Pumpkin Picking at Hilltop Farm

Two things run side by side here through October, and it helps to know which one you are booking. The pumpkin patch is its own ticketed experience at £2 a head, with thousands of pumpkins in a range of sizes and plenty of spots set up for photographs. Hilltop Horrors is the farm's Halloween event in Zack's Barn, booked as a 90-minute time slot, and a Horrors ticket also gets you into the patch on the same day.

A Hilltop Horrors ticket includes a small white Casperita pumpkin to take home, and you can decorate it at the farm before you go. The event is aimed at children under 12, and it runs on 11 and 12, 17 and 18, 24 and 25, and 26 and 27 October.

Pumpkins in the patch are priced individually by size and type and paid for after picking, so what you spend depends on what your children pick up. A ticket is needed to get into the patch whether or not you buy anything, which is worth knowing if you were only coming to look.

Zack's Barn is the farm's food, drink and events barn, and the rest of the site is a working farm shop with a butchery and a cafe. You can take away coffee, hot chocolate and food from the shop, or sit down properly in the Farm Cafe before or after picking. Booking a table is recommended, particularly on the busy October weekends. The farm describes the patch as suitable for all ages, and asks you to bring wellies and wrap up warm.