Pumpkin Picking at National Forest Adventure Farm

National Forest Adventure Farm at Tatenhill has grown pumpkins since 2011, and the scale is the point. The 2026 crop runs to close to 460,000 pumpkins in more than 35 varieties, from giant orange carvers to Baby Boo whites, blues, star shaped squash and warty Goblin types. The picking area covers around seven acres with a further 16 acres on neighbouring land.

What separates this from a field with a wheelbarrow is the build. The farm dresses the site as a village: a Pumpkin House, wooden pumpkin towers, a stacked crate tower and boutique street stalls strung with festoon lighting. New for 2026 are corn holes, tin can alley and pumpkin bowling, alongside a mini woodland trail. Roaming entertainers work the site and there is live acoustic and country music, a licensed bar and street food, so it reads more like a day out than a twenty minute errand.

Ticketing is the thing to get right. A Pumpkin Village ticket gets you the patch and the village itself, starting at £5 and climbing to £7 on the dates nearest Halloween. A Pumpkin Village and Play ticket, reported at £15, adds the farm's play attractions: jumping pillows, go karts, the fossil dig, the animal barn and the indoor soft play over three storeys. Whichever you pick, pumpkins are extra and priced by size at the patch.

Dogs are welcome, which is unusual for a farm park of this size, but a £2 dog ticket must be bought alongside a full paying adult ticket.

There is also Pumpkin SMASH, a separate paid extra for anyone who wants to take a swing at a pumpkin rather than carve it. Wellies are the right call: seven acres of field in October is seven acres of mud.