A new adventure centre giving children the chance to play at being grown-ups has opened in a long-empty unit in a town centre.

Little Land has started welcoming customers at the site in Park Mall shopping precinct in Ashford, which was previously an Adams and a Christmas pop-up.

Owners Natasha Miller and Susie Winchester decided to leave their teacher jobs at Brabourne Primary School to take on the new venture together.

The pair say role-playing is important to children and their learning, and are excited to bring something different to the town.

“It is a role-play centre for children under six-years-old,” Natasha said.

“It is a little land with shops, cafes, a supermarket, a vets and more, and the children can go in there and role-play as if they were in real-life situations.

“We wanted to stay within the education setting and both strongly believe in early childhood development, how children learn and how important play is.

“Unfortunately, I think that is coming out of our schools less and less and it is what we are passionate about.

“We love to see children playing but also learning at the same time. It is a wonderful experience for children and I am sure they will love it.”

When at Brabourne primary, Susie worked in early years and Natasha worked in key stage one. The pair both worked at the school for more than a decade.

Natasha says the education system is changing, which contributed to their decision to open Little Land.

The mother-of-three said: “Things that we love to do as teachers, we cannot do as much.

“This enabled us to take that on without the pressures of government and national curriculum and everything that comes with the teaching side of things.

“This means we can still keep working with children and we wanted something different and a change.”

Speaking of her excitement to start welcoming customers, Natasha said: “It has been a real vision which has come true and better than we ever thought.

“We are really excited and we hope people will really enjoy it too.”

Park Mall is also home to Poundstretcher, a record store, a wedding dress shop, and The Little Teapot cafe.

The centre recently lost its huge Wilko, which shut last week.

Meanwhile, Emporia Fabric and Craft closed its doors in August after 10 years – not long after food store Bare Bazaar also shut.

But, Natasha says this has not put them off.

“Being in town, the traffic is good – especially with everything that is going on at Victoria Park,” she said.

“Families can leave here and go around town, then to Victoria Park, people can make a whole day out of it.

“Lots of parents don't drive so this location ticked a lot of boxes. We thought it would be a good position to start with.

“We have so many ideas and would love to expand.

“We do also have an upstairs here which we are thinking we could make a sensory play area. We do parties too but do not have separate rooms.”

She added, amid the cost-of-living crisis, the pair have been mindful of prices.

“We want to look at discounts for childminders and things like that once we get up and running,” she said.

“We have also looked at our competitors as well but since we are a small business and run at a small capacity we have to also think about that and being able to work ourselves so we have come up with what we think is a good price for what people get.”

When visiting, children must be supervised at all times and parents can sit in the cafe area where they can see their children.