Greenmeadow Community Farm — Attraction in Cwmbran Central

I have been coming to this farm for 37 years, my G-grandmother used to bring me weekly from being weeks old. I then came with my parents & younger siblings, then my own children. I have waited with anticipation for the reopening & so excited to have what was promised back on our doorstep. I was thinking it was going to be in line with Cefn Mably. Promised a full revamp, pram & wheelchair accessible, big SOFTPLAY & so much more. As soon as the memberships were out we purchased for the family. 4 adults, 6 kids. One adult being disabled but independently mobile for the most part. We visited yesterday for the first time. Path from carpark to entrance was great, poor guy stood checking tickets in tampin down rain, unsheltered outside the 'playbarn'. My heart sank as soon as we saw the 'softplay' & I diverted my 6yr old to not see it until the end as I knew he would be disappointed. Next is the old faithful Trefor the tractor, nice to see it still there considering the infamous wishing well has been removed. Rex the dragon has had a cool paint job but isn't finished & is inaccesbile. Just like the rest of the farm if you depend on a wheelchair or have limited mobility. The 'steep' hill is even steeper, even in wellies it was touch & go in the rain it's basically vertical. Although there is a longer path to take for wheelchairs/prams. The animal barn has pigs you can only see through a small window if you crouch down, surrounded by high walls. A handful of sheep, goats, donkeys & Shetland ponies. That's it. Back outside & opposite was one cow with her calf behind her. The milking barn is bare with a guy making modelling balloons. The tractor is now a timed & payable attraction, £2 each. We didn't bother considering how much we already spent on tickets & would be spending on food/drinks. 2 members of staff at the tunnel who advised its best not to go up to the park due to the rain so no idea if this is still barely accessible as before or what's up there. Back down the opposite direction is all clay/sand paths completely flooded with running water, we came prepared expecting to be muddy & wet to some degree but noted our disabled family member wouldn't of managed & you certainly wouldn't in a wheelchair. There was nothing else in that direction just an empty field. There are plenty of hand washing facilities. On the way back up we came across a tiny barn with a few rabbits. Back to the playbarn - tiny space, half taken up by a counter selling ice-cream, drinks & cake. The playframe is wooden & much too small for my 6yr old who is very small for his age. I would say the downstairs of my house is actually much larger than the playbarn. Another families kid had a bumped head from the wood, my son didn't even bother. We went into what we assumed would be the gift shop, it's not. There's a few farm books for kids to buy, other than that it's cheese, alcohol & chocolate. Decided to grab some food to pass time & dry off & this is literally the saving grace. The new restaurant is very pretty. Not an extensive menu but plenty considering the size of the restaurant. The food was absolutely incredible, smash burger, fries, Mac & cheese & the bangers & mash! It's a bleep system where you pay at the till, they bleep when it's ready & you collect. It works well. Kind of different to have such a beautiful meal & be drinking out of cans though. Cost me £28.10 for burger & chips, kids Mac & cheese & 2 cans of Fanta. Again food stunning, but not something we could do often. After talking to staff the catering is seperate from the farm. The 'wedding' area is small, looks to seat 45 but does have a disabled lift to toilets which takes up a lot of the room. We are local but doubt we will return unless for events, so disappointed & struggling to comprehend where £3.7 million has gone, other than new barns. It's got a long way to go to be finished & doesn't even begin to compete with other local farms. My plans for weekly visits for softplay are gone & feel we have wasted money on memberships. Staff & food 10/10 - the...

Went there early today (11am time slot onwards) hoping to get a good walk around and for our young son to get a look at some animals from his pram. The entrance from the car park and down to admission looks really nice and we were excited to the see the refurb. There were a couple little muddy bits by the entrance which was fine, we assumed there was still some finishing touches/polishing going on. This was actually more of an indicator of the state of the farm itself currently.

Once we were actually into the farm there's still many parts alongside the paths that are just churned up mud. The paths going down the hill are mostly nice new tarmac. As soon as you start to walk towards Rex the dragon it turns to rough path and then to a literal stone chipping path all around the "Eye paddock" just past him. This would've made traversal around the whole paddock completely inaccessible with a pram even with our prams big wheels. Luckily there wasnt a single animal in the entire paddock so that saved us attempting to make the effort to go and "off-road" the pram around it. As for Rex, his new paint job is lovely but he's still caged in and the little puddle/pond isn't full. When we there today he was still getting another coat/clear coat which was lovely to taste in the air as we walked by his cage.

