New Visitor Centre Opening at Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park
It’s that time of year again, when the ewes are ready to start lambing and the nanny goats are almost ready to start kidding … but this year is slightly different for the team at Cotswold Farm Park, run by TV presenter Adam Henson. Renovations to the Park’s visitor centre have been underway since September and they are now gearing up to unveil the brand new building to visitors this Saturday, 16th February.
Built on the site of the farm's old livestock barn, the extension triples the size of the Visitor Centre, with the restaurant now seating up to 130 people. The completed building (designed by Tyack Architects) now appears as a range of traditional farm buildings, situated around a central courtyard. The outside space in front of the restaurant’s glazed aspect has been terraced to really make the most of the outstanding views.
It has been sympathetically designed, taking the original use of the site as inspiration, whilst bringing the Farm Park's facilities up to date with beautiful aesthetics, eco-friendly features and visitor comfort at the forefront of the process. Local craftsmen have used materials from the construction of the building to create a distinctive decorative finish and keep waste materials to a minimum. There’s pallet wood wall cladding in the restaurant and the beautiful design of the new Rare Breed bar incorporates used scaffold boards. The shop area features some unique touches, with recycled cable reels and display pieces that have been purpose built for the space.
The new Visitor Centre is built on the site of a traditional Cotswold stone livestock barn, which was first used to house cattle, hence the name ‘The Ox Shed’.
It later became the Farm Park’s first restaurant until, in 1985, the barn became structurally unsound and had to be knocked down and replaced.
The design of the new building incorporates all the aspects of traditional farm buildings; British green oak featheredge boarding, a corrugated tin roof and Cotswold stone, which has been recycled from the old hovel building that regulars to the Farm Park will remember as an outdoor seating area for the old café.
Whilst remaining faithful to the original use of the site, Adam and the team have also kept one eye firmly fixed on the Farm Park’s values of supporting local business and being environmentally conscious. All contractors used on site came from within a 15 mile radius and all of the stone used in the building is from a quarry adjacent to the farm, less than a mile down the road. The water is supplied by their own bore hole, all lighting is LED and air source heat pumps enable them to use the solar panels on the roof of the Animal Barn.
Lambing will be taking place at the Farm Park daily, from 10.30am – 5pm until April 28th. Visitors can access the lambing shed, where there are 660 ewes due to give birth over the 10 week period. There are daily talks from the team and farm safari rides, as well as the chance to bottle feed lambs and goat kids, hold chicks and rabbits and kids can let off steam in the indoor and outdoor play areas.
The Ox Shed will be open daily from 9am and is free to enter. Tickets to the Cotswold Farm Park can be bought online at www.cotswoldfarmpark.co.uk.
Explore Gloucestershire
15 February 2019
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