Windmill Farm Park — Attraction in Harborough

🌟 Feedback – Birthday Party at Windmill Farm Park

I'd like to offer honest feedback, with both positives and areas for improvement, to help other parents considering this location.

✅ What we liked:

A great space for children, with plenty of outdoor play areas: trampolines, swings, sandpit, a small water play zone – all very appealing.

A nice variety of animals, unlike other farms where you can only look at them. Here, children can interact with them.

The “Cuddle Corner” was a special experience – children can hold the animals, feed them with a bottle. Very appreciated!

Forest activities and animal races add extra value to the visit.

My thought was that It’s a great choice for hosting a birthday party, especially in the morning when the party can last longer than two hours.

⚠️ What could be improved:

Reservation confirmation was difficult – I received an email asking to call to confirm the number of people, but no one answered the phone for a whole day. Only the next day, after repeated attempts, did I get through. A more efficient communication system would help.

Lack of cleanliness on the day of the party – at 9:20 AM, the reception area and entrance carpet were visibly dirty, clearly left from the night before or even longer even though they knew there were bookings.

The upstairs party room was not clean – the floor had visible dust and debris. No one informed us it was our responsibility to sweep or clean it. I felt embarrassed in front of my guests. Were better to bring a brush with me. Kitchen door were open and were visible dirty inside. My thought was to tell to them to close the door as other parents will see it as well.

Power sockets were not working – I needed one to inflate balloons quickly using an electric pump, but was told sockets aren't available to clients, not even to charge a phone. This should be clearly stated ahead of time. An unreal option was to bring inflated balloons with me in the car. As with the time limit of 10 max minutes by myself I can't inflate to much balloons as my partner needed to pay attention to our 3 kids under 5 years. We ended without balloons...

Unempathetic staff – while carrying the cake and a large box, we were stopped from our questions regarding were we can left these as we got more stuff in the car to carry+ to do decorations and very soon arriving our guests and lady asked, quite insistently, whether we would pay for parents' drinks or ice cream. Even we asked our question , the lady stopped us twice and asking again about the drinks.The tone was not friendly, and my husband felt pressured to say yes. As I know better him, he can't refuse.

You’re only allowed in 15 minutes early to decorate, which is unrealistic, especially without help and with 3 small childrens. At least 30 minutes should be allowed for setup.

Kids’ menu needs improvement – popular items like fries or nuggets were missing. The pizza offered instead of sandwiches was of poor quality – just a thin base with tomato sauce. I don’t recommend choosing the pizza option.

No proper cleanup between parties – after ours, the room was reused for another party, but only the dishes were cleared from the tables. The floor was not cleaned at all.

No Wi-Fi or unclear information – when I asked if Wi-Fi was available, the staff looked confused and weren’t sure. Eventually, by another staff I was told there was none. The employee didn't even know if the location had Wi-Fi after looking around to find one...

Conclusion:

Windmill Farm Park it's great for a family day booking with exceptional activities for children. I can't really recommend for a birthday party. However, it is essential to improve:

Communication with customers

Cleanliness (especially in booked areas, toilets, kitchen)

Staff attitude and customer service

Clarity of information at the time of booking (e.g., sockets, Wi-Fi, extra charges)

I hope this feedback is helpful both for the park's team and for other parents planning a special day for...

I visited today with friends and children with SEN needs. This farm is very old school on their lack of understanding of SEN children.... let me explain On arrival I approached the reception privately to speak about diet restrictions of my son for his autism (as any parent of a sen child know how restricting it can be visiting places, after viewing their selection of food options I know this would trigger him, ruining his day and giving him unnecessary distress) they point blank refuse to be Leniant with this (plenty of restaurants that cannot cater for his needs allow us to bring in food so he can eat alongside us paying adults) the cafe DO cater for vegetarians and vegans. Their reply..... to email them with suggestions. Why not sit down with our group and let us educate you on how isolating it is as a parent to want to take your children out to these places and experience life.... to be discriminated against because over a child who cannot adjust to the world (and so they shouldn't have to!) We would of happily and positively helped. INSTEAD of marching over to us with a raised voice making all the public look at the group who are already anxious about visiting... just because a child cannot eat anything other than pom bears and Maryland cookies. You can tell you have not been exposed to our world at all ... lucky some might say but in my opinion it shows how arrogant the world is without our little people.

