Farm park facilities change with weather and season; confirm hire availability and companion ticket rules before booking.
In brief
- Reserve hire chairs or scooters before tickets - both parks' fleets are small and first come first served
- Barns are surfaced and ramped; grassy and sloped farm walks are the hard part
- Bocketts has no hoist; Cotswold has a Changing Places toilet with a ceiling hoist
Hire fleets: a free chair versus a paid scooter
Bocketts Farm Park offers hire of a wheelchair free of charge, on a first come first served basis, and asks visitors to call ahead to reserve one. Cotswold Farm Park has a limited number of mobility scooters for hire on request, also first come first served, at 10 pounds a day plus a 50 pound deposit, with online reservation. Both fleets are small, so the rule is the same at either park: reserve the chair or scooter before you buy tickets, not after you arrive. If you use your own chair, the hire question disappears but the surface question below becomes the deciding one.
Surfaces, honestly
Bocketts says the majority of its paths are surfaced or ramped, giving access to animal and play areas, but warns that some paths are rough terrain and that weather can affect outdoor areas. Its Farm Walk is grassy and sloped and may not be suitable for wheelchair users, while the large undercover Animal Discovery Barn has wide walkways and wheelchair accessible ramps. Cotswold is equally frank: the farm park has concrete, gravelled and grassy walkways, all wide enough to accept wheelchairs, but many areas are sloped and may require a bit of strength to navigate in a manual wheelchair. Its shop and cafe doorways are extra wide and ramped. Read the two together and the pattern is clear: barns are the easy part, and the outdoor walks are where a manual chair user needs to plan.
Rides, play and queues
Bocketts' tractor rides have ramp access for wheelchairs, and at pony rides staff are on hand to provide additional support for children who need it. Its Little Explorers Play Area is wheelchair and pushchair friendly, with a wheelchair accessible roundabout, and there are accessible toilets in three locations across the farm park, plus family rooms where pushchairs and wheelchairs can manoeuvre inside, and handwashing facilities with low level basins. Adult changing facilities are available on request, but Bocketts states plainly that it does not currently have a hoist. Cotswold's answer to that gap is a brand-new Changing Places toilet with a ceiling hoist, height adjustable changing table and wash basin, and if you or a member of your party is unable to queue, its team will grant admission at the gift shop when there is a large queue at the main gate.
Companion tickets and the small print
Both parks use the Nimbus Access Card scheme. At Bocketts, Essential Companion tickets are free to visitors holding an Access Card with a +1 or +2 symbol, and a free Bocketts Farm Digital Access Pass can be applied for instead, lasting three years, with a full Access Card costing 15 pounds for three years. Essential Companions must be 16 years or over and must enter together with the card holder, and Bocketts says it cannot accept alternative documents such as DLA, Carers Card, PIP or National Disability Card. Cotswold gives a complimentary ticket to visitors presenting an Access Card showing an Essential Companion +1, and offers its own free Digital Access Pass, but warns that Nimbus approval may take several days: if you visit at short notice, buy full-price tickets, and if the card is later approved and presented within four weeks of the visit, the applicable amount will be refunded. Practical details: Bocketts is open seven days a week from 10am to 5pm, closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, with free parking and disabled bays close to the entrance, and the nearest station is Leatherhead, with a taxi recommended from there. Cotswold's parking is free with disabled parking next to the entrance, and its team can be contacted on 01451 850 307, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
