The Isle of Wight's best playground with a view

It is a little known fact that by the age of 5, the average British parent has spent 900 hours stood around shivering in cold playgrounds. It is little known because I made it up, but it is certainly accurate to say that I consider myself an aficionado after much time spent pushing swings to ever higher heights.

Others who know their Kompany roundabouts from their Wicksteed horses will know that things have moved on a fair bit from my day when a good playground offered two swings, a slide that didn't slide very much and a roundabout. 

Swings have became huge dishes the size of circular dining tables, whilst getting to a slide now requires an obstacle course of climbing footholds, tunnels and rope nets. 

The Isle of Wight has its fair share of decent playgrounds, many of which we've already discussed in our guide to days out for toddlers. A new addition, which I'll add when I get round to it is the one called Seabreeze near Ventnor's Winter Gardens which is looked after by Ventnor Town Council and the Ventnor Enhancement Fund.

The playground looks down on Ventnor with its nicely shaped cove and high hills. It's right on the edge of the cliff with ominous cracks in the footpath, which presumably has stopped developers from eating up the land. I was so overcome with the whole thing that I had a go on the swings myself whilst admiring the horizon. 

There are other contenders for playgrounds with a view - we like the maritime themed one on Gurnard seafront for example. There's also one which belongs to the Dandelion Cafe at Freshwater Bay but you can't quite see the full view. The Appley playgrounds are both on the seafront so you can see ships coming and going but they don't quite offer the same elevated position. 

I'm ready to be corrected, but for the time being at least I'm confidently declaring Seabreeze has the Island's best playground view. Don't forget to bring your gloves.