Halloween around Stroud: Woodchester's cellars daily 23 Oct to 1 Nov, Berkeley Castle 25 to 28 Oct, free museum lanterns 25 Oct and pumpkin picking from £2.99.

Halloween around Stroud is spread across the valleys rather than held in the town centre. The biggest draws are Woodchester Mansion’s Spooky Cellars, open every day of half term, and Berkeley Castle’s Halloween days from 25 to 28 October. In town, the Museum in the Park has a free lantern evening and a free trail. For pumpkins you need to drive: Over Farm on the edge of Gloucester is the nearest big pick-your-own patch with published 2026 dates. Everything below was checked on the organiser’s own page on 4 October 2026.

The quick answer

  • Halloween is Saturday 31 October, the last day of half term. Gloucestershire schools are off from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October.
  • Best for families: Woodchester Mansion’s Spooky Cellars and Golden Pumpkin Trail, daily 23 October to 1 November, adults £13, children £7.
  • Free in Stroud: Green Halloween at the Museum in the Park, Sunday 25 October, 2pm to 6pm, with a carved pumpkin lantern trail.
  • Pumpkin picking: Over Farm, Gloucester, every weekend from 3 October and daily 23 to 31 October, entry from £2.99 if booked online.
  • For adults: Mr. Scruff at the Sub Rooms on Halloween night (£26), or Wicked Tales at Woodchester, 29 to 31 October (£20).

Every Halloween event at a glance

Date Event Where Cost
Weekends from 3 Oct, daily 23 to 31 Oct Pumpkin Festival, pick your own Over Farm, Gloucester From £2.99 online
Weekends from 3 Oct, daily 24 to 31 Oct Enchanted Farm and Witches’ Wood Cattle Country, Berkeley Farm park admission
9, 10, 16, 17 and 23 to 31 Oct, evenings Pumpkins After Dark Over Farm, Gloucester From £10.99
16 Oct to 1 Nov, evenings Mystical Marsh Lantern Experience WWT Slimbridge £14.95
20 Oct to 1 Nov A Spooky Search trail Museum in the Park Free
23 Oct to 1 Nov, daily Spooky Cellars and Golden Pumpkin Trail Woodchester Mansion £13, child £7
24 Oct to 1 Nov, daily Spookyard Halloween Festival Over Farm, Gloucester Adults from £10.49
25 to 28 Oct Halloween at the Castle Berkeley Castle £17, child £9
Sun 25 Oct, 2pm to 6pm Green Halloween Museum in the Park Free
29, 30 and 31 Oct, 7.30pm Wicked Tales (adults only) Woodchester Mansion £20
Sat 31 Oct, 3pm Spooky songs and dark folk tunes Museum in the Park Free
Sat 31 Oct, 7pm Mr. Scruff Halloween Party (18+) Subscription Rooms £26 advance

Woodchester Mansion: the Spooky Cellars

The unfinished Victorian house below Nympsfield runs its “famous” Halloween Spooky Cellars every day from Friday 23 October to Sunday 1 November. Doors open at 10.30am, the last entry is 3.45pm and the house closes at 4.30pm, earlier than its usual open days.

Admission is £13 for adults and £7 for children, and includes the Golden Pumpkin Trail: children search the house for the golden pumpkins hidden by Chester, the mansion’s hunky-punk, and win a small prize if they find them all. The mansion says the cellars suit “all ages from 4 to 94, probably best for school age children”, and every child must be with an adult. Henry’s Cafe is open every day. (Woodchester Mansion, Halloween)

The mansion is not National Trust, but you park at the Trust’s Buckholt car park in Woodchester Park and take the minibus down the track.

Wicked Tales, for adults. The mystery entertainer Nick Brunger returns with “Something Wicked This Way Comes” at 7.30pm on Thursday 29, Friday 30 and Saturday 31 October: strange magic, paranormal mysteries and spooky tales. Tickets are £20, adults only. A minibus runs from the foot of the steps at the Buckholt car park at 6.55pm and 7.15pm, and brings you back. (Woodchester Mansion, Wicked Tales)

Berkeley Castle: Halloween at the Castle

From Sunday 25 to Wednesday 28 October, 11am to 5pm, the castle offers a Tudor witch and her animals (and whether you would have been branded a witch), spooky storytelling, a “chopped or non-chopped” Halloween quiz with the gaoler and the Grim Reaper, and a trip underground to meet the Old Wise Woman in the castle cellar. The castle says it suits children of all ages. (Berkeley Castle, Halloween at the Castle)

The activities are included in standard admission: £17 adults, £9 children aged 3 to 16, £48 for a family of two adults and two children, under 3s free. Book a ticket for your day online or at the ticket office in the Kitchen Garden; the castle is cashless. Last admission to the castle is 4pm. (Berkeley Castle, visit us)

Free in Stroud: the Museum in the Park

Green Halloween, Sunday 25 October, 2pm to 6pm. The museum’s annual autumn celebration with Stroud Valleys Project. Drop in from 2pm to 4.30pm for crafts with natural materials. Carve a pumpkin lantern at home, wear a homemade or pre-loved costume, and bring the lantern by 4.45pm to join the lantern trail and competition, judged by the children’s author Andy Hussey, who reads a story at 4.30pm. At 5pm the museum screens Room on the Broom, free for families who brought a carved pumpkin and £3 a person for everyone else. The lanterns are lit outside from 5.30pm, with winners announced at 6pm. Entry is free.

