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on Latest News The Farm

A Memorable Visit

Acacia Care Centre Residents Enjoy a Day at Deen City Farm

Deen City Farm, nestled in the heart of the London Borough of Merton, recently welcomed a special group of visitors for a delightful morning on the farm. Residents from the Acacia Care Centre, part of the Future Care Group, spent a memorable day engaging with the animals, soaking up the sun, and enjoying the vibrant atmosphere that our urban farm has to offer. 

At Deen City Farm, our mission is to educate the local community about the rural environment and the origins of their food, while also providing enriching experiences through our volunteering programme and affordable Riding School. The recent visit by the residents of Acacia Care Centre perfectly encapsulated the joy and connection that can be gained through these interactions. 

The day began with the residents eagerly feeding the farm animals, an activity that brought about many smiles and moments of fun. The joy on their faces was unmistakable as they interacted with the animals, a reminder of the simple pleasures that such experiences can bring. 

The visit also coincided with perfect weather, allowing the residents to relax and unwind in the warmth of the sun. They were treated to watching a horse-riding session, which added to the excitement of the day. Watching the graceful horses in action was a highlight for many, sparking conversations and evoking memories of past experiences with animals. 

To top off their visit, the residents enjoyed coffee and snacks in the farm’s welcoming surroundings. This break offered a wonderful opportunity for social interaction, with lively discussions and the chance to connect over shared experiences. The combination of fresh air, engaging activities, and a change of scenery provided a refreshing and uplifting experience for everyone involved. 

Acacia Care Centre staff said:

"Outings like these are more than just a pleasant diversion for their residents; they are vital for enhancing the well-being of the residents. By offering a change of environment, encouraging outdoor activity, and facilitating social connections, these excursions play a key role in enriching their lives, and we were delighted to be a part of it."

At Deen City Farm, we remain committed to providing meaningful experiences for all members of our community, and we look forward to welcoming more visitors like the residents of Acacia Care Centre in the future. 

on Education Events Help Us Latest News Riding School The Farm

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on Education Events Latest News The Farm

Ukulele Man Private Tours!

NEW FOR 2023!

Private tours around the farm are now available with our resident Ukulele Man. 

The tours run for 45 minutes. They are full of music, interactive fun and farm animals. They can be tailored to an adult or child audience (or a mixture of both!) 

Private tours are £65 for a maximum of 15 people. (Larger groups could potentially be accommodated)

For enquiries, availability and to book your private ukulele tour please contact: information@deencityfarm.co.uk 

The Ukulele Man is also available for off-site events, please email for a bespoke quote. 

on Help Us Latest News The Farm

Free Fundraising Ideas!

We know that not everyone one is able to afford to donate so we have some ideas to help you donate to us without any extra cost to you!

  • Shopping: Find us via EasyFundraising and raise money while you shop!
  • Collection Tin: Do you have the perfect location to place one of our collection tins? Please get in touch to find out more. 
  • Fundraising: You could set up an event or activity to raise money for the farm, how about a sponsored abseil or bake sale?
  • Shopping: Find us on Give as you live online and raise money while you shop online!
  • Volunteering: Have you got a few hours spare a week? We have current vacancies with the garden and front of house roles, find out more: Volunteering & Work Experience | Deen City Farm
  • Word of Mouth: Tell everyone about us, all your friends, colleagues and family!
  • Social Media: Follow, share and like our content:
on Latest News The Farm

Happy Birthday Barry!

Barry, our very handsome British Alpine Goat, is turning 10 years old on Tuesday 21st March. We’d love to invite all of you to celebrate this milestone by sending Barry a Birthday card! You can post them to the farm (address below) or drop them in.

 We will display the cards, for all our visitors and Barry to see! You can download a Birthday card template below to print and colour in, or create a card of your own.

Also, if you visit the farm between 18th - 21st March, anyone named Barry will receive a very special, free bag of animal feed to share with the Birthday Goat himself! (proof of name will be required)

Download  PDF copy of the Birthday Card

Download a jpeg copy of the Birthday Card

Send Birthday cards to: Barry, Deen City Farm & Riding School, 39 Windsor Avenue, SW19 2RR

on Help Us Latest News The Farm

Please help replace our animal shelters

Please help us to replace the seven large animal shelters in our back field's. The shelters are currently old, with holes in the roofs and no sides. New weather proof shelters will provide much needed protection from the Great British weather.

Our animals are the main focus of all our activities, and we would like to give them the best possible accommodation, making sure they are comfortable and protected.

We have a selection of larger animals including our miniature donkeys, Mackenzie and McCoy, our flock of Zwartbles sheep and our selection of goats including, Jet the Anglo-Nubian. At night they all have warm and cosy shelters in our yard, during the day they graze out in the paddocks.

A covered shelter is important both on hot days for shade and during cold/winter days to protect them from the wind and rain.

At the moment, the shelters in the back fields desperately need to be replaced: they are old, they do not have sides and the roofs leak. To make matters worse two of the shelters lost part of their roofs due to Storm Eunice.

The fields are very exposed and replacing the shelters with ones that have three sides will provide a dry space in rain, shade in the sun and warmth in the cold to make their enclosures more welcoming and fit for purpose.

