Wroxham Barns — Attraction in North Norfolk

As I haven’t had a reply to my email in over a month I am posting my concerns publicly.

Visit on 29/03/25

On the 29th March 2025, we visited Wroxham Barns and found the staff disrespectful when picking up our tickets.

My disabled wheelchair-using wife has a yearly annual pass, and I am her carer. Wroxham Barns set up the pass and was complaining that there wasn’t a picture on the account. What?

They wanted proof of carer ID; however, none of the evidence you are asking for proves that a person has or needs a carer. I have 3x different carer badges, and they were all rejected by your staff. My wife went back to the car and got her disabled blue parking badge, and they didn’t even check it, it was a waste of energy and time. Before my wife went to get her blue parking badge she asked to see a manager, the manager came and went in the time it took for my wife to get her parking badge and I don’t find this acceptable. Not everyone has a PIP letter dated in the last 12 months as some people are awarded PIP indefinitely.

It’s already challenging for a disabled person to venture out for the day, but adding these obstacles only exacerbates the difficulties and makes it significantly more arduous than it should be.

On this particular visit, we were accompanied by friends who had a separate booking, and unfortunately, your staff refused to allow us to collect their entry wristbands while we were at the ticket window. By the time our friends arrived, there was already a substantial queue at the ticket counter, resulting in an extended wait for them to receive their tickets. This situation could have been easily avoided had we been permitted to collect their wristbands on their behalf.

Moreover, the design of the ticket booth poses a challenge for wheelchair users, with the window being too high for an accessible conversation. This design oversight felt disrespectful, as it does not cater to the needs of all visitors, particularly those using wheelchairs. A review of these practices and facilities would be beneficial to ensure a more inclusive and respectful environment for all guests.

Additionally, I must highlight the inadequacy of having only one disabled toilet on site that doubles as the sole baby changing facility. Given that the majority of your visitors are families with young children or include disabled individuals, this arrangement is not only impractical but also inconsiderate of the needs of your guests. It leads to unnecessary waits and discomfort, particularly for disabled visitors who may require more immediate access to facilities.

Due to the shortcomings in your service in these areas, we feel our visit was ruined on this occasion, and we’re uncomfortable about returning...

I really didn't want to write a bad review about a leisure business clearly struggling with the Covid pandemic. But after writing directly to them and having my first email ignored (supposedly went into their spam folder) and then their subsequent response was less than impressive it made me feel I needed some recourse for what was quite literally one of the poorest examples of a family experience you could imagine. And it certainly wasn't poor circumstance. There were no extenuating circumstances that you could use to justify the day - it was just a total lack of effort to make the 'Halloween Special' just that, special. it was not even mediocre. We paid £40 for a family ticket to experience what amounted to a 5-minute walk around the same low-grade farm experience and to carve up a couple of rotting pumpkins. Nothing spooky in the slightest. Nothing was dressed with cobwebs or Halloween paraphernalia. The staff wore their regular clothes. The only 'extra' activities were 1) The 'potion' tent - which was just the chance to mix three pots of slime into one cup of slime. No chemical reaction as in previous years. No event. No interaction. Go in, squeeze a syringe of slime into a cup and walk out with your hands covered in gloop. And 2) the pumpkin carving - which you can do at home for a few £. But at Wroxham barns you can choose from rotten pumpkin no.1 or rotten pumpkin no.2 . That's your lot...£40 gone. Bang.... And their response to my email was to explain that their feedback had been overwhelmingly positive - so they're surprised.

Did I make it up then?

So, unfortunately, it means I end up writing this - and maybe a few people will read it and now think twice before spending their hard earned money on the very, very poor excuse of a tourist attraction.

My recommendation - go somewhere else. Go anywhere else...or just go to the shops, buy a pumpkin and have fun at home for £2.

Having now read their incredibly disingenuous response below which makes out like I was blackmailing them I am adding an extra few comments to say my first email stated quite clearly that I wanted to give them the right to respond to my complaints in the first instance and made absolutely no mention of review sites. I've added a copy below which proves they're lying 🤥.

They didn't respond, so my second email asked if they had any plans to respond before I put something in writing on review sites.

But, yeah, as you can see below they're trying to twist that to make out like I was threatening them. Make of that what...

Bought our tickets online so saved a couple of pounds, but definitely a novelty family day out rather than a farm to return to. Our toddler did enjoy touching and feeding the animals and the tree-top bridge, but the rides were mainly skipped over. Considering we attended on a Saturday during half term, it was a surprise there wasn’t more staff - in the ride area there was a ratio of one staff to two rides, no one overseeing mini golf so unless you’re prepared to bully your way in for it you probably won’t get a look in, and no one in the soft play area to stop the bigger children ruining it for little ones. We liked that when it came to chick and guinea pig petting it was done by visitors groups, one group per table, but it meant you got a couple of minutes with the animals then booted away for the next lot’s turn - barely worth the wait really. The biggest downfall though, was the food. Again remembering it’s a Saturday in half term, there was literally one person in the kitchen so the wait to be seated before even ordering was over 40 minutes - tried the cafe and again one staff member working it, so gave up there and went to get chips from the stall there, one person there all, only topping available was cheese presumably because there wasn’t enough staff to fry a bit of bacon or slap a bit of hummus on top, and the poor girl was running back and forth for supplies clearly overworked. Shocking they didn’t pre-plan things really. Spent a lot of money on a day out to watch some goats bully each other, have our toddler pushed around in soft play, and mediocre food from an overworked (but very friendly) staff member serving practically the whole farm. Definitely not returning in a hurry, nothing like how I remembered Wroxham Barns being (also gutted we weren’t able to feed the lambs...