If you live near Ashdown Forest, you already know the drill when the holidays arrive. The search begins for somewhere to take the children that is close to home, gets them outside, and doesn’t end in a long queue followed by a gift shop. There is plenty within a short drive of Forest Row, East Grinstead, Crowborough and Tunbridge Wells. Most of it, though, asks children to look but not touch.
We do something different. At Tablehurst Farm in Forest Row, the children are not visitors watching from behind a fence. They are part of the day. They feed the animals, pull carrots out of the ground, and cook their own lunch over an open fire. It is a real working biodynamic farm, and for a day, your child gets to be part of how it runs.
A day out where children actually do things
There is a particular kind of joy in a child who has just done something real. Not pressed a button on an interactive display, but actually carried a bucket, scattered feed, and watched the animals come running. That is the difference we hear about most from families who find us.
On a typical day with us, children might:
- Care for the farm animals, feeding and checking on them as the day’s jobs require
- Harvest vegetables and fruit from the garden, soil under the fingernails and all
- Cook lunch together over the fire, then sit down and eat what they made
- Build dens in the woods, using what the woods give them
- Get stuck into seasonal crafts and games that follow the rhythm of the farm
None of this is staged for the cameras. The carrots need pulling because we are going to eat them. The animals need feeding because they are hungry. Children understand that instinctively, and they rise to it. There is no entry turnstile and no scripted route around a site. There is a farm, some weather, and a day’s worth of proper things to get on with.
Why a working farm beats a passive day out
Plenty of family attractions are perfectly nice. You walk round, you look at things, you buy an ice cream, you go home. The children enjoy it for an afternoon and forget it by teatime. There is a place for that.
But something shifts when a child is trusted with a real job on a real farm. They come home tired in the good way, the kind of tired that comes from fresh air and using their hands all day. They come home with a story that starts “today I” rather than “today I saw”. And they come home having spent hours off a screen, outdoors, in the company of animals and other children, doing work that mattered.
Tablehurst is a genuine community farm, worked the biodynamic way, which means the children are stepping into a place that takes its soil, its animals and its seasons seriously. That seriousness is part of what they soak up, without anyone needing to lecture them about it.
Farm Explorers Holiday Club: the easy option for the school holidays
Our weekly sessions through term time are mostly for home-educating families. The school holidays are when everyone else can join in, and that is what our Farm Explorers Holiday Club is for.
It runs in the school holidays for children aged 5 to 11, as a drop-off, so you can get on with your day while they get on with theirs. It is the same real farm, the same animals, garden, fire and woods, just packaged up for families whose calendars are governed by the school terms. Whether you are a local family looking to fill a holiday week or you simply want a proper day out for the children near Ashdown Forest, this is the one to look at.
The Holiday Club is 40 pounds per day and is booked as a whole club rather than picking and choosing single days, which keeps the group settled and lets the children build on what they did the day before. You can see the dates and book your place over on the Holiday Club page.
Coming in all weathers
A quick, honest word on weather, because it matters here. We are outside, and we stay outside, whatever the sky is doing. Bright mornings, drizzly afternoons, frosty starts: the farm carries on, and so do we. Send your child in clothes that can get muddy and wet, with sturdy footwear, and they will be happy. Some of the best days are the ones that begin under grey cloud.
It is one of the quiet lessons of a farm. The work does not wait for perfect conditions, and children who spend a day in real weather come back a little more capable than they went in.
Plan your visit
If you are looking for a day out near Ashdown Forest that the children will actually remember, come and dig in with us. Take a look at the dates and reserve a place on the Farm Explorers Holiday Club, or if you have a question before you book, get in touch and we will happily help.