| The new play barn at Temple Newsam’s home farm is set to open to the public on 20 September after works to convert the old cow byre have been completed. |
| The barn now hosts two play areas, one suitable for up to 12-year-olds and a second one built for toddlers. Both take inspiration from the farm and the park, bringing the great outdoors inside.
Older children are invited to fully immerse themselves in the main room with big slides, puzzles to solve and castles to climb. The toddler room offers soft play, a separate seating area and a dedicated sensory hut. Entrance to the play barn is included in the Home Farm ticket price and play sessions must be booked in advance to ensure a good experience for all. Each session lasts for 90 minutes and tickets give all-day access to the farm. The cow byre and its surrounding buildings were built over 100 years ago and were used as a milking parlour to provide clean tuberculin-tested milk to the hospitals in Leeds. The building and production systems were state of the art for their time and by the 1940s, had Shorthorn cows producing over 70,000 gallons of milk each year. The council ceased dairy farming in 1968 and after that time the building had various other uses including being a vehicle depot for the council’s parks department and even being home to West Yorkshire Police’s stables in the 1970s. Temple Newsam’s Home Farm is one of the largest working rare breed centres in Europe and boasts over 400 sheep, pigs, poultry and goats, helping to conserve some of the oldest breeds of farm animals in the country. The farm and play barn are open seven days a week and closed only on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day. Tickets can be booked at Home Farm and Play Barn at Temple Newsam.
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