In April 2024 Farms for City Children welcomed its first group of scouts to stay on its Lower Treginnis farm in Pembrokeshire – the most westerly point in Wales. District Scout Leader Hannah Malpass shares her insight into the booking process and the impact the week had on 37 scouts from Worcestershire.
Our relationship with Farms for City Children started with a chance encounter with a social media post by a friend whose daughter had visited their Wick Court farm in Gloucestershire with her school. The post sparked my interest and upon visiting the Farms for City Children website I realised what a fantastic option it could be for a totally different scout residential. When I contacted Farms for City Children I was immediately put into contact with Ben, who guided and supported the bookings and preparation process. It soon became apparent that the trip was going to be something completely new and different not just for us but for Farms for City Children as well as we were going to be their very first scout group to visit any of the three farms (there’s also Nethercott House in Devon).
The booking process was very smooth and communication was clear, both from Ben and from Becks in the bookings team. Ben was extremely helpful in ensuring that we had all the information we needed and in making sure that the farm team were ready for the inevitable differences they would find between their usual school bookings and a scout group. Around a month before our trip I was put into contact with Gethin, the Farm School Manager at Lower Treginnis who again, couldn’t have done more to ensure that they were fully prepared for our arrival.
We had a long journey to the farm but when we arrived at Lower Treginnis we were immediately reminded why we had opted for the furthest Farms for City Children farm from home! The spectacular views of the sea from the farmhouse and the fields impressed the adults and simply mesmerised many of the children, some of whom hadn’t realised how near to the coast we were going to be. The farm staff gave us a very warm welcome, and it was a very pleasant and unusual luxury to arrive to beds that were neatly made and a hot meal ready to be served!
The scout group after a successful beach clean at Porthlysgi Bay
Our days on the farm were action-packed from dawn to dusk, with time spent tending to chickens, pigs, donkeys and sheep and helping Alan in the farm garden. The scouts loved being able to get so hands on with the animals and plants and many of them faced and overcame fears and anxieties during the week. The young people particularly enjoyed going out into the sheep fields with Aled and those who were lucky enough to witness him assisting with a live lambing have since said it was a “once in a lifetime opportunity” that “we will probably never get to see again”. We also spent a morning at Porthlysgi Bay with Jess from Car Y Mor, Wales’ first regenerative seaweed and shellfish farm, completing a sea foraging activity and a beach clean on behalf of the Eco Dewi community group which was a highlight for many of the scouts.
Helping Alan remove some tough weeds in the garden
Our scouts benefitted hugely from the opportunities afforded to them on this trip and every one of them experienced things that they had never done before. We had a child in our group who had never been away from their parents and who really thrived and fully embraced farm life, another who didn’t want to come with us on the Monday but who didn’t want to go home on Friday and a third whose parents stayed nearby in case they needed to be collected but who loved every minute of the week and became something of a local legend with the farm staff!
Walking the donkeys back to Lower Treginnis
We, and the scouts and their parents, are eternally grateful to Farms for City Children for taking the risk in having us to stay. We are fully aware that it was a huge leap into the unknown for them as well as for us but taking that leap meant that 37 scouts from landlocked Worcestershire got the opportunity to experience the muck and magic of farming in coastal west Wales! We absolutely loved our week at Lower Treginnis, so much so that we have already booked our next trip and we have plans afoot to work together to get more scouts on Farms for City Children farms in the future!
Find out more about what to expect, and how to book a visit, on our School and Group visits page.