Another thing to mention, a friend also in the group who got asked to go outside with her sen child eating his brought in food, and to also take her 2 x under ones outside (all 3 paying for cafe food) all because her autistic son just couldn't eat cafe food? These SEN children are being so well behaved, not any trouble....well until we had to remove their food so they cried.... the other members of public shaking their head at the fact our group is being sent out in the wind and rain for 3 sen children whilst 6 members ate paid food and mutiple drinks..... the cafe did offer to help her take the children outside with the highchairs.....its honestly mine blowing 🤣 ..... Another negative and quite scary was a young toddler of a worker at the farm was behind the till at many points directly under the counter of a barista coffee machine which was being operated as the child was under with steam and hot water coming out. Health and safety nightmare.... but as a UNDERSTANDING parent we all know about being inclusive and supportive😉

Continuing on the review Beautiful indoor soft play, fishing for guinea pigs made my sons day as well as seeing freshly born lambs.

Notes for improvement explore newly modernised policies to support disabled instead of discriminate. Can't see a peg fed child being sent outside because it's not brought in their cafe..... maybe reusable containers for animal food? The paperback easily tear and fall apart when wet from rain.

Windmill farm Park. Don't even come back at me with your discriminative blanket policies.... Blanket policies are only fair for "the norm" if anything it's rigid... lack of empathy discriminates against the disabled ...." If a service provider refuses to make reasonable adjustments, it’s unlawful discrimination and you can challenge it and take action under the...

Windmill Farm is the perfect day out for families with children. No matter how many times you’ve been there’s always something new to explore! This is also true whatever the weather, as there’s lots of fun to be had both inside and outside.

There are so many animals and they’re all incredibly well loved and cared for. There are regular sessions where you can interact with the animals depending on the season and you can try bottle feeding lambs and calves, stroking rabbits and guinea pigs, guinea pig fishing and egg collecting.

I’m not a fan at all of soft play, but the indoor play barn is beautiful, using all natural materials and there’s plenty of fun for children of all ages. It’s quite a workout for the grown ups that are forced to participate (!) but the barn is also a really nice place to grab a coffee when the little explorers can be trusted alone! There’s a separate area for babies, but I like that older children are allowed in too with siblings, but they’re encouraged to be cautious rather than some places that leave you struggling with an under 2 and an over 2!

The food and drinks available are all of excellent quality and very fairly priced. Even when their very busy service is always quick and the food fresh and delicious.

The special events they put on are great, and always good value for money with additional activities to do. We especially enjoy the Halloween event, plus last year they did a members evening for Halloween which was really nice to get a taste of all the activities on offer.

Since we love it so much, we have been ‘Friends of the Farm’ members for the past 18 months and whenever I ask my son what he wants to do, the answer is always ‘go to the farm!’ The membership is especially great as it’s for the cardholder plus guests, so if children attend with parents/grandparents/friends up to two people can get in free or half price too which is so much better than most places that specify individuals.

We had my son’s 4th birthday party there and private hired the play barn in the late afternoon. Being March, I was a bit worried that we were just paying for the indoor play but far from it - Farmer Stephen took all of our little guests out for a VIP farm experience, bottle feeding the calves and lambs in the barn and brushing the pigs. It was an unforgettable treat and while not something we’ll be able to afford to do every year we would hold another party there without hesitation! All of the party guests said they had a fantastic time.

We’re really blessed to have this on our doorstep, but equally I’d be happy to travel for such a special experience.

The only thing that could make it even better was if they had extended opening hours! I totally understand why the hours are the way they are for the staff and the animals, but with early rising children an earlier entry would be great. Equally on summer evenings it would be amazing to play a little longer, or for those with older children to visit...