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by FVC
Situated amongst 230-acres of gardens, lakes, and forests, the Drayton Manor Hotel offers guests the ideal setting for a relaxing family vacation. Family rooms accommodate four guests, and come complete with flat screen televisions, air-conditioning, private bathrooms, and children's wall murals. Two restaurants serve a variety of local dishes, and room service is available. Kids will enjoy the colorful playground, mini golf course, kids' club, and game room. The hotel is located near the Drayton Manor Theme Park, SnowDome, and Tamworth Castle. Children's entertainment is provided on weekends and holidays.
Our Editor Loves
- The playground
- Family rooms
- Rainy day activities
Family Interests
- Bicycling
- Golf
- Hiking
- Horse Back Riding
- Museum/Cultural
- Theme Park
Family Amenities
- Children Programs
- Free Wi-Fi
- Game Room
- Kids' Theme Meals
- Onsite Dining
by 705garryb
Visited the hotel and had one of their Thomas the tank engine themed rooms for my son as took him here for his birthday treat.
Room was very comfortable food was great and theme park was great aswell. My son still talks about his trip to Thomas land and wants to go back again and I might do it as myself and partner also loved it.
by May25Kent
We came here with 2 toddlers for the theme park. Good hotel just across the theme park, late check in at 3pm and check out at 10am, available for late check out for extra £10 PER HOUR. 10am check out?! Our original plan was to visit the theme park on Saturday and check out Sunday after a nice relaxing breakfast, but 10am is anything but relaxing.
Book a package deal, B&B plus theme park tickets, Saturday weather was terrible, rained whole day, but luckily we could use the tickets for the next day, where the weather was sunny and warm, so the 10am checkout wasn't an issue for me.
The hotel wasn't too bad, with Thomas and some other trains at displayed so that made the kids excited.
Room was pleasantly nice, after reading some bad reviews, I was expecting it to be very very dated. It has fridge and tea making facilities, ironing board, hair dryer. That's about it. As a 4 star hotel, it has no toiletries apart from hand soap/shampoo/body wash 3-in-1, that is in a bottle dispenser on the wall. I like the basin, it is lower than normal, which is child friendly.
I booked the room for 4 (2 children and 2 adults) it only provided 3 towels. Being environmental friendly is 1 thing, sharing a towel with someone, even family member is another.... since we are only staying 1 night, i didn't bother asking for another towel.
Saw 1 of the review that commented on their poor bed sheets, where they are coarse and scratchy, and this is very true... it was terrible, it was so bad that we thought the sheets were covered in sand. Management should really replace these sheet.
The restaurant downstairs had kids entertainment, but we couldn't eat there since we didn't make any booking, although there were MANY empty tables, the front of house staff said they are all reserved, I don't see any reserved sign? Anyway so we went across to Grill Inn restaurant that is next to the theme park. Price is high, food is terrible. Don't bother.
The breakfast was English breakfast buffet plus some bread, pastry. The sausage bacons etc is fine, the bread section has no tongs, you need to use bare hands to pick up the bread....no fresh fruits but TIN fruits...TIN fruits.... a small selection of cereal for children. Fruit juice was worse than supermarket own brands, they use cheap squash, that was really horrible...
All in all, we had a good time, if we ever go back to Drayton Manor theme park, I might spend a bit more money to stay in a 4 star hotel in Birmingham ...


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Game Day 53: Oilers vs Canucks
Kris Russell is out of action for now. He's not practicing due to nasty hit/boarding delivered by Matthew Tkachuk ten days ago. A lower body injury, the reports said.
It's uncertain when Russell will be back, but my prediction is that at some time in the coming playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers are going to turn to Russell once more and that he'll likely find a way to stick in the line-up.
Why say this?
Russell's isn't just the Oilers second or third best defensive d-man — after leading slugger Adam Larsson and possibly Darnell Nurse as well — he's also the most reliable one when it comes to avoiding unforced errors. He's not nearly as good as moving the puck as Caleb Jones. He's not the hitting, hammering physical force that Dmitry Kulikov and William Lagesson are. He doesn't appear to have the all-around game that Slater Koekkoek displayed this year before he got injured.
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But if you want a d-man who doesn't make a hideous turnover leading to a Grade A chance against, if you want a d-man who covers the defensive slot while avoiding bad line changes, bad pinches, and giving up breakaways, Russell is your man.
