Our Mere Side Café is open everyday from 9.30am to 4pm offering a breakfast menu until 11am that includes a full English breakfast.

The lunch menu offers a selection of hot food choices (served until 2:30pm), sandwiches, and a range of child portions, snacks, drinks and ice-creams. Please see a sample menu here.

There are a large number of baby chairs available as well as a microwave to heat up baby food. Free water is provided. We cater for sugar free, vegetarian and gluten free specific diets, although it is worth contacting the café in advance to inform us of any specific dietary requirements.

There are a large number of baby chairs available as well as a microwave to heat up baby food, spare cutlery and plates and a bottle warmer upon request.

Shop

Browse a wide range of gifts, books, toys, bird care and optics in our gift shop.

Our friendly and knowledgeable staff are always happy to assist with help and advice, and every penny you spend in our shop supports our vital conservation work.

With a focus on local and sustainable producers, you will find a range of unique gifts for all ages, including several WWT exclusives. Treat yourself with our exclusive Kind by Nature hair, skin and body range, or sample some locally sourced honeys, biscuits and preserves for a tasty treat. For a truly unique gift, take a look at the one-of-a-kind pieces made by artists local to our WWT wetland centres, including jewellery, ceramics and art glass. Don’t forget our greetings card range, exclusively designed for WWT.

For other ways to keep little ones occupied, look no further than our toy section. Choose from a wide selection of soft toys, traditional wooden toys, nature kits, puzzles and games. Our WWT exclusive jigsaws feature images of fantastic wetland creatures, and come in a reusable cotton drawstring bag, to keep those pieces safe for longer, and our recycled WWT stationery range will allow future nature writers to record their visit in style.

Bird care

If your visit to our wetland centre has inspired you to get closer to nature at home, our bird care range offers just what you need. We have a wide range of feeders, nest boxes and pods, seed mixes and fat feeders, plus all the little extras you might need to make your outdoor space extra welcoming for our feathered friends. We offer a variety of feed options suitable for different species, and our staff are always on hand to advise if you are unsure.

Books

When it comes to books, we have something for everyone, from beginning birders to the expert naturalist. If you’re planning the trip of a lifetime, check out our range of international field guides to get the most from your travels, or stay closer to home and seek inspiration from one of our nature writing titles. Our selection of children’s books ranges from board books for the tiniest naturalist, right up to first field guides for junior outdoor adventurers. When they are exhausted from all that nature exploring, we have plenty of bedtime stories to send them off to sleep with a smile on their face.

Optics

Our new optics section not only showcases our exclusive WWT binocular range, but also a selection of optics from Viking, Swarovski, Leica and Zeiss. Our staff are fully trained to assist you with practical, hands-on demonstrations of both binoculars and spotting scopes, helping you to make the best choice to suit your needs and budget.

We also offer the facility to hire binoculars from the admissions desk. A refundable deposit is payable.