Marsh Farm Country Park, Essex

.../>

Marsh Farm Country Park is a working farm that is open to the public and is owned and managed by Essex County Council. It is situated in South Woodham Ferrers, Essex and is easy to find. It is signed up well from the main road alongside ASDA - I found it with no directions.


There is a main carpark and an overflow carpark and although we visited in the summer holidays there were plenty of spaces to park ...
...Marsh Farm opens at 10.00am daily (10.30 in winter months) and closes at 4.00pm or 5.00pm at weekends and school holidays (3.00pm in winter months).


At the entrance are toilets and an indoor reception area. Inside the reception area is a desk to pay for your entry and a giftshop, although I recommend looking around the giftshop after you've been around the park. Entry to the park costs £6.25 for adults, £3.75 for children ... more

Firstly I must apologise for that shockingly bad title!

Marsh Farm Country Park is a working farm that is open to the public and is owned and managed by Essex County Council. It is situated in South Woodham Ferrers, Essex and is easy to find. It is signed up well from the main road alongside ASDA - I found it with no directions.

There is a main carpark and an overflow carpark and although we visited in the summer holidays there were plenty of spaces to park in the main carpark.

Marsh Farm opens at 10.00am daily (10.30 in winter months) and closes at 4.00pm or 5.00pm at weekends and school holidays (3.00pm in winter months).

At the entrance are toilets and an indoor reception area. Inside the reception area is a desk to pay for your entry and a giftshop, although I recommend looking around the giftshop after you've been around the park. Entry to the park costs £6.25 for adults, £3.75 for children (3-16 years), £4.50 for concessions and £19.00 for families (2 adults and 2 children). Children under 3 are free. These prices might sound reasonable but I personally find them quite overpriced for what the park is. I can think of a lot of better places to visit that cost less. This might also work out expensive for those who have big families.

You are given a wristband which allows you to leave and re-enter the park if you choose (there is also space for an emergency contact number if a child goes missing... but only paying children get a wristband!). You are also given a sheet of events that go on throughout the day.

When we visited the events included pony grooming, pet handling, craft activities, pony rides, tractor and trailer rides, face painting, milking demonstration, meet a shetland, meet a piglet, Kat's magic show and egg collecting. It was also a 'mermaids and pirates summer special' which sounds quite exciting but actually isn't. The only thing I saw that was remotely mermaid themed was a woman (sort of) dressed like a mermaid, blowing bubbles! And the only pirate themed thing I saw was.. well, nothing. There were some flag banners up but I don't know if they were for the summer special or not.

They did manage to put on a 'treasure hunt' which consisted of collecting letters that were scattered around the park. When you had all the letters written down you had to unscramble them to make a pirate themed word. Once the treasure hunt was complete it was entered into a prize draw. I personally think that being put in a prize draw is a total slap in the face for a child - they have spent their whole day trying to complete this treasure hunt only to be greeted with no treasure at the end. Would it really be so hard to give out a small prize at the end? Shocking really. Plus there was also the issue of not knowing what the prize draw was actually for! Surely you would state the prize on the treasure hunt form, no?

The first thing you come to is a sheep enclosure, you can walk through the enclosure or just see them through the fence. The sheep are friendly and you can pet them and feed them - food is available at reception and all animals can be fed by hand (except for the pigs, ponies and donkeys). The food appeared to be a dry vegetable mix. The sheep enclosure was quite spacious and grassy.

The next enclosure is the donkey enclosure. There were 2 donkeys that were very cute and didn't really take much notice of us, they were too busy eating. One of the donkeys let me pet it but the other one didn't seem to want the fuss.

Next up are the pigs. There are 2 sheds of pigs - a dry sow house (pregnant females) and farrowing house (where females give birth and babies grow up). The dry sow house was quite large and had an overhead deck to look down on the pigs. The first thing you notice is the awful smell but you get used to it after a minute or so. There were facts and educational information all over the place. There appeared to be about 30 pigs in there and they were all really huge (not suprising when you see how many pigets they give birth to). It was a really hot day and almost every single one of them was laying still on the floor. The lighting was quite dim inside but the pigs had access to an outdoor area (though it wasn't a very big area and appeared to be concrete). There didn't seem to be any human interaction going on, the pigs were fed from a water bottle on the wall (looked like a water pipe with a spout on the end) like giant hamsters and were fed by an electric feeder - they walked through a door into a tiny crate, ate their food and left through another door, the next pig then came in and so on. I found it all pretty sad and I'm sure many other animal lovers would find it distressing. The dry sow house was filthy too, I know it literally is a pig sty but you need to draw the line somewhere. Everything was caked in crap and all of the walls and pretty much everything was discusting - I wasn't the only one to point this out. The farrowing house wasn't much fun either. There were rows of tiny crates with large female pigs (that had recently given birth) and their litter of piglets inside. There was no room for the females to get up and move around, they were just laying there whilst the piglets suckled on them. There were actually signs on the wall saying something along the lines of 'We have received a number of complaints from the public regarding the size of our crates. We are working to resolve this issue' ... it became clear to me that nothing had yet been resolved. The piglets were absolutely gorgeous and we arrived in the farrowing house just in time for the piglet handling. I was handed the cutest little pink piglet but he was screeching really loudly so I made it quick so he could get back to his mummy. It brought tears to my eyes when I realised where these beautiful little things would be in a few months. There were also some crates with tiny piglets in and no mothers, this made me sad. On the other side of the farrowing house were lots of different piglets from different litters and of different ages, they were covered in muck but seemed quite happy. You could also lean over the wall and touch them, they didn't seem to mind at all. At the exit were pig facts, activities and sinks with soap.

