Found this farm shop and cafe by pure chance and it has quickly become one of my favourite places…read moreto eat a small snack or meal at. The farm shop is quite small but they sell their own beef (mince, steaks etc), lamb (chops etc), eggs, veg, pies (beef and cheese and onion), sausages as well as local preserves and chutney. Their main business is their cafe, which has a fantastic selection of small snacks (sandwiches, tea cakes, homemade soup, cream scones etc) to larger meals including salads, all day breakfasts, homemade beef and lamb burgers and daily specials. The food is all either from their own produce and meat at the farm or locally grown and sourced when possible. You can taste the difference and all the food is fresh and tasty. Their selection of cakes is fantastic, all home made and yummy. Last time I went they had crumbles, fruit pies, chocolate biscuit cake, sticky toffee pudding and many more I can't remember. But the one thing that I adore the most about this place is their own homemade ice cream! It is the best ice cream I have ever come across, it's not overly sweet and the flavours are great quality. The choice is huge and changes nearly every week but they can include: cherry and yogurt, strawberry cheesecake, sticky toffee pudding, hot cross bun, double chocolate chip, chocolate mint chip, strawberry, toffee fudge, sherry trifle, grandma's special (sweets perfect for kids), farmhouse vanilla, cookies and cream, liquorice... the list goes one. They also do sobets. As well as this huge selection you can buy cakes to take home, anything that's in the cake counter as well as homemade scones and cookies. It has a large outdoor area for kids to play with lots of toys and slides while adults can sit nearby in the sunshine watching the nearby cows and sheep in a field. The whole place just has a wonderful, friendly feel. Only caution I would suggest is if like me you don't have kids and like a bit of peace and quiet, either go early (before 12pm) on weekends and avoid on bank holiday Mondays as it gets very busy with families.

Community farms are such a good thing! Whereas if you set foot on most commercial farms you are…read moreprobably trespassing, startling animals or taking a risk in terms of health and safety, the whole purpose of community farms is to let everyone who wants get hands on. Greenslate is probably the big daddy of community farms locally. It would seem a decent amount of funding has allowed them to quickly develop the site and the range of activities they offer. I've visited Greenslate just the once for their Xmas Fair, and a what an impressive event it was. The scene was like Constable tableau redone for our times. The allotments, the market garden of field and polytunnel crops, the farm shop (all fruit & veg sold here is organic), stalls by local craftspeople, pigs, goat, chickens, outdoor pizza oven, a cauldron of beans cooking over an open fire. Homebaking and also hot food was available on the day - jacket potatoes with beans, vegan curry or goat curry - something for everyone, really! Greenslate is a care farm, so you could perhaps ask to be referred here as a care client, but everyone is welcome to volunteer and lend a hand. I know one mum who brings her 4-year old to the kids club, and she tells me her daughter loves it. Other friends have enjoyed the djembe African drum circle events in the tipi. I'm interested in market gardening and cooking myself. I like the look of their winter polytunnel salads, which are cut to order so it really doesn't come fresher! They also have an orchard of over 30 different varieties of fruit trees (apples, plums, pears, etc). Once that matures, that will be a fantastic educational resource to show at a glance how well various fruit tree varieties grow locally. If you are looking to change the world, note that Greenslate is an organic permaculture farm, and central part of Billinge & Orrell Transition Town. Good to get involved!

From the owner: We are a community farm, here to grow local food which we serve up in our own cafe. We do great…read morebreakfasts and have lots of really good Vegetarian and Vegan options. All our cakes are home baked with organic flower. Our shop is stocked with lots of healthy, ethical stock including a range of plastic free goods. We have lots of kids activities on the farm including kids club and farm club. The farm has chickens, goats, rabbits, pigs, ducks. Of course, we have lots of lovely fresh eggs. Our animals are looked after by people with learning difficulties in our care farm. Entrance to the site is usually free and dogs are welcome in our cafe. Come and explore our 12 acres of woodland and finish up with a coffee and slice of cake in the cafe.

Value for money. Small family-owned farm with their own farm shop, coffee shop and very…read morechildren-friendly! I didn't go into the shop but did get time to enjoy cream tea in the cafe. For only £2.50, I enjoyed a pot of tea, with extra hot water should I have fancied more, a warm home made fruit scone served with clotted cream and jam! It was delicious! The staff were lovely and checked to see if I enjoyed the scone and if I wanted a bacon sarnie to take with me! The coffee shop also had some farm-themed gifts, greeting cards and nik-naks for giving your home a touch of country feel. The place had been newly finished with extra seating inside next to a cosy log burner. There is also extensive seating outside where there is also a mini bouncy castle! I will be popping by again to pick up some meat soon but wanted to share it with you Yelpers now as its a bit of a hidden gem. Bring your family here this weekend (if the weather is not too grim)!

