Thank you!
A big thank you from everyone at Fairytale Farm to the Cotswolds Conservation Board. The Fairytale Farm project has received a grant for £5,500 from the Board's Sustainable Development Fund. This has allowed us to complete construction of our sensory trail, which is designed to inspire and educate children with disabilities and their brothers and sisters. We would not have been able to build this facility without this contribution from the Board.
The sensory trail is on an area of land of around half an acre and central to this is a series of features designed to encourage children to think about the environment around them, particularly those with sensory, learning and physical disabilities. The trail features the following items: sensory totems, sensory garden, water play area (where children can pump water and watch it move to different levels), rain wheel, mirror, arbour, willow tunnel and giant musical instruments.
The Cotswolds Conservation Board is the organisation that exists to conserve and enhance the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Established in 2004, the board is the only organisation to look after the AONB as a whole and is a statutory body created as a result of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000.
The main aims of the board are to:
•to conserve and enhance the natural beauty of the AONB
•to increase understanding and enjoyment of the special qualities of the AONB, ensuring that these complement the conservation and enhancement of the area
The sensory trail will be open to the public on a series of special days this summer, then the whole of Fairytale Farm will open to the public at Easter 2013. For more information on the Cotswolds Conservation Board, please click here.
News item added: 24 April 2012
New animals at Fairytale Farm
We have several new arrivals at Fairytale Farm as work on the UK's first all-access attraction continues.
On 29 February 2012 our new baby emu hatched. He or she will join our two rheas when old enough, but in the meantime is living in one of our heated outbuildings. We bring him out to play every day and he is pictured to the right running around a field at three days old. He is doing well. We are looking for ideas for a name, ideally something with a fairytale theme. Please email us at info@fairytalefarm.co.uk with your ideas and we will publish our favourite name here on our website.
On Saturday 17 March we took delivery of our two new pigs, Winston (Churchill) and Edgar (Allan Poe). Photos of the pigs arriving can be seen here.
For regular photo updates of progress with our animals, visit our Facebook page, which is frequently updated: www.facebook.com/fairytalefarm.
News item added: 17 March 2012
Volunteer wanted to help with animals
Fairytale Farm has a growing collection of animals, the latest of which are our two very shy baby ponies (pictured right, and see news report below).
We are looking for volunteers who can help us with some of the basic jobs, such as feeding and cleaning out our animals. As well as our two beautiful foals, we have two pigs, two rheas, several rabbits and lots of chickens, and our collection is growing all the time.
Until Fairytale Farm opens next year we do not have any money coming into the operation, so are unable to pay our animal keepers. However, when we do open, and if you like working with our animals, it may be possible for you to stay on as a paid member of staff.
Our existing head animal keeper, Katie, is only able to work for two days a week for the next few months, so we need one or more people to take over on the days when she is not here (up to 5 days a week).
If you would like to help, please email nick@fairytalefarm.co.uk, and be a part of the UK's first fully disabled-accessible tourist attraction.
News item added: 13 November 2011
Good news about our sensory trail
Fairytale Farm has received two items of good news this Christmas. No sooner had we heard that West Oxfordshire District Council had granted planning permission for the trail, we were then contacted by the Cotswolds Conservation Board who told us that we had been successful in our application for a Sustainable Development Fund Grant of £5,500 towards its construction.
Designed to inspire and educate children with disabilities and their brothers and sisters, the sensory trail (part of which is pictured right) will be on an area of land of around half an acre and will include features designed to encourage children to think about the environment around them, particularly those with sensory, learning and physical disabilities. The trail will feature sensory totems, sensory garden, water play area (where children can pump water and watch it move to different levels), sand play area, 'dino dig', sensory path (with various tactile surfaces), rain wheel, mirror, arbour, willow tunnel , xylophone and 'enchanted forest' with tactile drums.
Fairytale Farm owner Nick Laister said: "We are delighted to have received planning permission from West Oxfordshire District Council and we are very grateful to the Cotswolds AONB Board for giving us this grant, without which we could not have begun work on this facility. In our view, this is the single most important part of the project in terms of creating a distinctive facility that will be of help to residents and visitors of the area with particular needs, and will be the most educational part of the Fairytale Farm project."
Work is expected to start in January 2012, with the trail being completed by the end of March. If anybody can help us build the trail, particularly those with knowledge of creating pathways and landscaping, please contact nick@fairytalefarm.co.uk.
News item added: 24 December 2011
New ponies arrive at the farm
Two baby ponies have arrived at Fairytale Farm this week. Called Bubbles and Dainty, they are pictured here in their stable. They were donated by a nearby pony farm as they were unable to find owners for the two colts and their future was therefore uncertain. We have rescued them and they will now live permanently at Fairytale Farm and will be available for all children visiting the attraction to see when we open next year. They will soon be moved to a new stable building and their own paddock, but for now are living in our existing stables.
They are very shy and have not got used to seeing people yet. View more photographs of these two amazing animals on our Facebook photo gallery.
News item added: 13 November 2011