Our fundraising target of £5800 will buy the raw materials for our onsite team to craft the new structures. The seven shelters will be built with a strong timber framework and clad in shatterproof recycled plastic eco sheets.

Please donate today to help us continue to provide the best possible environment for our beautiful animals.

on Latest News The Farm

Oscar’s Playground Update

Thank you so much for your kind donations to get the playground open.

The work is now complete and the playground has reopened with a brand new surface and new equipment to play on.

Oscars playground was built in memory of Oscar Ashton, a little boy from Wimbledon who passed away in 2012 from an undiagnosed heart defect. Oscar was a frequent visitor to the farm with his family, who helped to raise £10,000 to transform an underused part of the farm into a fun and educational area for children to enjoy.

We are open from 10am-4:30, last admission is at 4pm, the playground will be open during these times. 

on The Farm

Nick’s Birdland

Yesterday we had our final unveiling of a new sign and plaque for our finished duck area. This marks the completion of the long labour of love with rebuilding our chicken enclosures, aviaries and new duck pond, a project which started in early 2015. 

Our old chicken area was just about clinging on, but with many years of bodges and improvised repairs, it was starting to suffer a bit to say the least, so the plan was to demolish the whole thing, plan a new layout and make much better use of the space. Ultimately we’d end up moving all the aviaries out to the front as well, including Edna the owl and our canaries and finches! 

As with many things, and especially being a small charity, funds is always something we have to be aware of. It was during one such appeal for help that we were contacted by Brian & Sally, who have been of immense help during this project. They got in touch wanting to contribute to create a lasting memorial for his son, Nick, who passed away in 2000. His love of animals and their input has helped shape the latter half of our re-build.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NICK’S BIRDLAND

Our son Nick died in 2000 following a long battle against testicular cancer. He was 23 years old. In the years following his death we have looked at different ways of creating a lasting memorial to him and have waited to find the right opportunity.

Then in August 2015, having seen an appeal by Deen City Farm for funds to create a new duck pond area, we met with the Farm managers and agreed to sponsor the development. We also funded the new aviary, additional chicken enclosures, Edna’s owl house and the chick hatchery which are next to the new duck pond.

This wonderful area represents Nick’s love of animals and the musical notes in the mural on the back wall of the duck pond speak of his great interest in music.
We have called the area NICK’S BIRDLAND and we hope all visitors to the Farm will appreciate and enjoy this special place.

We wish to thank all the staff and volunteers at the Farm for the tireless commitment and effort which has brought this project to fruition.

Brian Dillon

 

 

on The Farm

Happy birthday Edna!

♬~Happy birthday to you~♫ Happy birthday to you~♪ Happy birthday dear Ednaaaaa~♩ Happy birthday to you!

Edna, our resident Barn Owl, is celebrating her 6th birthday today! Livestock Manager Tom has treated her to some new decorations in her aviary. 

 

Edna has been living with Tom since she was 10 weeks old, so it’s been quite a while! Because Edna was hand raised, she’s never been suitable to be released into the wild, so is very content with living amongst humans. In the wild, most Barn Owls don’t make it to their first year, but in captivity with proper care they can live upwards of 15 years, so Edna’s got many more years ahead of her! 

If you don’t already, you should definitely check out our instagram account! 

on Latest News The Farm

The Cheviot Landrace Goat comes to DCF!

As if the coming summer wasn’t busy enough, we’ve had a troop of new arrivals at the farm. If you’ve popped down in the past couple of weeks, you might have noticed a rather handsome looking group of goats has turned up! They are currently in isolation in one of our large pens on the farmyard, but hopefully it won’t be long before they can go out and join the other livestock grazing in the paddocks. 

There’s more to these goats than meets the eye though! These are Cheviot Landrace Goats, a truly Old English breed. Without getting too complicated, if you were to go back in time these are the goats you would find roaming feral across the English countryside. They were deemed a pest, and bought very close to extinction. The 9 goats we’ve got at Deen City Farm have come from a Thorndon Country Park in Essex, and will form the start of our breeding group! 

 

Even though these goats have been used to living without much human contact, it’s amazing how fast they can settle in! The kids are still a bit shy, but the adults are very happy to come over and check out any hands for tasty grass nuts. Did you know that goats are the second fastest animal to adjust to living feral? (Cats being the fastest!), it seems the opposite is true too, and they’re very quick to get used to people as well! 

 

The goats that were chosen from the herd to come to Deen City Farm were picked out with the assistance of our colleague (and master of all things goat!) Ray Werner, an expert on all things Cheviot Goat. When it comes to picking the ideal goats, it’s not just about picking out the ones that you like the look of, you need to know what to look for (hence Ray’s expert input!). The one male and three females were picked out from the crowd based on their colour patterns, good conformation and movement as well as meeting the breed standards devised by the Cheviot Landrace Goat society. 

After a nervous few days, it wasn’t long before the goats have settled well into city farm life, generally minding their own business unless there’s any tasty snacks on offer! The kids are a little bit nervous, but we’re getting there! Come down and say hello to them during the summer!