Lambing Day at Four Winds Farm has become a regular annual fixture on the Lush-Mansell calendar! We took my eldest son Harry along to it several years ago when it was quite a small scale event and have watched it grow over the years into a popular family day out with lots of fun activities along with seeing some lovely little new born lambs and their tired Mums!

Located in Bidborough, just outside Royal Tunbridge Wells, Four Winds Farm is a family-run commercial sheep farm. The event took place at the peak of lambing season on 1st April this year (2017)- the sun was shining and it was our first outdoor adventure of the year where I genuinely felt nice and warm.

My boys immediately headed for the selection of ride-ons on arrival, which were cordoned off into a make-shift track surrounded by hay bales. Given the choice, they would have spent all day riding around the track – chasing each other, arguing together and generally just burning lots of energy. However there were lots of other children waiting patiently for their turn too, so I had to try to coax them off the ride-ons and into the barn to see some newborn lambs.

My youngest boy was enthralled with the lambs, but Harry wasn’t so keen, so I left him with his Dad to have a look around while Ben and I did a tour through the big barn looking at each of them. Some of them had literally just been ‘hatched’ while there were others which were nice and clean looking and enjoying a sleep. Each year, I hope to see a lamb being born, but I always seem to get the timing wrong – the same thing happened this time round but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for 2018!

There were tractor rides taking place at the back of the farm (included in the ticket price) which we queued up for with our friends. It was slow going but worth the wait and great to get a glimpse of the rest of the farm. Both boys really enjoyed this and it was definitely one of the most memorable parts of the day.

Next up was some lunch which was delicious burgers from nearby Juddwood Farm Shop. There’s nothing quite like a BBQ with fresh, high quality and local meat (assuming you aren’t a vegetarian). There was also a super stall with tons of tasty treats and refreshments in aid of Cancer Research.

We missed the Sheep Dog Demo as we were queuing for the tractor ride but we got to watch some of the sheep shearing which was interesting.

Both boys enjoyed getting up onto the massive tractor at the entrance and there were other pieces of farm machinery scattered around the farm too which they ‘tested out’.

There was also an opportunity to get photographed with a little lamb, which Harry’s little friend was keen to do. The lamb let out a few little bleats which was very sweet and I’m told by her Mum that it was the highlight of her day.

Entry for adults was just £5 and £1 for under 16’s, making this a fantastic budget family friendly day out, supporting local businesses around Tunbridge Wells.

Will I finally get to see a lamb being born next Spring? Only time will tell…

Written by local lady, Clare Lush-Mansell of MyTunbridgeWells.com