Review: Rare Breeds Centre, Kent

On Sunday Mr C was off early to Heathrow on business so I decided to pack the kids in the car and head off to The South of England Rare Breeds Centre In Woodchurch, Kent. http://www.rarebreeds.org.uk/

We arrived bang on 10.30am when it opened so had the benefit of no visitors for a little while. The girl selling tickets happily greeted us and we paid our £6 admission price for anyone over 3.

My initial impression was that it was more like a farm and quite small but as I read the map, I could see there was more to enjoy beside the animals and on a warmer, sunnier day this would be enjoyable. My son led the way around the animals, past the ferrets, the owls, the chickens, turkeys and pigs. There were ginger pigs, little clean pink pigs, large hairy brown pigs wallowing in muddy styes - Little Miss enjoyed making oinking noises to all of them. There is a section called Creepy Crawly World which housed one of the biggest snakes I had seen and a few other reptiles. It was very warm in there and a few exhibits seemed to have 'escaped' or been moved which was a shame.

The Children's Farm area was lovely and noisy with goats, sheep, piglets, rabbits and visiting birds. At 11.30 they got some of the animals out of their pens and children were encouraged to pet them and this was the highlight of the morning and hence pretty busy. Little Miss loved the albino ferret with red eyes and Mr T enjoyed the rabbits which he stroked with his gloves on as he didn't want to get his hands dirty! The piglets had a good nibble and snuffle at our welly boots which caused great amusement.

After the animal session we wandered out to the duck pond and the aviary which had some beautiful birds in it but didn't excite my two much. I think the draw of the playground outside was too much and they had a good run about. In summer this would be a nice area for a picnic. We didn't walk on much further as the kiddies were peckish so we made a beeline for the restaurant just outside the farm.

The Granary Restaurant & Terrace was large but not very enticing. They did offer a couple of kids meals and a carvery but not much in the way of healthy snacks or fruit. There were no little apple or orange juices in the fridge but just sugar-laden Fruit Shoots. The staff were young jobbers and didn't really care and we had to wait too long for the kid's meals. Generally the food was ok for a quick visit but overall the experience could have been so much better and a restaurant like that should make a little more effort to supply healthier options for children. The walls showed pictures from Competition winners from August!

After that we headed back into the farm to have a go in the soft play area. There was a good climbing frame and slide set up for kids and one area was full of balls but hard to access with a baby. The baby section had some padded blocks for them to climb but it would have been nice to have some balls in there too in a ball pit. My son loved it but there wasn't a lot for my toddler to do without climbing up too high and getting stuck.

I was dismayed to see ride-on toys in there as kids always badger their parents for a ride on them instead of running around and thought £0.50 was a lot for a ride.

The farm is run as a charity but I feel a few easy changes could be made to make it more enjoyable. There could be maps put up on buildings to save on printing maps for every visitor showing 'You are here'. This encourages kids to read the map too. There could be some simple wooden signposting as we nearly missed the aviary and playground as we didn't initially read the map. Each cage or pen should have a label saying what animal was in there; many were missing which makes it difficult when little people ask what animal it is. The hand washing facilities were good and plentiful though mixer taps would prevent burnt fingers. The restaurant needs some attention too. My experience is that centres like this can make some really small changes to make it more educational and interesting. Without wanting it to jump on a band-wagon, I think it should encourage kids to learn by providing more information and encouraging eco, local and healthy messaging.

But overall we had a nice time and the kids were exhausted afterwards. We went on a Sunday in January - I feel the farm would get very busy in the Summer holidays and I imagine the Meet the Animal sessions would be over-run. It is nice to have a farm facility nearby for us to visit and I know we will be back despite the little niggles.