Defensive indicators of reliability
I can quantify this claim if you're looking for that kind of evidence. For the last 10 years at the Cult of Hockey we've done video review of all scoring chances for and against the Oilers.
We review videotape to figure out what exactly went wrong on each Grade A chance against. We've noticed certain trends in that time.
It's expected that even if the best d-men are going to make major mistakes on ugly chances against, especially if they constantly face tough competition like Darnell Nurse does. It's also expected that they will allow nasty slot shots and and dangerous passes into the slot now and then. They will lose some battles and get lost in coverage now and then. These things happen to every d-man, even the greatest, smartest and toughest of defensive d-man, with Larsson being a good candidate for that kind of accolade this year.
What really hammers a team, though, are bad mistakes on Grade A chances against, unforced errors that lead to the most dangerous chances of all, 5-alarm shots that have more than 33 per cent chance of going in.
Turnovers are a prime example, as a bad turnover often ends up in your team's net in a split second. After such a turnover there's often no time for anyone else to recover, just scramble.
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In his short time with the Oilers, Kulikov has made three such turnovers. That's a high rate for 115 minutes of play, but with such a small sample size, it's best not to make too much of this just now. But in 568 minutes of even strength play Russell has made not one glaring turnover that has led to a Grade A scoring chance against. Not one. In a similar amount of minutes as Russell, Ethan Bear has made ten.
When it comes to bad pinches, which often lead to two-on-one breaks against, and to allowing breakaway passes, Russell has made just two of them combined. In far fewer minutes Jones has allowed seven.
Overall, on a per game basis (15 min ES), Russell has made just 0.05 bad mistakes on Grade A chances against. Larsson is next best as 0.07 per game, then Evan Bouchard, 0.08, Nurse, 0.16 (against the toughest comp), Koekkoek, 0.24, Bear, 0.32, Kulikov, 0.39, Tyson Barrie, 0.40 and Jones, 0.51.
This is why I say that when the coaches comes to crave safety and reliability above all else, as they will at some point in the playoffs, Russell is sure to draw into the line-up and a good bet to stay in.
The latest line-ups for today's game? Here is what Oilers coach Dave Tippett rolled out at Friday's practice, with Kulikov missing due to a day-to-day injury:

subset: commoncrawl


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KUWAIT CITY, April 2: Statistics issued last week by the Juvenile Prosecution did not reveal anything new about the reality of crimes and thefts in the country except about the age group of perpetrators of these crimes. These statistics sounded the alarm about the cases registered against those known to everyone as "children" who are just beginning their lives.
In 2021, the Public Prosecution registered a total of 398 murder, suicide, assault and theft cases against juveniles aged between seven and 18 years. Among them, 16 were accused of murder and suicide, and 226 of assault, two percent of which resulted in permanent disabilities.


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Arizona (0-1) at Washington (1-0)
5 p.m. Saturday, Husky Stadium
TV: FOX. Radio: SportsRadio 950 KJR.
Latest line: Huskies by 11.5 points.
UW key players
QB Dylan Morris: 141 passing yards, 58.3% completions, 21 rushing yards, 1 rush TD
RB Sean McGrew: 91 rushing yards, 10.1 yards per carry, 1 TD
LB Edefuan Ulofoshio: 10 tackles, 4 pass breakups, 1 fumble recovery
OLB Zion Tupuola-Fetui: 4 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles
Arizona key players
QB Grant Gunnell: 286 passing yards, 66.7% completions, 3 pass TD, 1 interception, 40 rushing yards
RB Gary Brightwell: 112 rushing yards, 5.3 YPC, 20 receiving yards
DB Lorenzo Burns: 7 tackles
LB Jalen Harris: 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 1 pass breakup
'A balanced offense'?
"Tonight we did what we had to do to win a football game," UW head coach Jimmy Lake said after his team's win over Oregon State last week. "That's the beautiful thing about being a balanced offense, and we've got a long way to go." Sure, but how balanced was it? The Huskies carried the ball 51 times, as opposed to just 24 passes. In his first career start, redshirt freshman quarterback Dylan Morris was mostly asked to avoid mistakes. Eventually, the Huskies will have to prove they can be more literally balanced — stretching the field vertically with their wide receivers and tight ends. But it might not be this week. After all, Arizona surrendered 173 rushing yards, 5.4 yards per carry and three rushing touchdowns to USC last weekend. And in a 51-27 victory over Arizona last October, UW also rushed for 207 yards and three more scores.