The cow shed isn't huge and is home to a number of cows and their gorgeous calves. There is also a big plastic cow inside that has rubber udders which is used for milking demonstrations. I gave them a squeeze but they were empty, boo hoo! Inside the cow shed is also a classroom for childrens craft activities but you have to pay extra to get involved. There is also a big milking machine and loads of cow related facts and activities at the exit.

Next to the cow shed is the sheep shed which is home to a number of friendly sheep and goats. Whilst we were there they were sheering the sheep so we stopped to watch. It was very interesting and fun to watch, my daughter now understands that sheep have to have 'haircuts' too. My one complaint is that there was 1 person sheering the sheep and another person just standing there collecting the wool up and neither of them spoke or interacted with the big crowd that had gathered.

Behind the sheep shed are the stables, pet barn and pet theatre. Inside both are horses, ponies, goats, ferrets, rabbits, chipmunks, rats, guinea pigs and a selection of different birds. The pet barn appeared to be a big hit with young children and strangely enough were selling some of their animals! Next to the pet barn are tractor rides, where you sit inside a trailer which is pulled along by tractor. We didn't bother with this as the queue was too big. Nearby is also an indoor playbarn which I wanted to have a look at but it was far too hot and packed inside so we didn't bother with that either.

There were also pony rides for £1.00. The pony took the kids round a small paddock once. I was going to put my daughter on but then noticed how knackered the tiny little pony looked. It was a steaming hot day and there were about 20 kids waiting in the queue to have a ride. The pony had clearly been working for some time and looked like he was on his last legs. I noticed one of the girls that was working with him say something along the lines of "not long now". Very sad. There should have been more than 1 pony and there should have been a cut off point for the queue in my opinion.

Right in the middle of the park are toilets and food stand. We didn't eat at the food stand or use the toilets so I can't comment on them.

There were chicken paddocks which you could walk through. We entered the first gate and we're expecting to enter the seperate gates inside to reach the seperate paddocks but they were all padlocked shut! Bit of a disappointment and waste of time. There was also a sign on the gate which said "No babies allowed, chickens may peck at their eyes"!!!!

When we visited there was a bouncy castle which children could play on for £1 (for 10 minutes) which my daughter really enjoyed - don't expect anything to be free here though! There is also a large sandy area with play diggers and slides in, which everybody seemed to really be enjoying. There is another seperate outdoor play area with bridges, slides, ladders, swings - the lot. This is a lovely play area for all ages and is surrounded by picnic tables.

At the very end of the park is a small cafe/tea room, an ice cream stand (handy but packed in the summer months) and the gift shop, which sells something for everybody.

Although the park is quite small it would have still been useful to have more signposts up, particularly nearer to the back of the park as everything seemed jumbled together and some parts seemed hidden away. On the upside the park appeared to be totally wheelchair and pushchair accessable - a lot of flat surfaces and ramps. From a vegetarians point of view I found the whole place rather deflating and depressing (eg. they had a fridge full of fresh meat next to the gift shop and there was a chart next to the sheep enclosure which said 'What are sheep for?' and an arrow pointing to a shepards pie box!) but on the upside it teaches children where meat comes from.

I was very impressed by the amount of facts and educational activities around the park and think Marsh Farm is a good place for under 10's to learn about farming and animals. However I was slightly disappointed to learn that certain things such as rides and activities were only available at weekends and during school holidays (and the fact you have to pay extra for everything).

I would recommend Marsh Farm to those who live near by and who have young children, but don't set your hopes too high. I would advise going on a warm day and taking a picnic with you to make the most of it.

Take a look at the website for more info www.marshfarmcountrypark.co.uk 

...less