The weather certainly didn’t dampen the fun at this weekend’s Fleecy Frolics lambing event at Merrist Wood College.
The community turned out in their droves for this much-loved annual celebration of Spring, as ticket holders across the two-day event enjoyed the many family activities on offer to wear out even the most energetic of children!
Over 5000 people flocked to the 400-acre site in Worplesdon across the weekend to see this season’s new additions at the college’s farm. This year’s lambing season has produced 134 lambs so far, including 5 sets of triplets!
Guests witnessed sheep shearing demonstrations and also got to stroke the various farm animals on show – who were all very happy to be greeted if there was a handful of food in it for them!
The college’s, annual public lambing event is a celebration of nature and countryside crafts. As well as plentiful amounts of stalls selling all kinds of local artisan products and produce, this year’s visitors were able to experience a range of activities such as tractor rides, tree climbing, face painting, pony rides, countryside craft activities, and horse drawn trailer rides, to name just a few.
Local contemporary choir Motivation by Music also performed a fantastic set on Saturday afternoon where college’s meerkat colony were also very interested to watch the goings on from their enclosure in the walled garden!
Visitors could also interact with some of the college’s other residents in the Animal Management Centre including rabbits, snakes, leopard geckos, bearded dragons, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, fancy mice and hamsters – as well as being able to tour the tropical and desert biomes within the centre where the unit’s giant tortoises, tropical birds and marmosets to name just a few were on display.
Laura Asbridge, Commercial Director at Merrist Wood College said: “We were thrilled to welcome visitors on site for this fun family event.
“Fleecy Frolics is an excellent showcase of what our fantastic college has to offer, as well as providing an invaluable experience for our student helpers, who were, as always, a credit to the college.
“A huge amount of work behind the scenes takes place for this event to happen, and so I must thank our incredible team here at Merrist Wood for all their hard work in creating such a fantastic weekend.
“Merrist Wood is an intrinsic part of the local community and it’s great to be able to welcome the public onto the campus to see all the amazing things we have here.”
Check out some of our images from the event below :