Stuffing the run
UW's secondary was unsurprisingly dominant against Oregon State last weekend. Its run defense was not. Without defensive linemen Levi Onwuzurike (who declared for the NFL Draft) and Tuli Letuligasenoa (who missed the game with an apparent injury), the Huskies surrendered 167 rushing yards, 4.9 yards per carry and two rushing touchdowns. Beavers back Jermar Jefferson bombarded UW for 133 rushing yards, 5.8 yards per carry. This is an undeniable concern for a defense that is suddenly frightfully thin at both defensive line and outside linebacker. And on Saturday, those same Huskies must contend with another big back in 218-pound Arizona senior Gary Brightwell — who piled up 132 total yards and 5.3 yards per rush against USC last weekend. And unlike Oregon State quarterback Tristan Gebbia, Arizona signal caller Grant Gunnell is mobile enough to hurt the Huskies as well.
Red zone woes
Here we go again. In 2018, UW converted just 56.45% of its red zone trips into touchdowns — ranking 105th nationally and ninth in the Pac-12. The following season saw modest but unimpressive improvement to 61.1% (63rd nationally, 9th Pac-12). As for last weekend? With a new head coach (Jimmy Lake), offensive coordinator (John Donovan) and starting quarterback (Dylan Morris), the Huskies had similar struggles. Specifically, their five red zone trips resulted in two touchdowns, two field goals and a missed 28-yard chip shot attempt. Husky wide receivers Ty Jones and Rome Odunze both failed to corral possible touchdowns, and the vaunted UW rushing attack was stuffed from the 5-yard line on three consecutive attempts late in the fourth quarter. Against an opponent in Arizona with more proven firepower, the Huskies have to consistently find the end zone.
Vorel's prediction
UW trailed 17-13 at halftime of last season's game at Arizona, before erupting for 38 second-half points in a 51-27 win. So, who will we see on Saturday: the first-half, or second-half Huskies? Considering the questionable run defenses on both sidelines, expect points-a-plenty. At some point, Morris will have to make a few impressive plays in the passing game to win. It will help to get wide receiver Puka Nacua and tight end Cade Otton more involved in the offense. On the other side, Gunnell is also a legitimate talent who will threaten the Huskies in ways Gebbia couldn't. A UW defense that managed just three tackles for loss and two sacks last weekend must prove it can make the Wildcats' young quarterback uncomfortable. But the Huskies are undoubtedly the more talented team. And, same as last season, that will show down the stretch.
Final score: Huskies 35, Wildcats 27


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When the pandemic caused the world to start working remotely, Molly Whitfield had an advantage: she'd already been doing so for eight years.
The president and COO of Madison+Main had been splitting her time between the marketing firm's downtown office and wherever she called home at the time — Texas, Arizona, Kansas; "You name it," she said — spurred by her husband's Army job that requires frequent moves.
Just before the shutdown reached Richmond in mid-March, Madison+Main founder Dave Saunders named Whitfield the agency's president, capping a 13-year run with the firm that's the longest, next to Saunders, among its 15-person staff.
The recognition got the attention of the Advertising Club of Richmond, which named Whitfield its Ad Person of the Year at this year's Richmond Show awards, held virtually over the summer.
BizSense spoke with Whitfield from her current home in Maryland about her award, how she fosters creativity while working remotely, and her perspectives on her hometown's ad scene from afar. The following is an edited transcript:
Richmond BizSense: Congratulations on your award. What did it mean to you to win it, and what was your reaction?
Molly Whitfield: I of course started to cry, because I was just so honored. I've worked really hard behind the scenes in this industry, so to be up there with some of these major names in the incredible Richmond ad scene, it's my biggest professional achievement to date. I was floored and incredibly honored to be on that list.
RBS: How did you get into the business?
MW: I had worked at an attorney's office for about three years, at the end of high school in my early 20s, and really thought that was going to be my path.
I went to VCU back when they had the different tracks. I went in undecided, and once I started taking some advertising classes, I just really enjoyed the creative side more. I thought, "How do I pair some of these business and operational things that I've learned with being in a creative environment every day?" Once I saw that advertising could combine those two elements for me, that's when I was like, "This is where I should stay."
RBS: What's changed for you since being named president in March?
