Farmer Copleys, Pontefract: I went to the UK’s largest pumpkin festival but I made this mistake
Farmer Copleys in Pontefract is dubbed as the largest and ‘most instagrammable’ pumpkin patch in the UK.
This year, their patch boasts 30,000 homegrown pumpkins with over 50 varieties.
After a tumultuous start due to the weather, our reporter Sophie Mei Lan went to check out this year’s festival.
Visiting Farmer Copleys to pick a pumpkin has become an annual tradition and an annual ‘must capture’ photograph for many families.
Everytime I visit Farmer Copleys whether it be for tulips, sunflowers or pumpkin picking I’m always astounded at the changing beauty of the landscape.
We had originally planned to go on the Saturday that Storm Amy hit, but we had to rebook for last weekend after Farmer Copleys were forced to cancel.
As ever Farmer Copleys in Autumn isn’t just a tractor ride and a pumpkin patch, it’s a full on festival.
This year there’s a vintage fairground, live entertainment and a huge pumpkin shed as well as the usual pumpkin displays.
For me it always feels like the DisneyLand of pumpkin patches. It’s not a cheap and cheerful muddy affair, this is a real ‘treat’ of a day out.
It’s £6.70 per person (under 3s free) to enter the festival. There are a lot of pumpkin displays where you can snap a photo for social media or like me attempt to chase your toddler before they destroy the carefully crafted displays as she assumed all pumpkins were for picking.
We paid £10 deposit for a wheelbarrow which our toddler enjoyed riding in. This meant we could work our way around the festival.
We then bumped into co-owner Heather Copley who was dressed as Wicked Witch of the West, and poised to read a story in the storytelling tent. There’s also a festival stage, and a sheep show included in the ticket price.
There’s a range of street food vendors such as Yorkshire Chai Company and The Lids Pies on offer as well as Farmer Copleys own fires to toast marshmallows and s’mores.
Coming to Farmer Copleys has become an annual tradition for us, but I always make the same mistake.
As always, we allow plenty of time to get through the traffic on Pontefract Road and park up. We had nipped there for an early afternoon treat thinking we would just be there for a couple of hours.
You pre-book tickets for a certain time period and then you can stay as long as you want.
We entered the festival - it was like we had arrived in a mini autumnal Disneyland - with fun fair rides, food vendors, entertainment and autumnal-themed scenes to capture photographs.
We spotted some wheelbarrows to carry our pumpkins, so we put down the refundable £10 deposit.
We ended up wheeling our barrow around all the stalls, activities and jumping on a couple of rides. Like every year, we had only factored in a couple of hours ‘to do,’ the festival, having booked something in straight after.
With half an hour to spare I ushered the children to the pumpkin patch, forgetting how huge this is in itself. We had got distracted by all the other attractions including the sheep show.
As always we didn’t have lots of time to explore the patch although there were plenty of photo opportunities and we spotted the tractor rides we could have enjoyed through the pumpkin patch.
The kids picked their pumpkins and off we went to the shed to ‘check out.’ Without much time to spare we returned the wheelbarrow and I managed to carry the kids’ pumpkins back to the van.
We may return this season to make the most of it all because with the farm shop, animals, gelateria and the Moo Cafe as well - it easily fills a fun-filled day out.