City Farm, Bucknall Park, Hanley

City Farm, Bucknall Park, Hanley
the City Farm closed in March 2011 as part of the Local Govenment cut backs

The City Farm at Bucknall Park offers a really fun day out. Our farm is located in the south-east corner of Bucknall Park and has a wide variety of livestock from farm animals to domestic pets.

Location The City Farm lies within Bucknall Park. Limited car parking is available at the end of Northfleet Street, off Werrington Road, Bucknall, Stoke-on-Trent, ST2 8AA.

Education The farm has an education programme that can be tailored to cater for the interests of any school party or youth group. During the school holidays we run special activities for families ranging from arts and craft days to competitions.

Sensory Garden The sensory garden encourages you to use four of your five senses to explore the plants and features around you. It is suitable for all ages and abilities.

Bucknall Park Although the park is one of the smaller parks in Stoke-on-Trent, it boasts a wide variety of facilities. There are tennis courts, bowling greens, football pitches and a children’s playground. In the summer months a café is open near to the bowling greens.

from the City of Stoke-on-Trent web site

City Farm, Stoke-on-Trent

City Farm, Bucknall Park, Hanley

City Farm, Finney Gardens, Bucknall Park, Hanley

'Sad day' as popular City Farm shuts, a victim of spending cuts

THOUSANDS of people visited a popular council-run tourist attraction on its last day.

City Farm has become one of the first victims of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's spending cuts and opened to the public for the final time yesterday. [Sunday 6th March 2011]

The farm – which has been operating within Bucknall Park for more than 30 years – played a key community role, including offering work placements to people with learning disabilities and playing host to school trips.
But the attraction has closed after councillors approved plans to save £143,000-a-year by shutting the venue.

John Taylor, spokesman for the Friends of Bucknall Park City Farm group, said: "It's a very sad day. It's almost heartbreaking."

Mr Taylor, whose disabled daughter Denise volunteered at the farm, added: "The council is saving £143,000 but tens of thousands of people have lost their access to healthy recreational activity and so have hundreds of young disabled adults.

"Lots of people use the farm to teach life skills to young people with special needs. We have lost all this."

Geoff Johnson, the 63-year-old chairman of the Friends of Bucknall Park City Farm group, says the venue had always been popular since it opened.

His son Paul, who has Down's Syndrome, has been volunteering at the farm for four years. He said: "We had 34,000 visitors here between June and October last year. "It's always been popular and it's been here for more than 30 years which is a long time. "Lots of groups come here for educational purposes and feed the animals and there's nowhere else where you can do that."

Latest figures show City Farm attracted 89,600 visitors throughout 2010.

Now supporters of City Farm hope a charitable trust may take over the running of the attraction.

They hope the farm could still be reopened at a later date, although the council is unable to put the attraction out to tender because of an issue over who owns part of the land....

The farm's four staff are expected to be transferred into new roles following the closure.

The farm's animals – which includes goats, finches, cockatiels, pigs, chickens, llamas, ducks, geese and parrots – have all been lined up with new homes.

The Sentinel Newspaper - 7 March 2011

the aviaries at City Farm, Bucknall Park

Save Bucknall Park City Farm

From the Friends of City Farm web site:

Bucknall Park City Farm, a very popular and much loved facility, was closed to the public on Sunday 6th March 2011. Thousands of people visited the farm on its last day.

About The Farm
The farm was located in the south-east corner of Bucknall Park and had a wide variety of livestock from farm animals to domestic pets.

The city farm provided valuable educational resource to the local community and a secure environment for people with disabilities, learning difficulties, and mental health problems to partake in work experience. City Farm was the only facility to offer this type of service in the local area.

Ollie the pony and Maggie May the donkey

Animals the farm kept included:

llamas, rare kune-kune pigs, sheep, goats, cows, pigs, ducks, chipmunks,
chickens, rabbits, ferrets, finches, cockatiels and a large range of small animals.

Causeley Brook starts on Wetley Moor and joins the River Trent at Ivy House

the River Trent as it runs through Bucknall Park

contents: 2011 photos