| Product: |
Whitehouse Farm Centre (Morpeth) |
| Date: |
10/05/08 (137 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Lots to see and do
Disadvantages: Grass too long for pushchairs in areas
We've just been on holiday in Northumberland and whilst there decided to visit Whitehouse Farm Centre in Morpeth.
Getting there
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Morpeth is approximately 14 miles from Newcastle. It is well sign posted and they have a sizable car park and separate parking areas for coaches.
Prices and Opening times
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Adults £6.75
Children (3-16 years) £5.75
Children under 2 free
Concessions £5.75
Family ticket (2 adults and 2 children, or 1 adult and 3 children) £22.50
Annual membership for adult £36.70, for children £30.70
These prices are for 2008, credit and debit cards are accepted so you don't have to carry loads of cash with you!
Opening times are 10am to 5pm daily except Monday's, Bank holiday Monday and school holiday mondays the farm is also open.
Upon Admission
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After you have parked up you enter the farm past a pay kiosk (this is a little wooden shed), this is not open when the farm is really quiet, instead you pay at the gift shop which is just past the pay kiosk. You can also purchase bags of animal feed here for 50p per bag.
You will be given a map to show you where things are on the farm. However, the maps don't really do justice to how much the farm has, some of the animals are not shown on the map at all!
There are also instructions on the map as to feeding times for the lambs (you can help bottle feed the new baby lambs) and petting animal times. There are also health and safety notes asking you to use the alcohol gel provided (and they do provide many of these around the farm) to clean your hands often, and also to be aware that animals can bite, so beware!
What can I see and do?
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The animals that were outside when we visited (at different times of the year different animals are kept outside or in the barns) were; goats, llamas and sheep.
The one problem that we did find was that the area for the outside animals was set on grass. There were no paths to get too, from and around the fenced areas and the grass was so long that it was almost impossible to get a pushchair through and fairly muddy in patches too.
We found that most of the larger animals were still in the barns as it was only just starting to get warm. In the barns we saw; cows, donkeys, a pony, a horse, more goats, lambs, pigs and piglets, and even some young reindeer. We were able to get close to all of the animals and touch them. My favourite were the cows, but my 3 year old son was not impressed when one of them decided to lick his head and got his hat wet!
There were also some penned off areas containing more reindeer, Wallaby's and some flightless birds (can't remember which one's I'm afraid), and we also saw a peacock sitting on the roof of one of the barns!
The petting barn with all of the smaller animals contained; rabbits, turkeys, guinea pigs, spiders, snakes, tortoise, lizards, birds, chipmunks and probably a few more that I can't remember. Whilst in the petting barn my 3 year old got a chance to hold a baby rabbit who was lovely and soft and sat surprisingly still. However, when my almost 1 year old tried to poke the rabbit in the eyes the rabbit did move quickly, it was at that point that we decided he should perhaps stay in the pushchair.
There is lots of play equipment at the farm to keep the kids happy for a few hours. There is an indoor soft play area (suitable from crawling to about 10 years), an outdoor adventure playground with swings, climbing frame and slides, there is also a pedal karting ring, but the karts were large (adult size), so smaller children would have to sit on an adults lap to race on them. Outside of the cafe (I will get onto this later) there are lots of pedal tractors suitsble from the smallest of walking children to children of about 8 years of age. They have a number of trampolines outside along with 2 large bouncy castles. There is an outdoor toboggan type ride which is £1 for 4 rides down but it was unclear whether this was operational or not from the signs.
There is a barn dedicated to candle making and other craft sales (cards and lovely smelling soap etc), there is an extra fee to make your own candle, ranging from £1.50 to about £3.50 and you can choose between a traditional candle or a beeswax candle which is less messy (on quiet days only the beeswax candles are available, which was a little disappointing as I really wanted to have a go at making my own candle, but my son enjoyed rolling a beeswax candle on his own).
Can you tempt me with food?
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The re is a cafe placed roughly in the middle of the farm, they serve hot and cold food at the sort of prices you would expect, not the most expensive in the world, but there isn't anywhere else to go so you pay it! We only had drinks and ice creams as we had taken a picnic with us, for which they had loads of benches outside and an inside area with tables and chairs for if the weather is not good, or for us a chance to take a break from the sun!
Will the kids want gifts?
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Without a doubt the kids will insist on having a memento of the day, the gift shop has a good range of gifts available. They had all the generic bits and bobs that you seem to find in all gift shops such as cuddly toys, fridge magnets etc. But they also had a lovely range of personalised to them gifts, such as note books, cups, water bottles etc.
Summary
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Although this is not the best farm centre that I have been too, it is certainly one of the better ones. I think the price is good if you can spend most of the day there and there is certainly enough to keep the kids amused for a few hours. The staff knew there stuff and they were really friendly. Overall it was a good day out for the family.
This may also appear on other sites, but it's me on them too!
Summary: Great family day out for all ages!
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