MW: Our plan was to get me out of a lot of the day-to-day administrative and financial type of projects that I've been in in the past, and be more involved in the strategy and overall operations and where Madison+Main wants to go next. At the beginning of the year, I gave this great presentation to the team of all these things we're going to do this year, and then COVID happened and it was like, "Okay, we're going to roll with this." I had a lot of goals I had to shift this year, but I think we all have.
RBS: How have you all adjusted to doing business in a pandemic?
MW: I think we've been managing it as best as a small company can. When everything hit, we were just like everyone else, not sure what was going to be next. We weren't sure how this would affect certain clients, and we jumped into PPP loans and all of those things to try to protect our employees. We have been very lucky to maintain our current staff, we haven't had to lay off anyone. Some of our clients have had to cut their budgets, but we understand that.
The advertising industry is full of creative problem-solvers, so this has just energized us in a different way to find new solutions for our clients. In all sorts of aspects, we're looking at what they do, how they do it and how we need to change their messaging, their sites, anything that they do from our side and how we can help them, because it has affected so many businesses in different ways. From our side, we've been very busy, because every business has needed to address it in some type of way.
RBS: With everyone working remotely, how do you encourage creativity and collaboration from your staff without those in-person brainstorming sessions?
MW: Having the collaborative meetings still, over Zoom. Using all the technology that I feel like now everyone just uses every day. One of the things that a lot of people may not know is I've been working remotely for eight years. My husband's in the military, so that's led me to change locations. I'm in Richmond some of the time, I'm traveling some of the time. So for us, we kind of had a lot of that stuff in place already, and it was more just bringing everybody into the fold with me.
Our project management software and the collaboration that we were already doing and the communication that we had internally was really set in place so that it wasn't a huge transition for our team. Prior to COVID, I would be in Richmond about one or two weeks out of the month, and it's worked. It's allowed us to have some of these things in place so that when COVID happened, it wasn't a drastic change for our team and we've been able to keep rolling.
RBS: Is there a campaign Madison+Main has put out that you're most proud of or has been its calling card?
MW: I'd say our work for the Virginia Energy Sense campaign, that was with the State Corporation Commission, that's been a huge campaign to be a part of. It's another advocacy campaign, so those are near and dear to my heart. Same with a campaign we did for the attorney general's office, "Respect Richmond," and also an anti-human-trafficking campaign. We've had a lot of experience in the state government world, and a lot of campaigns have had a huge impact on anti-human-trafficking, energy saving, anti-violence campaigns, things like that.
RBS: What's your take on Richmond's creative scene? Does viewing it from afar change your perspective?
MW: I can say, from being all over the place and traveling different places, Richmond has a phenomenal ad scene. We have so much creativity in this city that it continually energizes me. People call them competitors, but I look at the other agencies in town and I'm just proud of being part of the Richmond ad scene. I can look at another agency and say, "Wow, they did awesome work for that." There's enough work, to me, for all of us.
I would love to see more collaboration in Richmond between agencies. I may be too rainbows and butterflies about that. I'm a big fan of collaboration and just knowing that there's no cap for creativity. I think the more we build off each other, the better.


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We've all been there; we made a decision that we didn't like, we made an error at work that still haunts us, we choose a route that we thought sounded good at the time, but then we end up realizing that we made a mistake…but did we?
A mistake is something that ended up turning out wrong, it wasn't what we expected, nor was it the desired outcome. Maybe it was an error in our judgment, maybe it was due to a lack of concentration, or maybe the mistake happened just because fate had other plans. Whatever it may be, making a mistake can make us feel awful about ourselves.
After we notice something that ends up being a mistake, it can make us feel doubtful of ourselves, we may lose confidence and start to question what we know and our abilities. Although making a mistake is a normal part of human life, it can make us feel terrible.
What if I were to tell you that there aren't any mistakes? I don't believe that mistakes are truly mistakes, yes, they may be unfortunate and not at all what we had planned, but I like to think of mistakes as detours and lessons to be learned.
That decision that you made that led you somewhere that you least expected, maybe that was fate guiding you in the right direction, a direction that you wouldn't have taken yourself. That project that you made an error on, was a learning experience. The feelings that overcome you as you sit and wonder how you have reached this point in life, a point so far away from where you hoped that you would be, that was a lesson presented to you to help you grow into a stronger person.
The next time that you feel that you made a mistake, try changing your perspective and see where that takes you. I am sure that it will help you feel more confident, uplifted, and understanding. Life is a big test that no one has all of the answers to, but we get up and we try our best!