The 17th century Farm was converted to an outdoor children’s centre in 1993 and is equipped to offer an amazing experience for young people to learn outside the classroom. It still has many of the characteristics and charm of a historic building whilst having been adapted to deliver high quality residential experiences for large groups of children.
Play is serious business in the Play Barn where we have an indoor archery range and climbing activities. Dare you climb the famous Jacob’s Ladder and the 30-foot Climbing Wall? We encourage children who are scared of heights to set challenges for themselves and many of them are surprised at what they can achieve.
The children work in pairs to support each other on the Low Ropes elements. The final challenge involves them working as a team to swing over and balance on an ever decreasing sized platform! We now have an outdoor archery range with shelter in this area.
This is a peaceful part of the farm where children can listen to and watch the birds feeding, examine the pond life and smell the herbs in the flower beds. We grow various vegetables and fruit in the garden so there is often a chance for them to taste food and learn about how it grows. We have a demonstration bee hive and love to teach the children about the importance of bees in food production.
This is in the planning stages but it will give us an undercover area to learn about wildlife and do natural crafts when the weather is challenging.
The sensory caravan has been designed to stimulate all of your senses within it. A great asset to have on the site.
We will use this as an outside base for running orienteering from, but it will also be a great place for our visiting groups to perform their talents!
Often a sun spot in summer, this is a lovely space for outside refreshments and spotting Jeff the peacock.
Our feathered and furry residents live in various paddocks and barns around the main building.
| Lounge | ||
| A spiral staircase leads down from the Lark, Curlew and Burdon bedrooms to the cosy sitting room – with big, squidgy sofas and a big open fire. If you fancy a quiet read after a hectic day in the outdoors, you’ll love our library area – it’s filled with all kinds of kids’ books. |  |  |
| Games Room | ||
| There’s just as much to do inside the Farm as out. You can play pool, table football and table tennis. There’s also space for noisy group games or to just sprawl and chill out, or chat with friends. |  |  |
| Dining Room & Kitchen | ||
| We have a spacious dining room and well equipped kitchen to provide our visitors with tasty, healthy food. |  |  |
| Bedrooms | ||
| We’ve got 13 bedrooms with bunk and single beds (7 in the main building, 3 in the annexe and 3 in the cottage), each named after our favourite birds. Will you stay in Owl, Robin, Lark or Kestrel?
|  |  |
| Cottage & Annexe Accommodation | ||
| These have extra bedrooms and bathrooms for our residential guests. |  |  |
| Bathrooms | ||
| Recently refurbished, the bathrooms provide a clean and practical solution to getting all of the children washed and clean before bed. |  |  |
The Farm is surrounded by fields, woods, wetlands which provide habitats for many different kinds of wildlife. We frequently find evidence of this wildlife – owl pellets, nibbled nuts, droppings and footprints. Now that we have a trail camera we can see just who is lurking around when the farm is quiet. Recently we have captured video of foxes, deer and a badger, along with the more common squirrels, rabbits and birds. Many of our activities are based in the wider farm site – nature trekking, cycling, orienteering, pond dipping, country walks, nightline assault course, bush craft and den building. We have various magical places where larger groups can meet up for a campfire experience.
We are accredited through the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge and the Adventuremark. These ensure that we have everything in place to create a high quality and safe learning environment for children and young people to reach their full potential. To learn more about these accreditations visit www.lotc.org.uk/lotc-accreditations/lotc-quality-badge/ and www.adventuremark.co.uk