A Spooky Search, 20 October to 1 November. A free half-term trail: the museum has brought “special spooky objects out of storage” and hidden them around the building. Ask at reception.

Spooky songs and dark folk tunes, Saturday 31 October, 3pm to 4pm. A free pop-up concert in the Garden Pavilion at the top of the Walled Garden. No booking; the museum says more details will follow. (Museum in the Park, calendar)

Pumpkin picking near Stroud

Over Farm, Gloucester (GL2 8DB). The Pumpkin Festival runs every weekend from 3 October and every day from 23 to 31 October, 10am to 5.30pm, on a 17-acre patch. Entry is from £2.99 booked online (prices rise closer to the day and are highest at the gate), plus a £2 booking fee per transaction and £1 for a dog. Pumpkins are extra: from £1.50 for the smallest, around £3 for a football-sized one, up to £100 for the giant “sumo” pumpkins. Parking and wheelbarrows are free. The farm gives the last entry as 4pm in one place and 4.30pm in another, so book an earlier slot. (Over Farm, Pumpkin Festival)

Pumpkins After Dark opens the same patch from 6pm to 10pm on 9, 10, 16 and 17 October and every night from 23 to 31 October, with a spooky tractor ride, fire shows at 6.30pm, 7.30pm and 8.30pm, live music and a bar. Tickets were from £10.99 before 25 September; prices now vary by date. Last entry 8.30pm. (Over Farm, Pumpkins After Dark)

Over Farm also runs Spookyard in its farm park, 10am to 4pm daily from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November: a zombie show at 11am, 1pm and 3pm, a fancy dress competition at about 12.20pm, plus tractor rides, the maize maze and the animal trail. Adults were from £10.49 if booked before 10 October. (Over Farm, Spookyard) Over Farm sits beside the A40 roadworks and says it is open throughout them.

Cattle Country, Berkeley (GL13 9EW) has swapped its pumpkin patch for Enchanted Farm this year: a new Witches’ Wood trail to help “Gertrude Frogspawn” find something she has lost, spooky games in a marquee, s’mores and a pumpkin stand (pumpkins are sold separately). It runs 10am to 4pm every weekend in October and every day from 24 to 31 October. Witches’ Wood is included in farm park admission, but you choose a time slot when you book. The park does not publish a fixed price; it is cheaper online than at the gate. (Cattle Country, Enchanted Farm)

A third patch, at Frampton Mansell beside the A419, is advertised on listings sites, but we could not reach the farm’s own website to confirm its 2026 dates, so we have not listed it.

After dark at Slimbridge

WWT Slimbridge’s Mystical Marsh Lantern Experience is pitched at families who want Halloween “not the spook”: a 600m trail of giant lantern birds and bugs with bat and kingfisher puppets. It runs on 16 to 18, 23 and 24 October (slots from 5.45pm) and every evening from 25 October to 1 November (slots from 4.45pm to 7.30pm). Tickets are £14.95; under 3s and carers go free, and WWT members must also pay. Gentler SEND sessions run at 5.45pm and 6pm on the earlier dates. (WWT Slimbridge, Mystical Marsh)

Halloween night for grown-ups

Mr. Scruff Halloween Party, Subscription Rooms, George Street, Saturday 31 October, doors 6.30pm, from 7pm. An all-night DJ set with MC Kwasi, 18 and over. £26 in advance, £31 on the door, with £1 a ticket going to the Music Venue Trust’s LiveLine Fund. (The Sub Rooms, Mr. Scruff Halloween)

Is there a Halloween event in Stroud town centre?

Not announced yet. On 31 October 2025 the Five Valleys Shopping Centre ran a free “Spooktacular” from 5pm to 8pm alongside its Friday late-night food market, with crafts, a trick-or-treat trail and a costume competition. It has not published anything for 2026; we will add it here if it does. (Five Valleys Shopping Centre, 2025)

Fireworks the same week

Half term opens with the Aston Down display on Saturday 24 October and the Rotary Five Valleys Fireworks at Marling School on Monday 26 October. Times and prices are on our Stroud fireworks page, and the whole week is on our October half term page.

Getting there

The museum is in Stratford Park, a short walk from the town centre. For Woodchester, Berkeley, Slimbridge and Gloucester you will drive; check our roadworks page before you set off, especially for the M5 and A419. For an evening in town, car park charges are on our parking page.

Sources