Hayrack Church Farm

Cost: £6 weekdays, £7 peak, under 1s free
Ages: 1 to 8
Where: Chester, Cheshire
Weather: Mostly outdoors
Booking: Just turn up

Thornton-le-Moors, just off the A5117 between Chester and Ellesmere Port, and it is a proper working farm with a visitor side rather than an attraction pretending to be one. Ducks, hens, donkeys, sheep, pigs, goats and alpacas, most in open pens you can reach into, plus an outdoor play area and a soft play room for when it turns.

Six pounds a head on a term-time weekday and seven at weekends and in the holidays, with under ones free, puts it at about a third of what the big Cheshire farm attractions charge. You do not book, you just turn up, which with small children is worth more than it sounds. It is shut on Mondays in term time; otherwise it runs 10am to 3pm Tuesday to Friday and until 4pm at weekends, and it opens every day in the school holidays and on bank holidays.

There is a butchers shop attached, which tells you what the farm actually does for a living and occasionally prompts a conversation with a five-year-old that you had not planned for.

What it costs: £6 a person on term-time weekdays, £7 at weekends, half term and through the summer. Under 1s free. Carers half price with valid DLA proof. Annual membership £55 a head.

Know before you go

Soft play is included in the farm park ticket rather than charged on top, which is not how most farm parks do it.
Buy the feed bags at the cafe on the way in. Most of the pens are open-fronted, so the feeding is the visit and doing it empty-handed is a short trip.

What’s on at Hayrack Church Farm

Christmas Grotto at Hayrack Church Farm

Hayrack Church Farm, Thornton-le-Moors · Chester

5 (morning), 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20 December, then 21 to 23 December and the morning of 24 December

A small farm's Christmas: Santa's grotto, festive crafts, the cafe, and a gift for each child that includes a free farm pass worth £7. Booking is old school, by email or phone (text after 3pm) and they send a payment link, and tickets are non-refundable unless the farm cancels. There is a separate, quieter SEN grotto.

Children £24.95, adults £10, under 1s freeBook by email or phone, they send a payment linkIndoor option

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