The animal barn is the only place today where animals actually were. As soon as you go in, there's pigs and piglets but if you're an adult wanting to show your children them, you will have to bend down/kneel to the size of a 3 year old to look through a very reflective plexiglass window, otherwise you're just staring at some white breeze blocks. There was also sheep/goats/donkeys behind pens that you could feed for an extra 2 pound.

The first event to start was supposed to be at 1130 which would've been a milking demonstration. However there wasn't actually anything to keep us busy until then. It was also just steps with no little ramp to each level for a pram (not normally an issue, however considering 90% of people that were walking around today had one, there'd be a lot of abandoned prams at the top level). Guinea pig village was abandoned with a house knocked over and the mini dragon piled on the side. Thought there was actually one in there but it turned out to be a worker's glove. No tortoise either.

What has been massively re done is the cafe/restaurant and you can tell. The cheapest drink you can get is a can of water for 1.95, everything else is 2 pound upwards. Also considering that the farm had been open for an hour and a half when we got to the cafe it's baffling that food isn't being served until 12 unless you'd like a cold sandwich and crisps. Some interesting sounding panini's such as a Welsh rarebit, leek and laverbread panini however they are the cheapest adult item on the menu and still start at 7.95 a pop.

It's genuinely lucky we only live 5 minutes away as this would have been even more disappointing otherwise. I literally turned to my fiancée at one point and asked if we were part of an advanced look around as pass holders, but no apparently it's fully open to the public. It's mostly still got work going on and the animals are hide and seek champions. They probably would've been better re-opening at the start of spring next year. If there was no animals today because of the temperature (would be my only guess why), then it begs the question why it's open yet considering it's an open air farm.

We'll keep our pass going in the hope it gets back to how it used to be years ago, but we won't be back for a while, definitely not the rest of this year. We were initially really excited that it had...

I’m not sure where to begin! I visited as a child, so it was nostalgic to return, especially with my own baby. I loved that they kept the dragon and milking barn, and the renovated buildings look beautiful with a clear vision.

However, the restaurant/cafe could use some serious improvements. First, you have to queue to get scanned to enter the farm, which is fine, but once done, the only way up is a set of stairs. If you need to avoid the stairs, you have to walk back around, passing a large queue on a narrow path—this is especially difficult with pushchairs and not ideal for disabled visitors. We tried walking around the other way, assuming there was outdoor seating, but the door was closed (it’s a fire exit), so we had to walk back again. I believe the fire door should be opened for outdoor seating, as there was hardly any space inside, especially for buggies. The tables are arranged diagonally, which makes it hard to navigate with a pushchair, limiting seating options during busy times. We had a booked slot for the farm, but the restaurant was overcrowded, and the queues went between tables, which added to the chaos when having a pram.

The restaurant could also use more staff—everyone seemed overworked. I witnessed a staff member even trip, and one customer had to wait 25 minutes just for chips. Our food took 30 minutes to arrive and the £15 fish and chips portion felt overpriced. A staff member gave our kids a free fruit shoot for the delay, though one was forgotten until after we finished eating.

The farm paths are steep and bumpy, and though some are unfinished, the path from the restaurant to the animal barn was particularly challenging with a pushchair. The restaurant staff had to run back and forth between the restaurant and coffee area, which felt inefficient—separate staff would help.

While the customer service was great, there was one staff member who seemed overwhelmed, walking away from a customer’s request without properly addressing their concern, which was frustrating for the customer.

The farm itself has a lot of potential, but there are unfinished areas and empty fields that make it feel incomplete. The old park features are closed off, and it doesn’t quite feel like a full farm without animals in those spaces. Overall, there’s a lot of potential, but it’s clear that things are still a work in progress. The farm needs more structure during busy times and additional activities to keep people engaged.

The soft play area is nice but smaller than expected, and the fact it’s all made of wood means it’s not actually soft play. Although, the seating area was slightly easier to move around compared to the restaurant, it was still very small and crowded. Also, there were a lot of big kids in the way of the toddlers/ babies. Could be good to have separate areas for babies/toddlers and bigger kids or an age limit for bigger kids in the play area.

I’ll definitely return, but next time I’ll probably bring a picnic! I’m excited to see how they improve things...