It's a farm shop that holds many special memories for families in the north west, thanks to its fruit picking fields - now Kenyon Hall Farm Shop in Croft has been nominated for a top national award. The farm is famous for its fields where you can pick your own strawberries, raspberries, tayberries and garden peas across the summer.
And, in more recent years, the site has become ever more popular with families, expanding with a large free outdoor play area, as well as seasonal attractions like the maize maze and sunflower field. Bosses are now celebrating after being nominated in the prestigious national Farm Retail Awards as one of the five best farms for fruit picking in the UK.
The farm shop is situated in a sprawling countryside setting, but is a popular destination for visitors from across the north west, thanks to its location just five minutes off Junction 22 of the M6, near Warrington in Cheshire. Inside the farm shop is a treasure trove of local produce and gifts, as well as fresh meats, cheeses and bakery goods.
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There's a farm shop café with a small indoor seating area, with lots more seating outside in both covered and open-air table settings. There's also a takeaway hut right next to the 'Kenyon Small Farm' play area, where parents can grab coffees, cakes and ice creams while watching the little ones play on climbing frames, swings, slides and play houses on the site.
There's a large garden centre here, with a large range of plants to browse through, or walk right through the polytunnel to head down to the large fruit fields beyond. You need to book in advance for a timed slot for fruit picking, and the fruit available to pick will depend on the day you visit, with slots priced at £4.75 per person, or you can book for a family of four for £16.99, or five for £20.99.
In the summer months other attractions at the site draw guests. They've just recently opened their 'Enchanted Maize Maze' for the summer, where families can navigate a route through the cornfields in search of some magical figures hidden amid the maize, including unicorns and fairies.
Entrance to the maize maze is £3.50 per person, or a family of four £11.95, while children under 18 months go in free. Next to open will be the sunflower field at the back of the fruit fields, with an anticipated opening date of around August 10.
The Farm Retail Association announced its shortlist of Pick Your Own Farms in the UK this week. Kenyon Hall Farm has been nominated alongside Manor Farm Fruits in Tamworth, Staffordshire, Rectory Farm in Oxford, Craigies Farm in Edinburgh and Cammas Hall Fruit Farm in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire.
Judges hailed Kenyon Hall Farm as "famous for its strawberry picking, it is one of the largest and longest-standing Pick Your Own farms in the north of England.
"From peas to pumpkins and sweetcorn to sunflowers, it grows 20 different fruits, vegetables and flowers to pick throughout summer and autumn. Family run for over 500 years, Kenyon Hall welcomes over 50.000 visitors a year to make memories and fall in love with food again."
The winners will be announced in a ceremony in early 2023, when other categories to be awarded will include large and small farm shop of the year, farmer's market of the year and farm shop café or restaurant of the year.
Kenyon Hall Farm is run by Tod Bulmer and his wife Barbara, and their family has farmed at the site for the past 500 years. It had long been a vegetable, grain and potato farm, but when Todd and Barbara joined the family business in 1978 they took the decision to perk up the "sleepy" 166 acre arable farm by planting their first two acres of strawberries.
That would spark the first years of pick-your-own business, with the farm shop following on from that. By buying small parcels of land as they became available around the area, and renting land from neighbours, the total size of the farm now exceeds to 500 acres.
The farm shop itself launched in 2011, with the couple's youngest son James coming on board as the farm shop manager, while eldest son Simon manages the horticultural side of the business. In the farm shop café you can find a wealth of home made cakes with slices from £3.99 and a pot of tea for £1.99.
How to get there
Kenyon Hall Farm shop is on Winwick Lane, Croft, Warrington, with the postcode WA3 7ED for sat nav. It can be found just off Junction 22 of the M6.
If you're travelling from Manchester, it's around 20 miles down the M602/M62 and takes around half an hour by road.
The farm shop opens seven days a week, 9am to 5pm. Hot food in the café can only be ordered up to 2.45pm each day.
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