February Half Term

11th February - 18th February 2012

With free entry to the open farm, free parking, fantastic indoor Playbarn, crafts, home-made food in our lovely Cafe's, plus our Farm Shop stuffed full of local produce and NEW Old Holly Homemade range -

make Old Holly the place to visit this half term

Indoor Playbarn

Where better to spend the wet February half term than in our fantastic Indoor Playbarn! With its very own cafe, serving the same food you can order in our traditional Courtyard Cafe, you really can have quality food and play all in the same place!

Please be aware that our Playbarn does get extremely busy during half terms, and there may be a wait to get in, however we will do our best to make sure you are looked after during your visit. A 2 hour play timelimit may be imposed on the Playbarn during the half term. We will not compromise on the health & safety of our customers, and therefore ask for your patience during our busy periods.

New Arrivals

We are looking forward to the arrival of the Farm's first baby lambs, and fingers crossed they will be here for February!

Don't forget the Farm's baby Calves and Chicks are here too! You can feed our Calves for 50p, just ask for some food from our Farm Shop!

Remember our animal area is not supervised, and although we check our animals regularly throughout the day, parents must supervise their own children whilst in and leaving the animal courtyard.

Please visit our animals page for details about how to keep safe whilst visiting our farm.

Crafts

Our ever popular crafts are back this half term, and will be taking place in the Dairy Viewing Gallery from 11am to 4pm everyday, from Saturday 11th to Friday 17th February! Prices start from £1.50 and are perfect for those creative kids who love glue, glitter, paint and fun!

Please note: There will be no crafts on Saturday 18th February

Great food  

Fancy just having lunch out? Then our courtyard cafe is the perfect family friendly dining experience, where our menu has something for everyone! With a great selection of home-made food, and a free glass of milk for every child who orders a childs meal!

Please remember that as we make our food fresh, there may be a wait during our busy periods. Our kitchen serves both the Courtyard and Playbarn cafe's and your patience is appreciated.

The big funky pictures team specialise in putting your shots on canvas,

making a great gift for a loved one or even yourself!

The photo shoots are FREE, relaxed and fun, meaning the end result is

very natural and show off the best of your kids!

If you would like to find out a bit more about big funky pictures

please visit their website>>

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***Playbarn extension***

We are very excited to announce that our Playbarn will be extended into the courtyard, creating more area downstairs and adding an additional toilet on the ground floor!

Work has now started, and we will be working very hard to ensure there is as little disruption as possible and we will be open as normal throughout the work.

If you would like to check before you set off, please call 01524 791200, or follow us on twitter @oldhollyfarm.

Work starts in November 2011, first job to remove the flag path running alongside the Playbarn wall. Spot the hole in the left corner - its going to be a new room, but can you guess what!?!?!

Measuring up, and the steel work starts to go in.

December, and the outline of the first half of the building goes up, although work stops for a few weeks during Christmas

  January 2012 - the second half of the building starts to come together, and the roof starts going on!

Don't forget - we are open as normal throughout the building works. Follow us on Twitter for all the latest news and pictures!

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**Design a Christmas Stocking Winner**

A big well done to everyone who entered this years Design a Christmas Stocking with the Lancaster Guardian, and sponsored by Old Holly Farm! The designs are fantastic, and we've got a few on display in our Playbarn.

But there can only be one winner, and a big CONGRATULATIONS to

Finlay McCole, from Our Lady of Lourdes School, Carnforth who was this years winner!

Finlay has won an Old Holly Hamper, a bag of goodies from the Lancaster Guardian and a family mini-break to Pontins! Well done Finlay!!

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A BIG thanks to Tim Dixon from LBTB who accepted the award on our behalf

as unfortunately we could not be there on the night.

The winners of the Lancashire and Blackpool Tourism Awards 2011/12 were announced at a glittering black-tie event hosted by West End star and Lancashire lass Jodie Prenger, on the evening of Thursday 22 September 2011, at the Paradise Room, Pleasure Beach Resort, Blackpool.

We are very proud to have been awarded the title of Small Visitor Attraction of the Year and Our award is now pride of place in our Courtyard Cafe, and sits alongside our Wyre awards.

This is what Jodie said as she announced Old Holly Farm as the winner>> 

‘Who can resist the tweets from Lefty the dairy cow or a cone of ‘cool cow’ ice-cream?  Its clever touches like these that make Old Holly Farm such an attractive day out for all the family.  Their marketing, website and communications have captured the public imagination and engaged visitors, making this small attraction particularly appealing to little ones. With a highly competent and well-trained team delivering an unforgettable, quality experience.’