This is exactly the type of place I've been searching for since moving to the area. All other…read more'butchers' I've been to around here don't stock the cuts of meat I'm usually after...bone in pork shoulders and beef ribs or they are overly expensive. Here they will butchers cut you wish as they deal in whole carcass and the prices are very reasonable...£3.50 for brisket and beef ribs is very cheap compared to most places. It is a very clean place considering it's on a farm. There is also a tea room and small pet shop to visit.

Windmill Animal Farm is fab for kids. I don't have kids but didn't have much trouble finding some -…read moremy friend desperately needed a day off. Problem solved. So off we go, it was a Saturday and gorgeous weather. So, we were hoping that it wouldn't be too busy given it was a Saturday and not raining. Well we weren't disappointed, although fairly busy, the farm staff were well organised and kept all us all in check. The kids and I started off on the steam train, with the idea that we would get a good idea of where everything was from the ride (well this is what I thought), the kids were more concerned with just going on a train. Half way around we stopped off at the Lake View and the kids played while I chilled out and absorbed the view. After that we got back on the train and finished the journey. The farm has some pedal tractors that kids use to go around the farm on. They looked great fun to me, but I had so much trouble convincing my friends kids that they should try them too. So after much convincing and no way forward, I gave up and instead they went off to the Children's Pet Area where they got to feed and play with the animals. A great day out and thoroughly enjoyed by us all.

I love this farm. A day trip today was no exception! My other half and I are both animal lovers and…read morewhile we didn't take kids with us, it's a perfect day out for kids. First off when you arrive parking is easy enough with plenty of space. Entry is £6 for adults (£7.50 for kids, and there's family ticket and concessions too). It's £1 for three bags of food (which is well worth it!) There's a small café as well as plenty of picnic benches near the entrance along with a kids playground. Just before the barn, quite often they have birds of prey in or creepy crawlies, both of which have been there on previous trips and you're allowed to get hands on. In the farm itself you can see pigs, donkeys, deer, llamas, alpacas, horse, cows, goats and all the sheep! New this year were also wallabies. They have lamb feeding at set times that you can get involved in too. They've also grown a maze made out of maize which is good fun. Finally there's a small train that you can jump on if your little ones are a bit tired!

This is a fabulous Garden Centre in a beautiful setting. The cafe is lovely with great service and…read moredelicious food. The shop and butchers is also excellent. We have had many plants, turf, bulbs, stones, logs etc over the years and everything is first rate. The staff are friendly, helpful and knowledgable. We always get our Christmas tree here too!

This is a very nice garden centre but it is a bit out of the way in broadbottom. It sells lots of…read morevery large plants in huge pots which you will need a truck to take away and lots of interesting shrubs and potted plants. There is a lovely teashop attached and it has some homemade fare.In stock is a nice array of little gifts and greeting cards as well as flower and vegetable seeds and plenty of bulbs. a good all round selection.

An excellent place to visit. Our two kids (aged 3 and 5) loved it -- there was so much to do. There…read morewere plenty of animals to admire in the farm-yard, and they have several demonstrations throughout the day (we saw the milking session which was particularly entertaining). The play-barn is a good place for the kids to run off some energy. Throughout there's an emphasis on informing and educating as well as entertaining, which we liked. There's a good farm shop too, and a great restaurant/cafe -- we very much enjoyed the lunch we had there. All in all, an excellent place to visit -- highly recommended.

Great farm shop selling seasonal fruit and vegetables and there as fresh as you can get! There…read morecurrently doing strawberry picking so get yourself down there and grab a punnet, it's around £5 pound a punnet which seems expensive but once weighed you do get a lot for your money and the luxury of picking them yourself. They also sell those little luxuries you don't see in a supermarket (cartmel sticky toffee pudding) and lots more. Kenyon Hall farm also has a beautiful garden centre, cafe indoor & outdoor as well as an outdoor park for children. Nice place to visit for an afternoon.

