If you are looking for a family friendly outing where you can see farm animals, enjoy some fresh air with a playground to explore, and a delicious cafe on site then this Lockey Farm the place to go.
Situated a little south of Reading, in Arborfield Berkshire, is this exciting little place by the name of Lockey Farm. Although it is free to enter, and with free parking – they do have a donation pot where any money donated goes to the upkeep of the animals and the play equipment.
As soon as we arrived Noah was amazed at how much space there was to run around – “Wow Mummy it’s huge” Believe me there was a lot of open space where the children could run freely and explore (it was safely fenced in).
Based In the middle of the field there was a giant sand pit which both children spent ages playing in. Digging holes, building sand castles and even burying their own feet (remember to pack some toys as these aren’t supplied) Just next to here there is a pen which had chickens and hens inside.
There was a lovely two story Wendy house which Bella absolutely loved. She’s really into role play, and was having lots of fun in her pretend house, she kept playing peek a boo from the top wi does aswell.
A firm favourite when we go out to places are always the bouncy pillow, and here they had two of them. There was endless amounts of giggles from both Bella and Noah as they jumped as high as they could in the air. I’m sure they would have spent all day on here if I let them.
Now when I say there was a climbing frame area – it was huge, and all based in a giant sand pit. So win win again as we all love to play in the sand. The climbing frame has ropes to climb up, wobbly bridges to walk over, tunnels to climb through, fireman pole, a slide (which was a tad warm in the sunshine so be careful with bare legs) There was also bouncy hoppers here too which Bella loved to go on.
They also had a wooden obstacle course where the children had to balance along, rope walls to climb up and over, a wobbly swinging step and wooden hurdles too. This area proved very enjoyable as they were having timed races to see who could compete it the quickest. There was also a very long zip wire, which of course Bella spent ages on. She’s a little daredevil and always wants to go faster.
Towards the end of this area there are some lovely friendly goats and a pair of donkeys. You are able to feed them (you can purchase the food from the onsite farm shop) Myself and Bella loved feeding the animals, the goats were very cheeky and as soon as we got the bag of food out they were standing up at the fence trying to get our attention.
Bella loves all animals and she was very confident at feeding them all, although I think the donkeys may have been a tad too big for her. She preferred the goats and was happily talking to them, and feeding them their special food.
On site there is also a lovely cafe which serves hot and cold refreshments, and these are very reasonable priced as we stayed and had lunch here too. Plus we popped into the farm shop aswell, not only to buy the animal food we picked up some very unusual sausages which we can’t wait to try.
Have you ever tried marmite sausages or chilli and chicken ones?
We had a lovely day out here, and you can spend the whole day. Just remember to pack a picnic blanket and bring some toys to play in the sand areas. It really was a winner of a day for us, and like I said at the start – Although there is no entry fee, they do have a donation station just by the entrance gate if you would like to contribute at all.
