3 farm parks to visit near London

Bocketts Farm
Last Sunday I decided to take 21-month-old Baby Boy to Bocketts Farm–a truly charming farm park set in the beautiful hilly Surrey countryside. Bocketts Farm was only a 35-minute drive from Fulham on Sunday morning and it is a farm park I’ve visited every year the past couple of years.

With the lambing season being well under way now, there were lots of baby lambs to see last Sunday, and Baby Boy also enjoyed seeing the cows, sheep and goats in the barn and the rabbits and guinea pigs inside.

In addition to meeting and feeding animals, families can enjoy the large play areas outside at Bocketts Farm, and we spent a long time in the tunnels on the playground and on the jumping pillow. Older children can enjoy pony rides, and there’s a farm walk on the area, which is something I would like to explore some time.

There are also indoor play areas, including soft play, slides, little tractors and a big tractor to climb into. From 14 to 17 April, Bocketts Farm will open at 9.15am in the morning, and on other days the farm will open from 10am.

Odds Farm Park
Another farm park that is easy to get to from South West London is Odds Farm Park near High Wycombe, which we were invited to visit last year and it then took us around 50 minutes to drive there from Fulham. The National Farm Attraction Network (NFAN) has recently awarded Odds Farm Park the award for Farm Attraction of The Year 2017, reflecting the farm park’s wide range of activities, play areas and good food. For Easter, there are new arrivals to meet at the farm, daily shows and entertainment, an Easter trail and arts and crafts activities at Odds Farm.

Odds Farm Park has a large animal barn with sheep and goats, rabbits and guinea pigs, as well as big outdoor and indoor play areas. The farm boasts an outdoor adventure play area with bridges, balancing beams, slides and more, and families can also enjoy tractor and trailer rides around the farm, weather permitting. The soft play area inside features long slides that are fun for both young and old, and a compact soft play space for under 5s. Marmalade’s Tea Rooms at Odds Farm, which was new last year, was a welcome surprise to us when we visited. The venue is committed to UK-sourced food, using free range, organic, ethical and fair trade produce, and the small dining area looks modern with yellow Tolix chairs.

Willows Activity Farm
With a pretty and fun Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground and a wide range of activities, Willows Activity Farm near St Albans is also a fantastic destination for a unique family day out. We recently attended the 1-year anniversary of the Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground, and I was taken aback with the lovely themed play areas at the farm. For Easter, there are daily interactive 20-minute shows with the three charming main characters from the CBeebies Peter Rabbit TV hit, as well as Peter Rabbit character meet and greet sessions, Easter egg hunts, arts and crafts and more.

The farm park, which it took me around an hour to get to, boasts a large barn with horses, cows, sheep, rabbits and guinea pigs, and four-year-old Big Girl was very excited to get to hold a guinea pig there when we visited. There are also several play areas outdoors – including unique features like a pretend cow for children to try milking and giant puzzles to put together. Another highlight is the Peter Rabbit Adventure Playground, designed for children aged 6 and under. The playground blends in with the rest of the farm park, and features different talking characters and themed areas, such as Mrs Tiggy-Winkle’s Kitchen, the Jeremy Fisher Music Pond, the Peter Rabbit Secret Treehouse, and Mr Mcgregor’s Garden.