Home to a mini golf course, an adventure playground and plenty more, there's so much more to Over Farm near Gloucester than just farmyard animals and tractor rides – especially in the holidays, when visitors can take advantage of all sorts of special events.
SoGlos picks out 10 reasons why Over Farm is the perfect place to keep children entertained all day long, while making life easy for families travelling by public transport - so pack a picnic and take the kids to play outside this summer.
1. The Animal Trail at Over Farm
There’s a whole host of friendly farm animals waiting to have their heads scratched and their ears tickled at Over Farm. As well as sheep, goats, horses and pigs, the farm is also home to donkeys, llamas and even keeps ostriches! If you want to feed any of the farm’s four-legged residents along the animal trail, you can buy special pellets from the admissions shed.
2. Tractor trailer rides at Over Farm
Over Farm has four tractors taking visitors on tours of the farm – including Monty, here! With tractor trailer rides included in the cost of admission, families can nab a place in the big red trailer, listen to the commentary and make sure they’ve covered every inch of the farm and ticked off everything there is to see and do before home time.
3. Adventure play at Over Farm
Over Farm unveiled two new adventure play areas in 2022, one of them so unique it even has a miniature version of Over Farm Market to explore, with the added excitement of a slide and a fireman’s pole! The Barnyard playground, complete with wooden tractor and combine harvester, is joined by an assault course style Scrapyard fun zone for even more ways to play.
4. Mini golf at Over Farm
Another new addition to Over Farm in 2022 is mini golf. Promising fun for all ages regardless of ability, each hole offers something different. Add a little healthy competition to your day by challenging the family to a round, with everything you need included in your entry fee for Countryside Adventure.
5. Quad train rides at Over Farm
One of the most popular attractions at Over Farm, the quad train rides are full of twists and turns. Pulled along by a quad bike, the individual barrel carriages are big enough to hold an adult (if they’re needed to accompany smaller passengers), meaning everyone can join in.
6. Bouncy pillows at Over Farm
The bright and colourful bouncy pillows in Over Farm’s paddocks are irresistible to children, who can burn off some of their boundless energy, getting plenty of fresh air in the process. With one for the bigger kids and another for the smaller kids, the sky’s the limit!
7. Seasonal events at Over Farm
Over Farm makes an extra special effort to help keep little ones entertained in the holidays, putting on daily changing events from discos to crafting sessions at no extra cost, as well as opening the venue up to some exotic guests, like reptiles and birds of prey.
8. Accessible by public transport
Located on the A40, one mile from Gloucester, several Stagecoach buses serve the ‘Over, Horseshoe Drive’ stop near to Over Farm. With the farm just five minutes’ drive from Gloucester’s Transport Hub, getting there by bus couldn’t be easier.
9. You can pack a picnic
Over Farm may pack a lot in, but there’s still plenty of space to picnic, with grassy areas where you can sit down to eat and benches to use as well. And if you find you’ve forgotten some vital ingredient, Over Farm Market stocks all the essentials, including cold meats and cheeses, quiches and salads, as well as cakes and cookies.
10. The Maize Maze at Over Farm
Over Farm boasts another exciting attraction when its maize maze reaches maturity at the height of summer. To keep things interesting, the design changes every year, meaning no two maize mazes are the same and the challenge feels new every time - with the maze forming an integral part of the farm’s Halloween offering, too!
