Pumpkin Picking at Priory Farm

Priory Farm has been running pumpkin picking for forty years, and every pumpkin in the field is grown on the farm itself rather than brought in. That is unusual enough to be worth saying plainly: a good number of patches buy their stock, and this one does not.

The field opens daily from 17 to 31 October. There are two ways to reach it. The straightforward option is Park and Pick, where you drive to the pumpkin field's own car park and walk straight in. The other is the Pumpkin Field Tractor Adventure, which takes you out to the field by tractor and trailer with some seasonal surprises along the way, and also gives access to play features at Discovery Land. The tractor option costs more and is the one that turns the visit into an outing in its own right.

In the field itself there are thousands of pumpkins in a wide spread of shapes and sizes, a hay bale maze with a slide, seasonal display and photo points, and wheelbarrows to carry your haul back. A coffee van is parked up for refreshments.

Pumpkins are priced individually by size, starting at £1.50 and running up to around £25 for the largest, so a family can spend very little or a good deal depending on ambition.

Two practical points. The entire farm is card only, with no cash accepted anywhere on site. And dogs are not permitted at the pumpkin field or on the tractor adventure, so this is not one to combine with a dog walk.