Shropshire Star

Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory tour for kids at Telford garden centre

Youngsters can tour Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory as a garden centre raises money for charity.

Published

Visitors to the Lakeside Plant Centre, in Priorslee, can enter Roald Dahl's fantasy world.

The centre has based its Christmas grotto on the book to make all visitors golden ticket winners.

Now, staff are seeking help to add the finishing touches to the display.

Children walk through a candy cane forest before entering the wonderful world of Willy Wonka's factory.

They will see areas dedicated to each of the children in the book who found a golden ticket.

Kevin Turley, from the garden centre, said: "We need a nice armchair and a rug so we can set up a living room scene.

"We've already got a big television set up in the area where Mike Teavee appears, but we want to add them around that."

Last year the centre staff raised £8,000 for the Severn Hospice through various fundraising events.

They want to beat that total this year in aid of Help for Heroes.

Money raised from the grotto will also go towards maintaining cages at Lakeside's on-site animal rescue centre.

Mr Turley added: "We're hoping we can exceed that this year, it is an even bigger grotto.

"We're trying to create new enclosures at the centre.

"We also want to try and set up a therapy and learning classroom in the future so schools can come in.

"We're still to finalise the day when we are opening but we are hoping it will be the last week in November.

"We're hoping we can top the £10,000 barrier, but last year we were basically at full capacity.

"So we need that extra weekend or a few extra nights to be able get people through."

The grotto will definitely be open on the three weekends throughout December.

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