Lower Drayton Farm is a quaint, 750-acre working farm in Penkridge, Staffordshire. Only a mile from the M6, it is the perfect choice for a day out. Run by Farmer Richard Bower, his dad Farmer Ray and his partner Val, this is a family run farm that cherishes all that is family by giving you an amazing experience with your own families.
All tickets are to be booked online for Lower Drayton Farm as they ensure everyone’s safety by limiting numbers due to the current pandemic. This was very noticeable during our visit as it felt safe. Everywhere around the farm are hand sanitisation stations with gels, sprays and wipes. It was great to see everyone using these when we went too. I have to admit, I was really impressed with all of the measures in place. When we arrived at ‘PLAY’ we arrived just as the farm were having a thorough soft play clean. It was great to see those measures in place. Along with rules of only one family bubble on certain equipment. This worked really well and no one was stood around waiting for anything (which I would have thought would have happened).
So, what is at Lower Drayton Farm?
PLAY is the new farm attraction that first opened its doors to the public mid August with its Summer Unlocked event, offering families the chance to come and spend time on the farm, in the countryside following lockdown.
There’s a variety of things to do at the farm:
Bounce on the Inflatable Pillows (one family bubble per go). The girls absolutely loved this, as did me and my husband. We all had a good 10 minute jump, bounce, slide filled with loads of giggles.
‘Farm-ula’ One go-Kart Track . Jemima aged 4 was too small to pedal her own kart, so the lovely team member pushed her around the track for me, running at times to make her laugh and give her a racing experience. Matilda (aged 7) also has little legs, so her Daddy took the role of pushing her around the track too. It was great watching both the girls laughing their heads off, racing one another. The go-karts are big enough for adults to have a go and they could put children on their laps too.
Tree Top Towers is an outdoor play area for children with a tall red slide and a slightly smaller green slide. They can climb up a rock climbing wall or ropes to get onto the climbing frame, cross a bridge and slide as fast as they can. There’s other bits within this section too including a lower down rope bridge, swings and a see-saw. Jemima was straight onto the equipment the moment she saw it.
Zip Wire races. Their are two zipwires right next to each other, where you could race a friend on a zipline, who will win? You have to be aged 6 and above for this, so we didn’t have a go, but we watched lots of people having fun on it.
One-way Inflatables – Two assault course inflatables, perfect for the family to have a go on (remember to take your shoes off). One bubble at a time are allowed on these and my two had an amazing time on them. Both inflatables end with a slide.
Sand and Water Play Area – When I told my girls we were going to a farm with a sandpit, they were incredibly excited. Their faces gleamed with joy when they saw how big the sand section was and not only sand, but water play too (every kids idea of fun). We forgot to bring a bucket and spade (don’t forget to take one with you) , so my girls were just happy playing with the water feature, placing the plug in different holes on the wooden equipment to see which way the water would then flow. Educational as well as fun. They also played in the wet sand with their hands, trying to write their own names in it and filling up the buckets that were spread around the section.
Inside you can find a section to meet and hold rabbits, guinea pigs and chicks. Probably my girls favourite experience. They both held a chick in their hands and on their laps, stroked a baby guinea pig and brushed and petted a rabbit. In this section they also got to look at the Meerkats in their desert inspired enclosure.
When you walk out of that section, you immediately enter the Farm Animal Viewing Barn where we could see a Pig due to give birth, more pigs, goats, sheep , cows and chickens. This animal section isn’t huge but it is quaint and perfect for little ones.
There’s an outdoor undercover play barn open from 11am – 4:30pm where you can whizz down some very large slides – even the adults can have a go. Farmer Ray told my girls that Daddy HAD to go on the red drop slide and that Mummies are exempt from having to! Ha! This section had a number of toddler pedal tractors to ride around on and was incredibly quiet. I wondered if people didn’t realise that it was there. So if you go, do hunt it out (next to the shop!).
Huge Indoor Soft Play Area and when I say huge, I mean huge. It is fantastic. Cleaned every 2 hours for a solid half an hour, to ensure it is as clean as possible, we thought this section looked brilliant. We didn’t try it ourselves, but did have a look around to see what was available. Tunnels, slides, a roleplay village for ages 2-6, a baby area for under 2’s and a large frame for over 6 year olds. This is the perfect place to come for a soft play.
The Maize Trail was fantastic. Huge, full of very large corn, with a trail that spells out Lower Drayton Farm. We actually managed to get lost in it, so didn’t complete the whole thing. However we did find our way out of the correct exit, so maybe created our own path. The girls loved running through it and finding signs from Farmer Ray.
You could get food and drinks from the Honeypots Café which was stocked with lots of very delicious looking cakes, snacks and ice creams. All at reasonable (ish) prices.
We loved our trip and will definitely be coming back again in the near future. The girls were so happy the whole time, laughing and excited which made the trip so worthwhile for us. The staff were all lovely. Friendly, polite and available to answer questions at any point. Farmer Ray especially found the time to say hello on our trip around the farm.
Face masks (adults) are required indoors at all times, other than when eating or drinking. It was great to see so many people abiding to this.
We teamed our visit with a trip to the Pumpkin Picking event which was fantastic. Take a look at our review of that here: https://www.smallhousebigtrips.co.uk/lowerdraytonpumpkinpatch/
For more details on Lower Drayton Farm, please check out their website here: https://playatthefarm.co.uk/
Disclaimer: We were invited along to Lower Drayton Farm on gifted tickets. We were under no obligation to write a review and all thought and opinions are entirely our own.
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