Things to do

Boydells Dairy Farm is a small working farm, run by the Threadgold family consisting of Roy and Cherry, with son Kiley now in charge. The farm is open to the public and specialises in sheep milking. Set in the beautiful North Essex countryside only an hour's drive from central London, it provides a fun-packed and educational visit for children and adults alike.

Most of the usual farm animals are to be found here, but, unlike other open farms, we give you a guided tour with lots of hands-on stuff. Try your hand at milking a cow, feeding hens, riding a donkey cart or outstaring a llama. But the chief part of your visit will be the sheep milking which takes place in a modern "rapid exit" parlour, milking batches of18 ewes at a time.

The farm covers 42 hectares (105 acres in real money) all of which is used to produce food for the animals in the form of grass. Some of the grass is made into hay.

The 300 milking ewes and their offspring constitute the bulk of our livestock, but we also have cattle, goats, pigs and poultry, plus pony, donkey and llama.