Mike Wilkinson, Managing Director of Lancashire and Blackpool Tourist Board who introduced the event said “Despite the tough times that we’ve all endured, we are a resilient bunch in Lancashire and tonight you’ve see the remarkable triumphs of individuals as well as businesses working in the county’s £3 billion visitor economy. Every finalist should be very proud of their achievements.”

Follow Lancashire & Blackpool Tourist Board on Twitter @touristboard, or the Visit Lancashire team @VisitLancashire for all the latest news about tourism in our region.

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We are now Taste Lancashire accredited

We are delighted to have been awarded the Taste Lancashire Quality Assured badge for producing locally sourced, homemade food in our very own kitchen, by our talented team. We are very proud to use local suppliers, including Hamlets Butchers (Garstang), Tina's Bakery (Longridge), Berry Lane Bakery (Longridge), Thomas Moss (Longridge), Carron Lodge (Inglewhite), Lakeland Seafood (Fleetwood) plus many more. We even use our very own Organic Milk in our cooking and in all our drinks.

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For the 3rd Year running

We have been awarded the VAQAS quality

mark for Visitor Attractions!!

Lucy, Katie, Liannie, Alison and our piglets receive the Vaqas award on

behalf of the team!

VAQAS is the Visitor Attraction Quality Assurance Scheme.

It is Visit England’s quality assessment service for all types of visitor attractions throughout England. Every year we are assessed and receive feedback from an assessor. We want to thank all our staff who have helped us to achieve this quality mark for the 3rd year running!

The assessor said "Old Holly Farm offers the visitor an overall excellent quality experience. The care and attention to detail – and the scrupulous cleanliness of the animal areas that are open to visitors makes this a very special animal experience – with the Playbarn adding an extra element of fun. Old Holly Farm fully merits the award

of Visit England’s accreditation of ‘Quality Assured Visitor Attraction" - June 2011

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Old Holly Farm wins "Business Excellence" award

at the annual Wyre Tourism Awards

Alison, front row, second left receiving the award for Business Excellence on behalf of the team

The wonders of Wyre were celebrated at the prestigious Wyre Tourism Awards ceremony held in March in Thornton. Attractions, accommodation providers, restaurants and other businesses connected to the visitor economy gathered at Thornton Little Theatre for the annual Wyre Tourism Awards.

And it was the rural businesses who swept the board this year, taking home nine of the 13 accolades presented by Donna Hall, Chief Executive of Wyre Council.

The awards, organised by the Wyre Tourism Association, are a celebration of the quality, dedication and achievements throughout Wyre's tourism industry.

With a tough economic climate making it harder to invest, this year's winners have demonstrated innovative ways of boosting trade. Some have diversified, others have concentrated on customer care to ensure repeat bookings and recommendations.

Michael Taylor, Vice Chairman of the Wyre Tourism Association, said: "In Wyre we are lucky to have so many businesses dedicated to going the extra mile to ensure Wyre continues to be seen as a premier tourist destination. They are committed to finding new ways of moving forward and awards are aimed at thanking them for their contributions."

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Our Tweeting Cow

Paul Crone from Granada Reports has been to interview Farmer P

and Lefty to get the lowdown on our tweeting cow!

Follow this link to see the full fat interview>>>>

Paul interviewing Lefty and Ian

Keep up to date with all the regular news from the farm.....

Follow us @OldHollyFarm

or follow Lefty the Cow, our tweeting dairy cow @oldhollyfarmcow

for all the latest gossip from the herd

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NEW Animal Paddocks!

***NOW OPEN***

We are very excited to be opening our outdoor Animal paddocks!

Our wheelchair and pram accessible paths will let you enjoy meeting our animals in the sunshine (well hopefully!). Each paddock is named after a tree, which has been planted in the corner of each field.

Entrance to the paddocks is FREE, making Old Holly the best value place to be this half term! And why not treat yourself to a hot drink, cake, a spot of lunch or homemade CoolCow Ice Cream whilst you're here!!

Please don't forget, that as we don't charge entry to our farm we ask customers not to bring their own food and drink onto our premises.

Please be responsible whilst visiting our farm and animals, make use of our

handwash facilities and pick up your rubbish!

Thanks to Oakland residents Lesley Rutter and Brian Adsford, and Oakland staff Diane Brown and Hiroaki Hirao who tried out the new paths for us! Oaklands have been loyal customers, and they work hard to offer a range of flexible services all dedicated to one thing – to support and enable people, helping them to get the most out of life and achieve their personal goals.

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Lucy the snoring pig our YouTube Star has passed away!

We are sorry to announce that our beloved Lucy died of natural causes in

June 2009, aged 10 years.

You can still watch her in action on Youtube,

please follow this link to see

her at her very best>>