wax with the help of the friendly staff who are very good with all the children. When finished dipping, the candles are left as is or can be twisted together- a word of warning though, the twisted candles do not fit into any candle holder I've come across! Plus if you keep them as two, you can burn them individually so they last longer and you get more time between trips to make new ones. Assuming you get pestered as I do to go make more- showing how popular an activity it is! The candle dipping is suitable for 5 years plus with the help of an adult and the wax doesn't get hot enough to burn the skin. On quiet days, at the discretion of the staff I have made candles too! There's sometimes a candle holder making table open too, normally school holidays and weekends which we haven't tried. The wokshops are open everyday but Christmas, and so there are some very quiet days, especailly early on in the non school holiday weeks.
If you don't want to make your own, you can buy from a huge, almost overwhelming variety of pre made candles, indivuals, gift packs, with lots of special offers available. Any style of candle you've sen anywhere else, you will very likely see here too, from simple church candles in cream, to skulls, elaborately carved, in kilner jars..... it's endless. There are also a huge array of candle holders from table top, floor standing, wall mounted... prices vary greatly depending on what you choose, but by and large you'll find them in line with highstreet shops, and a lot cheaper than Yankee!! They last as well as any other candle, and the aroma is as good and long lasting as any other too, except Yankee. Most of them are ordered by colour, and type. If you can't find the eact colour/style you want, they will make ones for you. My friend for her wedding needed 150 floating candles, rose shaped in a very particular coffee shade, and she had them all dipped for 50p a time which worked out the cheapest and nicest we could find. The service offered was helpful, knowledgable and quick, and given it was all hand done and time consuming we thought reasnoble priced.
There are a few opportunities to watch the candles being made or decorated, the best one being downstairs by the dinner candles to the left of the entrance. Here the artisan swaps crafts every couple of hours, and I've seen her sticking peel-off stickers, jewells, dried flowers etc onto candles, candle carving and painting. It fascinates me now as much as when I was a child!
To the right of downstairs are some independent workshops and shops, these do change over, the last time I went one was making tiny glass ornaments, another carving and whittling wooden ornaments, another selling handmade fudges and another handmade cosmetics- soaps and bombes etc. All these shops in my opinion are quite expensive, but then they are handmade items and I suppose are factoring in the cost of their units etc.
On the first floor several independent craft and giftware stores are arranged around the outside of the room- one of which, where they burn names etc onto wooden egg cups, keyrings, signs etc, is very quick and cheap, well worth visiting with most items with engraving costing £1.50. The middle of the room is taken up by rows of tables and chairs for children to undertake crafts at. They seem to be on a rota basis seasonally with opportunities for children to make badges, ornaments, hats, masks, little toys etc for around £1-3 per activity. It's very popular in the school holidays and summer weekends. read more
