Mind my fingers Mr Goat!

For me, Sacrewell Farm is one of those ‘fail-safe’ activities. You know the type – one your child will just love. We don’t go a lot, maybe two or three times a year, so Little Miss gets quite excited when we mention that we are going to see the animals on the farm. It’s also one activity that my husband really enjoys as it is a chance to see some old farm machinery!

What’s at Sacrewell Farm?

Sacrewell Farm is an old working farm, so a lot of the animals are housed in lovely old farm buildings – it’s actually a really pretty setting. It’s not very big – we normally get round in a couple of hours – but there’s plenty to see.

Feeding the chickens

There are all the usual farm animals you would expect: goats, sheep, chickens, cows, horses (shire horses to be exact, and they are beautiful), pigs, donkeys, rabbits and ducks. You can buy animal food when you arrive to feed the different animals. Although if you’re there late on a busy day, most of the animals are not really interested in eating anything else!

Like most children’s farms, the animals are friendly, and as long as you’re gentle, they don’t mind being touched. Little Miss loves feeding the goats, and they are actually the one animal that seem to be hungry all the time!

As mentioned, the farm buildings are also worth a look at. There is an old watermill and the Mill House is decked out in the style of the 1940s. Little Miss shows no interest at all in this, but I find it quite interesting, and hubby always likes to have a poke around the watermill.

There are also quite a lot of events on at Sacrewell Farm throughout the year. We’ve been over Easter for an Easter egg hunt. We went last spring and fed the lambs. And most recently we went in November to see the horse-drawn ploughs in action (although when I say ‘we’ I mean hubby wanted to see the horse-drawn ploughs in action!).

Finally, there’s the indoor activity barn with a soft play area, play house, pedal tractors and picnic tables. We usually finish the day here where Little Miss can have a run round, and we can have a cup of tea and sit down!

Don’t miss…

The shire horses. They really are impressive animals. They are usually in the horse stalls at the bottom end of the farm. Little Miss was a bit frightened the first time she saw them, I don’t think she’d ever seen a horse before, never mind one that big!

Little Miss and Daddy looking at the donkeys.

All the important bits

Location
Sacrewell Farm is located off the A47 near the junction with the A1 at Wansford. Their website says to use the postcode PE8 6LB and follow the brown tourist signs on the A47 and A1.

Car parking
There is plenty of free car parking on site.

Tickets
In the low season (November – 15 Feb), an adult ticket is £5.95, child £4.25 and family (2+2) £17.50. During the high season (16 Feb – 31 Oct), an adult ticket is £6.95, child £5.25 and family (2+2) £21.50. It’s not a cheap day out, but I feel the prices are in line with other children’s farms/zoos I have been to.

Eating and drinking
There is quite a large café at Sacrewell Farm. I have eaten there once for lunch and the food was really good. I had a ‘proper’ lunch of hot pot, and it wasn’t too badly priced (can’t exactly recall what I paid). I see the café has been taken over by another contractor, so I can’t comment on what the food is like now. You can bring your own lunch and eat either outside or in the activity barn. There are picnic tables outside and in the barn.

There are plenty of highchairs in the café and a place to park buggies. There is no longer a microwave to heat up baby food, but you can ask the staff to help you out.

The Mill House serves cream teas at weekends over summer.

Facilities
There are toilets (with baby changing facilities) at the main entrance by the café. There is another toilet in the Mill House (at the bottom end of the farm) and toilets close to the activity barn. They are all clean (the Mill House one is uni-sex).

My ratings

• Value for money: 4/5
• Fun factor (kids): 5/5
• Fun factor (adults) 4/5 (more if you like old farm machinery!)