If it’s your first time booking or you have questions about babies, carer discounts, what’s included and cancellation policy, then please check our comprehensive info page.
If you’d like to know about safety on the farm, particularly the risk of infection (incl. information for expecting mothers, click here.
Birthday party information can be found by clicking here. Group and school booking information can be found by clicking here.
Otherwise, for more general enquiries, try these sections in our FAQ, below … 1) changing your booking; 2) timing of my booking incl play barn time; 3) jobs and placements; 4) buying or using gift vouchers; 5) prize or fundraising requests; 5) animal enquiries
If you can’t find the answers below, then please drop us a message from our contact page.
Changing Your Booking
I’M GOING TO BE LATE/EARLY IS THAT OK? … Please don’t worry; the timings are advisory and we are as flexible as can be. As long as you aren’t arriving beyond last entry (approx. 2.30pm winter, 3.30pm summer for the farm, 5pm for the play barn) then just report in to front desk and let them know. If you are going to miss the booking due to a disaster, then please drop us an email or use our contact form and we can take it from there. As much notice as possible is appreciated and is more likely to lead to a full refund.
CAN I ADD OR REMOVE PEOPLE TO MY BOOKING? … ADDING: Do that AT THE DOOR (we would never refuse even on a busy day when adding to an existing booking). Alternatively, you can make an additional booking.
REMOVING: please contact us from the contact page with the short reference off your text and what the change is you need to make. We can refund to the card you paid on as long as we have notice of several hours before your start time; the point the email arrives timestamps that request.
I BOOKED THE WRONG DATE/TIME CAN YOU CHANGE IT FOR ME? … Yes, email contact@childrensfarm.co.uk giving the short reference number on the text or email you received and an explanation of the change. There’s no charge for us to make the change.
Timings
I HAVE BOOKED A TIME SLOT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? That is simply your estimated time of checking in for your booking on arrival. Please DON’T treat this as a strict appointment. It’s just a way for us to spread out arrivals of customers to keep pressure off the car park, admissions desk etc.
WHAT TIME DO I HAVE TO GO IN THE PLAY BARN? We put approx. times on the booking page but again this is just about helping with the flow of customers. You get ONE 2 hour session (so can’t come and go) and this starts when you check in at the play barn before or after your farm visit. That time is flexible to suit you as if you are enjoying a longer visit on the farm, we aren’t going to force you off into the play barn. Nor stop you if you want to go in there a bit earlier.
I AM LATE, DOES THAT MEAN I HAVE LOST MY PLACE? Being late (or early) is NEVER a problem for us. The only issue is that in winter the farm closes at dusk at 4pm and in the summer usually at 5pm to give the animals their evening routine and chill out time. We like visitors to have at least 90 minutes on the farm to make it worthwhile and to do all the activities so if your lateness is going to compromise your day in any way or you just want to “abort mission”, then email in and we can reschedule. Don’t worry, if we don’t answer immediately. Note: play barn is open to 6.30pm, year round, so you can finish in there once the farm closes.
Jobs and placements
DO YOU HAVE ANY JOBS? Please email your CV to staff@childrensfarm.co.uk with an explanation of what type of role you are hoping for (full time/part time, type of work). Should we have anything available, we will contact you and if not we will keep your information on file.
CAN I DO A PLACEMENT? We can offer some placements to agricultural or animal related courses. Please email us at staff@childrensfarm.co.uk
Sorry, we DO NOT offer short placements to pre-college pupils (e.g. GCSE year or earlier).
Vouchers
DO YOU SELL VOUCHERS? … Yes we sell monetary value vouchers via an online booking form. They aren’t e-vouchers. They are a nice card voucher which we post out to you, so please allow a week for processing and posting.
For guidance, £50 will generally cover full entry to the farm and play barn for a family of 4. Here’s the link to do that.
HOW DO I USE MY VOUCHERS?
You use them at the door. You CAN NOT redeem them online but you are GUARANTEED ENTRY, even when we are busy. If you have extra people you want to bring that aren’t covered by the booking, then you can book separately for them, but please trust that we enable you to add them on the door. The number of people arriving at any time with vouchers is so small and we can always fit them in, even if sold out online.
Prize requests
CAN I HAVE A PRIZE FOR MY EVENT/ORGANISATION? … We are sorry but due to the massive number of request via social media and email, we have had to stop issuing vouchers/prizes on request. We do sometimes send vouchers direct to schools that have visited as a little thank you with the intention they are passed to the PTA, however as a small company with a very small admin team, we cannot respond to requests.
Animal enquiries
DO YOU ADOPT ANIMALS? … We get asked to take a lot of unwanted cockerels or pets that need rehoming due to a change in family circumstances … we wish we could help but we simply don’t have the the capacity. We are sorry but you would need to approach a charity or use social media to see if anyone is looking for a pet like yours. If you have a rare or unusual animal then please use our contact form on this website but we almost always have our own surplus of most fowl, rabbits and guinea pigs so don’t take any in.
DO YOU SELL ANIMALS? … We do but we do not advertise or provide any advance information about availability, sorry.
We only work on a “first come first served” basis for visitors to the farm at the point the animals are ready.
We don’t keep a waiting list and we don’t reserve animals. Neither do we provide lists / descriptions or dates of forthcoming availability. This is because usually we don’t make advance decisions on what we wish to sell.
The process is that if when we have any animal that we decide to sell, we put a sign on the pen once the animal is ready to be sold. Generally, within a day or two, visitors have seen those and have made an on-the-day purchase, taking the animal home with them.
We appreciate that if you have seen a baby animal on the farm and wish to find out more information about it and consider a purchase that this is frustrating. We can only apologise that we can’t operate like a pet store due to the nature of our business.
The Children's Farm 