Birthday at Smithills Open Farm, Bolton

Click to share...

Our 3-year-old daughter was a very happy girl at Smithills Open Farm today! We took our family to the farm for her birthday to show her the animals and generally have a good time. The weather was kind, although as it is January it was very cold. But we all had a superb time.

The farm itself was a working dairy farm in North Bolton from 1986 up to 2001. At the time the price of milk was spiralling downwards, and the farm transformed itself into Smithills Open Farm, open to visitors who wanted to see what farming was all about. Over the past 20 years it has grown and diversified. For example, the farm has a zoo licence, allowing exotic animals to be kept, and still maintains its dairy heritage with its own pasteurising plant.

Activities at Smithills Open Farm

When we arrived we saw a large board with a huge number of activities happening during the day. Milking the cows after lunch, tractor and trailer rides from 11am, meeting the meerkats three times during the day, calf feeding at noon, Pets Corner several times a day, and other activities.

Our first activity was a donkey ride for three of the children. There is a height restriction for this, with all riders needing to be below around 4’5″. Very small children can ride, but an adult should walk alongside to keep them on. Two of ours loved every second of it – the birthday girl, however, starting off crying, before moving on to grim determination to stay on the donkey. She still had a good time though!

Next we went to feed the alpacas. There were plenty of these around, each with their own funny hairdo and all named after chocolate bars. They are so tame and friendly that everybody was holding their hands out with feed on and stroking their super soft coats. These creatures were definitely one of our highlights.

Next to the alpacas is the playground which the kids spent a little while on. There are pieces of equipment for younger and older children, including a tall slide, wooden obstacel course, monkey bars, and a model combine harvestor to play inside.

We took a ride on the tractor and trailer. This exceeded our expectations, as we were taken on a custom-built passenger trailer through the farm and up a hill. We could see for miles on the top, and the driver stopped the tractor for a herd of donkeys to envelop the trailer waiting to be fed the supplied bread. After this we were taken back down, admiring the animals on the way. The trip lasted around 10-15 minutes.

Inside the petting barn there was a huge selection of farm animals. We started at the beautiful white horse and as we travelled around the barn we were treated to a herd of llamas eager for treats, rare sheep, a dairy herd, a variety of types of goats including quite a few babies (and a pair of youngsters trying out for the circus!) and a few rare pigs. Inside this barn is also the dairy. You can watch the cows being milked here and watch the whole process from capturing that milk to processing it into bottles of milk, yoghurt, butter, or ice cream. This is a working dairy and Smithills deliver to the doorstep in Bolton, so it is a true insight into a dairy farm.

The farm does have a zoo license, which means that they are allowed to keep animals which are unrelated to farming. They have a small reptile house, which houses two massive Burmese Pythons as well as some Bearded Dragons, Chinese Water Dragons, Corn Snakes, Terrapins, Leopard Geckos, Fire Bellied Toads and Tarantulas.

Pets’ Corner was a great end to the day. We thought we were just seeing baby chicks, but after we sat down on the hay bales we got a succession of baby animals. From goats which needed feeding from bottles to emus which paraded around the barn. Twin pigmy goats, alpacas, mother and son eagle owls, and baby chicks and rabbits which everybody could hold and stroke. The host was very knowledgeable and obviously knows these animals very well. Our daughter had a fantastic time in there, and it looked as though everybody else did too.

Tickets

We were at Smithills Open Farm for just over three hours. By the end of this we were freezing cold, and all the kids were tired out. Car parking was free. They have an extensive car parking area, but it was approaching full capacity when we went at around 12:30. The cost was £8.50 for adults, £7.50 for children. Toddlers, carers and childminders go free. The donkey ride cost £1.50 per person (remember the height limit), and the tractor ride cost just £1.00 per person.

At the moment you need to book and pay online – there are no cash payments on the door. The ticket is an open ticket for any time during that day though, with final admission at 4pm. The farm is open every day from 10am to 5pm except Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

Take a look at their website for more info.