This review of Millets Farm Centre actually has a couple of additional parts to it. This main review covers all of the elements of Millets Farm Centre that are free for you to visit. They also have additional, chargeable activities you can do including Sprouts Playbarn, Farmyard Crazy Golf, Millets Wildside Falconry Centre, PYO and their Maize Maze. They regularly have family friendly events as well. There is a small charge for the trampolines and carousel but you can avoid those if you want to (I just told the kids you had to pre-book and they were sold out!)
So, on to the free bits. The playground area is fairly decent and it has swings, slides and a couple of play frames. It has recently been refurbished and they’ve added in all new kit as well as things like a massive sand-pit. At the edges there are also some coin operated ride on cars. Oh and extra toilets for those “I got distracted” emergencies.
The animal walkway
There is also the animal walkway. During the winter there are less animals than normal as they’ve gone into their winter accommodation. We have visited Millets Farm Centre a couple of times now, at different times of the year and we have seen: pigs, llamas, goats, sheep, rhea, cows, lots of ducks & water birds and more. There aren’t a huge amount of animals, but it is free and isn’t billed as an open farm so that’s to be expected.
The farm leads on to Phoebe’s Wood where you can have a lovely walk and stroll along the lake to feed the ducks. The ducks were all really friendly and liked to follow us down the path expecting to be fed. When we visited there were a lot of signets though so we tried to keep away from the Swans.
Before we left we popped into the restaurant for a cake and drink. It was quite busy in there, even mid-week during term time but we were served quickly enough. The scone was OK, if a little bit pricey.
With all the family bits you’d almost be forgiven for forgetting that it’s a garden centre! If you have time then you can also explore the garden centre as well, which the kids enjoy just as much as the rest of it.
Individually none of these things would be worth travelling so far for, but in combination we had a lovely little day out. There were lots of different types of animals for the kids to see and feed, the playground, the woods and the lake. I know that it can get really busy at times, both in the garden centre and especially in the restaurant. There are lots of events that happen throughout the year; there’s a skating rink, maize maze, santa parade and activities during the school holidays so keep an eye out on the website.
Entry – Free – certain areas and activities are chargeable though
Parking – On-site
Toilets – On-site
Food – Picnics are welcome in certain areas, restaurant on-site