I’ve had Bocketts Farm on my list of things to do for a while, when I saw this week that they had a new alpaca cria born this week (via their Facebook page) we decided that we would go during the week between Christmas and New year. As Ariella had gained a Happyland farm set and more interest in naming animals I felt a trip to see them in real life would be a great way to follow on the farm theme. Leatherhead is under an hours drive from us, much like when we visited Fishers Farm, we visited there in the Summer before I established this blog but I’ll have to go again and when I do I’ll be sure to post!
Alpaca cria – Picture credit directly from official Facebook page (Bocketts Farm Park)
Conveniently during lunch Ariella’s new sun glasses arrived, we had to try them on and it was a sunny day so I thought I might as well bring them along. She really likes putting glasses on but I don’t know if she will keep them on for long durations and we are prepping her for our Indian Ocean trip in March.
On arrival we were greeted by a really friendly woman who gave us a map of the farm and a schedule for the day, she explained what animals we shouldn’t feed with the animal feed bag (extra charge). Feeling like we had a good idea of what was on offer we headed straight to the Little Hoppington small animal village. It really is a village, they’ve created little houses for the animals which are mostly Rabbits, Mice, Guinea pigs and some birds. Each house is themed with a doctor surgery, market, town church. It’s really adorable, I really loved the mice church as they had made a run all the way up the inside to the top steeple so that the mice can really get a good exercise. At the back they had a handling section with animals that don’t mind being handled, each cage had a timed event to spread out the handling sessions for them too.
Little Hoppington – the small animal village
There were bigger animals to see also, horses, ponies, pigs, goats, donkey’s, sheep, chickens and cows. The most friendly cow’s I’ve ever seen, normally I find them rather intimidating. I think it’s great that they had the horses in together in pairs, with each horses name and descriptions about their friendship with the horse next to them. There was one horse that wasn’t feeling too well so he had a sign up to say so, very nice to see that the animals seemed to be being treated very respectfully.
The stables
Snuggling in
Cool girl, trying out her new shades
Feeding time!
Ariella had a little moment when she saw the animal feed bag, expecting something for herself. We found a great little picnic sheltered area for her to eat her snack. Lucky I thought ahead and packed a few things for her as it was only just after lunch!
Someone had food envy when she saw the animal feed
It was very cold out, they had some spectacular playground areas, soft play, farm walks, pony rides for the older children, pig racing, goat milking and trailer rides. We could have made a real day of the farm but Ariella wasn’t feeling too well, she was being a bit grumpy. Which is understandable as she has had a cold, when she started looking very sleepy we decided to head home.
Schedule of the day’s events.
I think we could have made much more of the farm if Ariella was more mobile, many of the children were really enjoying the playground areas but I couldn’t see any baby swings and Ariella doesn’t really like to play on the rest of the equipment. She does enjoy a slide but can’t get to the top of the slide herself and won’t climb the stairs to get there.
There were interesting play diggers, a few of the activities were an extra cost but the cost wasn’t very high. Around £2 for the pony ride, £1.25 for the tractor ride if memory serves I think the diggers were around £1 too. Children could ride little tractors around, lots of fun to be had, if you were up to walking you could enjoy the longer walks around the farm. We didn’t do this as I forgot to put my wellies on and Jamie doesn’t even own a pair. I think perhaps we need to rectify this! It was so frosty out on Thursday that I actually had to grit the steps to our home in fear that we might end up sliding down them today. Alas the weather has changed, didn’t need to bother!
Children under two get in free, adults I think it is £9.50 per adult. So really for a whole day’s fun it isn’t too bad, I particularly like the indoor soft play area as a way to warm up from the cold. Having lived in London it still amazes me how beautiful Surrey really is, truly the best of both worlds.
