Pumpkin Picking at Matlock Farm Park

Half term at Matlock is given over to the Fang-tastic Halloween Festival, eight days of it, on a farm park that already has meerkats, wallabies and sheep races to fall back on once the Halloween part is done.

Children with a paid ticket pick their own pumpkin from the patch and wheel it back in a mini wheelbarrow, at no cost on top of admission. Witch Wendolyn holds craft workshops every day the festival runs, and carving stations are set up on site if you would rather not take a whole pumpkin home in the boot.

The Spooky Trail is the other half of it, a run of prop-based Halloween scenes laid out through the Forbidden Forest. The Headless Horseman appears during the festival, there are prizes for fancy dress, and Elphaba and Glinda turn up on Saturday 24 October.

Dogs cannot come in at all, because of how close visitors get to the animals, which is worth knowing before you load the car. Otherwise this is a day rather than an hour. Between the trail, the crafts, the patch and the animals, most families end up on site for three or four hours, and the indoor space means a wet afternoon does not send everyone home early.