Cholderton Rare Breeds Farm — Attraction in Cholderton

Visited today on a Friday in the summer holidays with a 2.5 year old…

Positives: nice mix of animals, soft play & outdoor play area.

Reasonable entrance price

Negatives: Food was mediocre & pricey. Child’s “pasta with tomato sauce” was literally white penne with some tinned chopped tomatoes plonked on top. Panini was weirdly cut and filled like a hotdog roll which meant it was doughy and greasy. Limited veggie & vegan options. Our two items took 25 mins to arrive - would have been nice to know in advance so my little one could have gone outside to play. Limited shade/shelter outside in the garden.

Soft play was dangerous for young children. Not staffed with big kids (some teens!) running up and down the slides, going backwards, & kicking 4 gym balls around the place & on the slides. Reported to staff in the cafe who sort of apologised but when I went back later it was still happening just with a different group. My little one was hysterical in there as she found it totally overwhelming and “scary”. There needs to be a staff member on duty in the holidays, an age limit, & a designated toddler area. The tiny cage (which is too big a step up for young ones) was also full of big kids pushing balls around.

The 2pm pony talk didn’t happen, or at least it certainly wasn’t in the race area as advertised.

Queued for ages for a trampoline so my toddler could use it only for bigger kids to just barge past and start bouncing. There needs to be a designated toddler trampoline.

Unclear signage - was the animal bit a loop? No hand washing around the main animal walk so kids have to walk for 10 mins before washing hands. Could the ponies eat the food? Gate said no, leaflet said yes. Found the rabbits by accident… assumed it was a toilet block!

Staff were hit or miss & hard to track down. Some unfriendly, others blocked doorways chatting, and we were ignored for ages near the main tills.

Guinea pig feeding wasn’t run very well. At Wellington they have approx 15 sticks for the kids and lots of food and multiple chances. Here they let bigger kids tease the Guinea pigs for ages with the food by holding it too high and swinging it which really held up the line. Only one chance per child so when mine did get a go it was over in about 20 seconds.

Needs drinking water station somewhere other than the cafe. The cafe is a long walk from everything!

Has decent potential midweek in term time and maybe then it would be 4 stars, but I’d never return with a child 4 and under outside of these times as it’s just...

Outstanding family fun farm in the heart of the chalklands of Wiltshire. The size of the site is fairly vast and there are a range of animals to see including Eriskay Ponies, Alpacas, Abyssinian Donkeys, Highland Cattle, American Miniature Ponies, Boer Goats, Pygmy Goats, Greyface Dartmoor Sheep, Giant White Rabbit, Ducks, Geese and Oxford Sandy and Black Pigs and Guinea Pigs all of which are looked in spacious enclosures showing that they are well looked after and cared for. Visitors can purchase some animal feed in bags and buckets from the visitor reception and the animals that can be fed are the Sheep, Donkeys, Goats, Cattle, Ponies and the animals that cannot he fed are the Ducks, Pigs and Geese. The animals absolutely love the sight of food and munch it quickly. There are information displays boards near to the animals enclosures giving some interesting background about them. There is also a range of activities at different times throughout the day to keep visitors and these include Pig Racing, Alpaca Trekking, Lamb Racing, Duck Feeds, Guinea Pig Fishing, Animal Encounters, Kune Kune Pig Fishing and all of these activities are very fun, interactive amd engaging activities for everyone. For the children there is the Woodland Play area for the children to let off steam and the place is very diverse in the sense there is accommodation for people to stay over and there is also the vineyards where they sell their own wine and there is taste testing sessions and the company concerned is Bluestone. There is a restaurant on site selling a variety of food and drink at reasonable prices and a gift shop with a nice variety of souvenirs at reasonable prices. Overall this is a thoroughly marvellous, sensational and awesome place to visit and makes for an amazing, fun and interactive day out. Definitely well worth a day out whilst in the area...

We always love coming here, it’s lovely to have such an up close experience with sweet and charismatic animals so close by. Winter tickets pre booked in advance were good value, but very very cold and everything outdoors. However, the place really needs some TLC! Rabbit/chicken enclosure falling apart and half empty and dirty. Animals seem cold and unhappy. The animal encounter experience is lovely, but poor guinea pig in a box with no warmth was shaking and upset, really did not want to be touched but kids were still allowed to poke and pet. The pig’s poor ear was injured and bleeding but no one seemed to notice , kept in a very small enclosure it could barely turn around in. As a rare breeds farm, you’d expect more signage and information to learn more but only very small signs if you keep your eyes peeled. Very very sad to see the cows have been double fenced off with electric lines! Sad to see, I’d hope the animals were top priority to be safe and happy in their home so seeing electrics is awful. Therefore, unable to pet or feed the cows. If cows are unhappy/unsafe to approach, better to have just a regular fence at a distance! Very cruel to use electric fences and barbed wire. Considering England's weather there is unfortunately no indoor seating, and not much to do if you don’t have kids. Not much animals anymore, mostly vineyard which seems a shame to be honest as people come for animals. Love this place and hope with some TLC things will get better and animals will...