I Can Milk a Goat Mummy! (Pennywell Farm & Wildlife Centre)

Member Name: Lucille

Product:	Pennywell Farm & Wildlife Centre
Date:	27/09/01 (204 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great fun for small children, Can actually touch the animals, Good facilities

Disadvantages: Probably gets busy at weekends/school holidays, Go early, or you will miss some activities

When you are going on holiday with a young child, one problem can be what to do to occupy them. They can be a bit young for theme parks and museums, but the weather isn?t always good enough to play on the beach or park. I have just come back from a holiday in Devon with my daughter, Alice who is nearly 3 years old, so faced this problem. However we found a great place to take her, Pennywell Farm in Buckfastleigh.

We found out about Pennywell in the usual way, through a leaflet left in cottage we were staying in. It said that there was 21,000 sq feet of all-weather undercover fun, so we thought it was a good visit to save in case of a rainy day. When we did decide to go, we thought it might occupy our daughter for a couple of hours at the most, (the average for her at the moment).

We arrived at 10.30am, and straight a way you could tell it was a different type of place. The woman selling the tickets asked Alice her name, and then made her a sticky name badge to wear. She told us to keep our ears open for the loudspeaker announcements, which would tell us what activities were happening, and she gave Alice an activity sheet so that Alice could keep track of what she had done. She also said that if we were in the ?Pets Area? we could handle any of the animals we wanted, but could we make sure Alice sat down to nurse them just to be safe. This was very different from anywhere else we had been, where all the signs seemed to say ?don?t touch?.

Alice was just deciding which of the two-week-old chicks in the Pets Area she wanted her Daddy to catch, when we heard the first announcement. It was that egg collecting was about to start in the top field, so off we went. There we met a member of staff, called Emma, and about 15 other children, all of a similar age to Alice. Emma explained to the children about the hens laying the eggs and how they hatched some of them into chicks. She then opened the hen house so the eggs could be collected. As there were
only 7 eggs and 16 eager collectors she chose some children to get the eggs, but made sure all of them touched one of the newly laid ones. After that she got out one of the calmest chickens I had ever seen so the children could touch it. This done all of the children got their first stamp on their activity sheet- ?I collected fresh eggs at Pennywell farm?.

This was the way the rest of the day was organised. Every 45 minutes or so the loud speaker announced another activity, and off we would go. During our time there Alice helped milk a goat, bottle fed a lamb, watched a puppet show, went to a ?party? for the guinea pigs and chicks, and watched shows by shire horses and sheep dogs. There was also pond dipping which we didn?t do, as I think Alice would have dipped herself as well as the net, and a craft activity, which was later in the afternoon, and Alice was tired and ready to go home by then. Each time the children did an activity they received a stamp of their sheet. As an added bonus if you collected 6 stamps, you could earn a free child?s return visit, if you went before 28th October.

In between the activities there were all the usual farm animals and pets to visit and touch, as well as a couple of playgrounds, one especially for the under 5?s, and some large trampolines to occupy her. For children over 8 years and adults there was a gravity go-kart run, which was free of charge. For an extra charge you can also have a pony ride or paint a piece of pottery in the craft cafe, neither of which we did, but they still looked like fun.

Pennywell has very good facilities; clean toilets, baby changing rooms, plenty of picnic areas and a couple of cafes. There were also lots of hand washing facilities, as it was recommended that you washed your hands after touching the animals. After your visit was over there was, of course, a shop selling lots of nice souvenirs and some tacky ones as well, (a toffee cow pat for example!).

Pennywell
was one of the few places I have visited with Alice were there hasn?t been something which I felt could have been improved on. The only disadvantages I can see to a visit to Pennywell are if you don?t go early, you will miss some of the activities. Obviously egg collecting, for example, can only happen once a day, so if you went in the afternoon, you wouldn?t see that. I also think it?s probably very busy at weekends and during the school holidays. One of the advantages for Alice was that there were only small groups of children at each activity, so she could join in and have a go at everything. This might not have been in the case on a Saturday, or in the middle of August.

All in all we had a fantastic time at Pennywell Farm, and I would strongly recommend it to anyone with young children who lives in or is visiting Devon.

Useful information:

Pennywell is open daily from 10am - 5pm - from 8th April - 21st October. It is only open weekends in the winter. There are visits to Santa and Nativity Plays in December, which have to be booked.
Pennywell was very easy to find - just off A38 Devon Expressway at Buckfastleigh. It is well signposted with the brown tourist signs.
Prices: Adults are £5.95 and the under 3?s are free. Unfortunately I didn?t notice the price for children over 3, and the leaflet doesn?t have prices on it. However, Pennywell?s phone number is 01364 642023 and they would be able to give any other information.

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