Godstone Farm

POD’s doing well with words of three syllables. She can say “cat-a-pillar”, “ell-ee-phant” and “butt-er-fly” although the latter often becomes “butt-fly”. At the suggestion of visiting a farm, the word ‘animals’ was proving a challenge. After several attempts we were still off to see the “an-am-an-als”.

Once in the car, POD said hello to trees, cars and “wowwies”. Then fell asleep. I contemplated pulling over to buy a coffee when I realised the farm we were going to was 25 miles away. We’ve visited nearby Bocketts Farm on several occasions and we absolutely love it there. POD’s not been brave enough to feed the animals yet but it’s fantastic you can get so close to them.

By comparison Godstone Farm is much larger. There are barriers and a turn style system in operation which made me wonder how busy it is in the summer months.

Nevertheless we were greeted by three scarecrows, goats and geese. And some giant turkeys. We saw a llama in a field who took great interest in us before galloping away. Other llamas hid in a man-made hut. Very sensible, it was freezing! POD was delighted to see ducks, including an unidentified one sitting on a fence, and budgies.

POD is a fan of watching animals run excitedly around their cages but she’s not seen an albino ferret before. Shrieks of “I don’t like it, go away” rippled across the farm as POD saw its white furry body blood red eyes. All was forgotten however when she spotted an owl. An excitable cry of “Owl. Wit woo” was accompanied with much pointing. She loves owls.

Passing through a courtyard we paid a quick visit to a mice maze before reaching an animal handling barn. POD was out of the buggy at this point so we parked up to have a look around. There were two or three cockerels, in a painted trough, two rabbits and a whole host of recently hatched chicks. Although I did get a photo of POD looking in wonderment at all the animals, it is nothing compared to what we witnessed a few
minutes later.

Once POD got her confidence up and saw other children stroking the rabbits, she decided she might have a go too. And she did. POD stroked a rabbit. This may not seem a big deal but it really is. She’s not touched an animal before. She loves them but she’s always incredibly cautious when she gets close. In a similar vein to people, she likes to check them out first.

The rabbit was huge but clearly very comfortable with being stroked by toddlers. After telling the entire room she stroked a “babbit”, POD went round saying hello to the cockerels, the chickens and the other rabbit.

After leaving animal handling, we headed to the large animal barn where POD spotted some piglets. One of which being brave enough to come over to us. We also saw sheep and some gorgeous lambs including a tiny black one. The barriers prevented us from getting really close but we could could still see everything.

A top shelter provided us with views of goats, including a little kid, and the sheep. We could also watch the lambs jump up and down. Although we’d seen a real cow, POD was quite taken with a fake one used to show how udders work.

She would have loved the giant soft play area but we bypassed it on this occasion. After visiting some more rabbits and guinea pigs, we headed down to the pig pens and chicken coups. POD decided to break free from Mummy at that point, until a large group of school children came bounding towards her. We said a quick hello to a horse, a couple of ponies and another cow before making our way to an adventure playground.

We passed the largest sandpit I have ever seen before having few goes on a slide and doing a spot of tractor riding. Having worked up a good appetite, we headed over to the tea rooms to grab some lunch. It wasn’t to be. Three sandwiches left, all of which were egg – POD’s allergic to egg. Unperturbed, we cut our losses to eat elsewhere.

There was nowhere to go nearby so we snacked on Biscotti until we reached a service station. There we picked up M&S sandwiches, cheese and dinner. POD amused the lady behind us in the queue by pointing at Percy Pigs and shouting “pigs”. The poor woman must have been mortified when she found herself letting out her loudest pig impression. Nothing like a good snort in public.

Godstone Farm is located at Tilburstow Hill Road, Godstone, Surrey RH9 8LX. This post is for Country Kids which is about enjoying outdoor time with your kids. If you have a post you’d like to share, click on the badge below or visit the Coombe Mill website.