Kenyon Hall Farm
A working fruit farm with a farm shop, cafe and a free play area, plus pick your own from June to August. The strawberry tickets sell out fast and the fruit costs more than the supermarket, but nobody is here for the economics.
Farms & animals Warrington
Farms & animals in Warrington
Working farms, animal parks and safaris. Usually the bit they actually remember.
5 in Warrington1 free5 suit under-5s
Warrington's farms split by how much day you want to spend. Apple Jacks is the full production, a seasonal adventure farm of mazes, shows and tractor rides that eats the whole day in the holidays. Kenyon Hall is the grower's farm, pick-your-own in season with a farm shop worth the trip on its own.
Woodlands Alpaca Farm at Thelwall is the new-school one: booked sessions rather than gate entry, alpaca walks for the six-and-ups and a petting corner of goats, pigs and rabbits for the smaller ones. An hour there plus the free run of Walton Hall's gardens and children's zoo up the road is a properly cheap animal day, and nobody queues for anything.
Farmer Bertie's in Glazebury, opposite Bents, opens its fields three times a year: tulips in spring, pick-your-own strawberries from mid June and a 22-acre pumpkin patch in October. The rest of the year it is a milk and egg vending hut, useful but not a day out.
Bates Farm at Risley is a working farm that only opens for booked events, so check the calendar before you set off: a seven-acre pumpkin patch in October at £15 a car, a Christmas barn on four weekends from late November, and lambing in spring.
Farms & animals in Warrington
Bates Farm
A working beef and sheep farm at Risley, run by two sisters, that opens for booked events: a 7-acre pumpkin patch with 40-odd varieties in October, Deck the Barn at Christmas and lambing in spring. Pumpkin entry is £15 a car.
Apple Jacks Adventure Farm
An adventure farm off Stretton Road built for 4 to 12s: tractor trailer rides, zip wires, drop slides, jumping pillows, roller skating and a tent full of inflatables. Despite the name there are no animals to see, and in October it turns into Spooky World's daytime Fun-By-Day.
Farmer Bertie's
A family farm opposite Bents in Glazebury that opens its fields three times a year: tulips in spring, pick-your-own strawberries in early summer and a 22-acre pumpkin patch in October. Out of season it is a milk and egg vending hut, which is still worth knowing about.
Woodlands Alpaca Farm
Alpaca walks and hands-on animal sessions at Thelwall, ten minutes from town, with donkeys, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs and chickens alongside the main event. Small, booked sessions rather than a turn-up farm park.
Farms & animals elsewhere in the North West
Knowsley Safari
Drive through the reserve from the car, then the sea lion and birds of prey shows. Reviews are split on value, and several warn that families expect a full zoo and find fewer headline animals, so set expectations first.
Chester Zoo
Excellent, but it is a lot of walking. Reviews rate 5 to 10 as the ideal age and still recommend a pushchair at four. Climbing frames, water play and sand pits break up the distance.
Smithills Open Farm
A hands-on farm above Bolton: pets corner, meet-and-greet sessions, tractor and trailer rides, donkey rides and a zoo zone, with activities timetabled through the day. Open every day of the year bar three, and £45 for a family of four.
Blackpool Zoo
Elephants, gorillas, giraffes and sea lions in 37 acres that are actually walkable with primary-age legs - big enough to feel like a full day, small enough that nobody ends up carried.
WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre
Otters at feeding time, flamingos, pond dipping and a canoe safari through the reeds in season. One of those places that quietly turns a nature-indifferent child into a nature child.
Windmill Animal Farm
A friendly hands-on farm whose star turn is the miniature railway running out across the fields. Animal handling sessions, indoor play for wet spells, and it never feels too big.
What’s on near you, every Friday
One email a week: what is on this weekend within a sensible drive, and the places worth booking before they go.