Tweddle Twiddle Twaddle (Tweddle Children's Animal Farm (County Durham))

Member Name: noodlesandwich

Product:	Tweddle Children's Animal Farm (County Durham)
Date:	25/06/09 (321 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: wonderful animals, inexpensive

Disadvantages: a bit scruffy, some enclosures seem too small

A couple of weekends ago I went to Tweddle Children's Animal Farm with my husband and daughter. Tweddle had been recommended to us as a fun day out for little ones and it didn't sound too pricey, so as it was nice sunny Saturday, we packed up a picnic and off we went.

The farm is near Blackhall Colliery, Hartlepool. I had thought it would be well signposted as we had seen those brown tourist signs for it around, but as we got closer the signs disappeared and we had to do a quick U-turn at one point as we passed the long country road that leads to the entrance, might just have been us though, wouldn't be the first time we'd taken a wrong turning....

Upon pulling into the farm there is car parking space down the right hand side and members of staff will point you in the best direction. It wasn't as busy as I had thought it would be, I can imagine the car park being filled up quite easily. We parked up and had a little while to wait as my daughter had fallen asleep. We listened to the peacocks making that funny noise of theirs, oddly we didn't see any, I think they were in the field behind the car park, but I did find a peacocks feather on the car park floor which now adorns a plant pot in my living room.

We went to pay. Under twos go free and I had half expected a comment as my daughter looks older than that, although she is two next month, but the staff member barely looked at us. In fact the place seemed to be staffed by teenagers, I'm not sure I saw any staff members past their early twenties. I haven't noticed an under twos free rule anywhere else, it's usually under threes or else not free. I don't think under three's should have to pay admission fees anywhere. We bought a bag of indeterminate 'animal feed' for 50p, it looked like typical rabbit or hamster type fare to me.

First up was the baby barn with pigs, cute ickle baa lambs, goats, chickens and calfs,(calves?). One thing I found unneccessary in here were the incongruous seeming posters of childrens tv characters around the place. I had brought my daughter to see animals and there was quite enough going on without her being distracted by pictures of Upsy Daisy or Fifi and the Flower Tots. Tsk!

Coming out of the baby barn to the left are two little otters in a small enclosure. There were signs up saying not to feed them as they were on a special diet, but this didn't stop the child in front of us flinging fistfuls of rabbit food in there. This was when I felt the first stirring of uneasiness about the ethics of these places and wondering about the welfare of the animals. It seemed to be a very small place for two otters to live happily, albeit small otters. Behind these, in a high cage out of close contact, was the Lemur cage. These are stunningly beautiful creatures, I would have liked to have gotten a little bit closer to them, but I'm sure there are probably good reasons why they were placed at a bit of a distance, maybe it was considered too stressful for them, or maybe they bite.

To our right were a group of meerkats, lovely to see them, but again, these are not particularly endangered creatures and they were in a small walled area. My conscience was beginning to prickle a bit. I know there are some sound arguments in favour of captive animals, but this didn't feel right to me. Next up was a tiny little Tamarin monkey who kept hiding and again was being flung food that it wasn't supposed to have.

Behind this was an eaterie of some sort with a fair few outside tables, but I didn't pay it too much attention as we weren't intending to buy anything there. The website tells me this is the tea room but I couldn't comment any further.

We now had the choice of the reptile house to our left, or the rabbit and monkey house in front of us. We chose the reptiles first, after stopping by a large outdoor monkey cage to let my daughter show off her knowledge of colours as she waxed lyrical about their toys. The monkeys in here were doing acrobatics in front us, but my little one seemed more interested in the fact that they had a toy duck.

The reptile house was in fact home to a variety of creatures; snakes, various insects, terrapins, lizards, agouti, parrots, budgies and cockatoos, squirrels and rats, to name the ones that have stayed in my memory. My daughter decided that the huge snake in one corner was 'Mammy' to the other smaller varieties, a fact which she then decided to broadcast to everyone in the vicinity.

