Pumpkin Picking at Saxby's Cider and Grange Farm, Northamptonshire

Saxby's Cider is a family run cidery at Grange Farm in Farndish, a small village on the Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire border, and the pumpkins you pick here are grown on the family's own land. The pick your own field is not at the cidery itself. The entrance is on Irchester Road, on the Wollaston side of Farndish, so follow the signs on the day rather than a sat nav pin dropped on the taproom. The format is simple.

You book a two hour arrival window online, turn up any time inside that window, take a wheelbarrow and head out into the field. One ticket covers a whole car at £5, including parking and entry for everyone inside, so a family of five pays the same as a couple. Pumpkins are then paid for separately, priced by size from around £2, and the field carries a spread of shapes, colours and varieties rather than one uniform orange crop. Once you are in there is no rush.

Saxby's own cider bar and shop are open alongside, with hot food, teas, coffees and soft drinks, plus some gentle amusements to keep smaller children busy. Tractor and trailer rides run out around the pumpkins and the cider orchards for a small extra charge, weather permitting, and those do not need booking ahead. Alpacas from nearby Watermeadow Park come along too, and you can feed them for a small donation. Two things are worth planning around.

This is a six day season, covering the weekends of 10 and 11, 17 and 18, and 24 and 25 October 2026 only, with no half term weekday opening, so later slots go early. And it is a working field, so wellies are genuinely needed and the patch is tough going with a pushchair or a wheelchair.