As well as trying our hardest to get the regular events listed below up and running again post Covid, we have the following in the pipeline :
Commemorative event for Robert Tressell - 31st October
This was a great success, you'll be able to find out more about it soon...
Prospect sponsored this event and you can read about it on their blog page here.
Ricky Tomlinson attended too, he has a youtube video describing what the book means to him, you can see it here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByTMddq7ccQ
Regular Events - These are not on at present, but are planned to resume in 2023:
Healthy walking
Every Monday morning at 10am is your chance to join the "Walk for health" group, on a mile ramble around the farm and its woods. Afterwards you can enjoy a chat and hot drink.
Kept in stitches
Tuesday mid day is the time to improve your craft skills with the knitting, sewing, weaving and spinning group. Materials and assistance are on hand to help you do it better, meet new crafty folk and enjoy sociable refreshments.
Paint a picture
On Wednesday's the painting and sketching group meet in No.2 Lodge at the City Farm to practice drawing and painting. "There are lovely scenes around the farm at different times of the year" said one of the group. "This is the high light of my week".
Walkies
Every Saturday is the dog training class to get your pet into tip top form at 1030am. Dawn from Pawsitively Does It is the training leader. Meet her next Saturday.
Who visits the farm ?
A survey of all visitors on 5th October found that over 80% came with a dog. Rice Lane City Farm is dog friendly. All we ask is that your dog is always kept on a lead, since our farm animals are easily scarred by uncontrolled dogs. Overall there were 2 adults for every child who came to the farm. On the basis of this survey we have nearly 70,000 visitors a year and this excludes the summer play scheme, when we had between 50 and 500 children everyday during the school holidays, a total of at least 1500 children, without counting their parents. Overall in our survey just over half our adult visitors were women.
Everyday 10am - 3.30pm
Our farm animals are either in the yard next to the main gate or grazing in one of the fields around the farm. These include a flock of Ryedale/Ryeland sheep, some with brown, others with white wool, our donkey (Ness), Pumpkin the goat and lots of ducks, including Ping, our stunning Crested Runner Duck. In years past pigs have been a bit of a favourite at the Farm, along with baby lambs each spring. We're pleased to announce the arrival of two Berkshire rare-breed piglets in spring 2021, they can often be seen doing a bit of gardening work!