On to the rabbit and monkey house. In here, as you would expect were rabbits and monkeys. I began to suspect that my daughter was perhaps not appreciating the novelty of the experience as I pointed out a beautiful big monkey, (the type escapes me and I can't find it on the website), and she gleefully pointed to a painting of a giraffe on the wall behind it and squealed, "and there's a giraffe!" Here children can go into the rabbit enclosures under staff supervision and get to handle the rabbits. We waited a bit then popped back later but this was too popular so our daughter didn't do it. Go through to the back of this area and you will find the 'Indoor Arena'. Here there is a go-karting track, (with a height restriction of 5' 2"), a big slide, a small coin operated merry-go-round ride and plenty of tables for families to sit around. We ate our sandwiches in here, then proceeded with our explorations. I realise I will sound like a total snob here, but I did think some of the clientele were a touch rough. I will say no more on the matter though. This area is available for birthday parties.

The rest of the animals were in outside enclosures, we passed raccoons, guinea pigs, more monkeys. On to the toilets which were in passable condition. There's a dilapidated looking old train carriage just past here which you can board and/or use for a private party. It seemed a bit neglected, the out of date pricing leaflet in the window didn't help. There is an outside childrens play area at the junction between most of the indoor or small enclosure animals and the animals in the fields. We had to pass this to go and see the llamas, deer and others and it was where we intended to finish the afternoon. Once my daughter had seen it however, she wanted to play, and we visited the rest of the livestock under frequent instruction to "finish up the animals now."

There were a lot of signs around warning that all animals can bite. My husband gave the llamas hipswerve as he said he had seen too many episodes of 'You've Been Framed' where people were spat at by them, but I made friends with a very cute woolly headed creature who adored me, until I ran out of food of course. Along here were lots of deer, alpacas, rhea (big birds), ostriches, emus, pigs, donkeys camels, sheep, some water buffalo off in the distance, wallabies and owls. I may have missed some out. Most of these animals were free to roam in quite large fields which also had shelters in. I really liked the camels. They were off in the distance at first but came over to us for a good look at one point. They seem very disdainful and somehow regal animals, yes I am being anthropomorphic, if that's the right way to use the word, but that's what people do. My daughter was quite taken with the donkeys along here, they were very sweet.

There is a children's ride in one of the fields; they get pulled along behind a tractor in little 'tractor barrels'. There are also short pony rides available - going around in a circle in one of the fields.

I didn't really like the way the owls were kept. They had big cages with a tiny box high up in the corner to roost in. One housed two snowy owls and there was a barn owl in one and a brown owl in another. I don't really like to see caged birds, no matter how well kept, but if they are rare and it is hoped that they will breed then I suppose that is one reason for it.

After looking at this lot we went at last to the play and picnic area. I wasn't too impressed; there were no baby swings only swings for older children which was a disappointment for my little one. There was a wigwam which my daughter liked to run in and out of, but the floor was gravelly and of course she fell over and grazed her hands. There were a few toddler toys in the sand pit, which was quite big but really needed more sand in it, the plastic bottom was showing through in parts. A few of the benches were broken. I wandered away, over to what was called the gift and pet shop. I don't think they've started stocking any pets yet, at least that area was empty on my visit. The shop itself was in semi darkness which made it seem a bit grotty. There was nothing special in here, just lots of cheap widely available goods. I went back past the little snack van and bought two teas. At first I thought, 'great 80p for a mug of tea', but that was before I had to spit out a horrible mouthful of something - probably limescale from the kettle. So, not a bargain then. Thus ended our day at Tweddle.

Sadly a few animals have been stolen from Tweddle Farm recently, a couple of parrots and two Goeldi (marmoset type) monkeys, I hope they don't come to any harm.

Overall our time at Tweddle was enjoyable enough, although I am not sure I would return. I would prefer somewhere that was better maintained and where I was a hundred per cent happy with the conditions the animals were kept in. On the plus side it's not too expensive and it will keep your children entertained for a few hours, although not for a full day, but in my opinion it's not really somewhere worth making a long journey for.


Prices and Opening Times:
(from the website www.tweddle-farm.co.uk)

Adults £4.50
Children (2 to 16) £3.50
Family Ticket (2 + 2) £14.00
Family Season Ticket (2 + 2) £70.00
Senior Citizens £3.75
Children Under 2 Years Free

March - October November - February
7 days a week: 10am - 5pm 7 days a week: 10am - 4pm

Summary: Could be better with a little more work