We went strawberry picking one fine saturday to Kenyon Hall Farm. The farm is not too far from J22…read moreof the M6 and has a decent sized car park. The only way into the picking area is through the farm shop and cafe. You queue up, choose a picking basket and follow the teddy bear to get to the strawberry fields. Spend as much time as you like, pick as many strawberries as your basket can hold and then return to the farm shop and pay for the day's haul. The farm shop also sells locally sourced meats, sausages, vegetables, preserves, jams etc. They also have a cafe selling hot and cold food and drinks, which are reasonably priced. In addition to picking your own, you also have the option to buy potted plants and bring them home. I think we got some basil, mint and chilli. I thoroughly enjoyed the strawberry picking experience, which was enhanced by a sunny day. I would definitely recommend this place, especially if you have little kids that need to be entertained on a fine summer's day.

I'm sure in a past life (over the past decade) I used to spend most of my weekends going to watch…read morebands and falling in and out of clubs - enjoying the scene and living for the music. Fast forward to the present day and now that I'm reinvented as a family man I spend my weekends in the great outdoors, at play parks and on many occasions staring at random animals. My 1 year old daughter can't get enough of our cats and this has now moved through into a general affinity for all creatures with 4 legs that don't use a knife and fork to eat their dinner with! So on Sunday we hit the Reddish Vale Farm which is a bit of a hidden gem, amazingly tucked down the road from Reddish South rail station and the high street. It was £4 entry - cards charge £1 extra if less than a fiver...which is a pretty high charge but they will quite happily let you have a free animal mask instead of just losing a pound... Overall this probably ins't in the Jurassic Park leagues of animal excitement - but there are lots of baby chicks, baby rabbits etc to keep the little ones happy and plenty of generic farm animals that you expect to see. There's also quite a few picnic benches meaning you can take your own food and take a load off - just make sure you sit on the far side away from the "barnyard smells" You'd be doing well to last here for more than 2 hours in terms of what there is to do and a penny more than £4 would seem overpriced but it was a fun day out and definitely worth visiting.

From the owner: Reddish Vale Farm and Riding Schoolread more

Visited this for the owl experience and also got to handle some of the hawks. It was absolutely…read morefantastic and I would re visit this again. The owl experience involves using the gloves to handle a variety of different owls. You can feed and pet them and they look pretty happy in themselves! None of them are aggressive they all appear used to human contact with no evidence of nervousness etc. The Hawks are slightly less personable but still really interesting. Again they can be fed and flown but not petted. There is the option depending on which option you book to take the Hawks into the field and see them in their natural habitat. They quickly become distracted with animals in the surrounding area and it's really interesting to watch how they hunt naturally in the wild. Handler was really knowledgable and managed to get all of the birds to interact well. Definitely worth a visit !

An excellent day out with the children which all starts out with a ride on the tractors trailer,…read morefeed lambs & goats, see pigs horses cows and various other farm animals. This also has a great outdoor play area to keep the kids entertained.

Never before have i felt so conned by a company ever. I was…read moremade aware of this petting farm from my mum who had seen a deal on Groupon. I looked at the website and was met by a very professional website showing a world full of stuff to do................how wrong was i ? We didn't travel far, Oldham to Blackburn but still with todays petrol prices, wasted journeys like this end up very costly. We arrived on a cold tuesday half term afternoon and was met by a biggish farm with a couple of building. Our 1st problem was a lack of signage to find out where to pay to gain entrance. We spent a few mins walking through the farm and could have easily not bothered paying at all but like good honest citizen tried to find out to pay our way. We entered the Café and i asked sheeply "is this where i pay to get in" ? Yes was the answer and so after paying for x2 adults and a 3 year old i was £14.50 lighter. Now if you look a the website http://www.visitwellybobs.co.uk it a 1st glance looks like there are loads of areas to visit. WRONG The animals are in one building & there are about 5 animals to pet. At the end of the building there a few dirty plastic seats for the young ones to sit down and hold a rabbit. Thats about it. The Café was full of sand as there is sandpit located in there next to the so called "reptile house" We stayed for 20 mins and then left. Never been so disappointed. Will never again go here !

My wife and I took our brother, sister and niece as they were over from Hull visiting. We only live…read moreten minutes away but were shocked to find that we had paid nearly £30 for entry, expecting it to be a couple of pounds each to see about 5 animals (that we paid extra to feed) and she held a rabbit. The entrance road and overall appearance of the place is scruffy and unprofessional and the cafe / play area not much better. We left after 20-30 minutes and drove to a pub for lunch instead. I do hope that they have improved things as i like to see local businesses thriving and good on them for giving it a go but a lot of work needed to get their business model up to standard as it were. Good luck...(visited 2012)