Surrey Docks Farm

Farm Club holiday programme is back this summer. Ten children joined us last Thursday for a day on the Farm; mucking out the young billy goats, walking ferrets, handling small animals, playing games and taking part in natural crafts.
www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/farm-club/

We’ve shared a few photos of the goats over the years.
We’d love to know if you have any memories or photos of Vixen and Cleo? Do share them with us! 💚

As the goats are still young and healthy we’ve been looking for somewhere to rehome them and after a lot of searching we found the right place at a rescue sanctuary in Kent!
The girls have settled in, will be just as spoiled as they were here and can now enjoy the country life!

Cleo and Vixen were born in 2020 and are much-loved spotty Anglo Nubians. However they haven’t bred and as a working farm with limited space, we made the decision we couldn’t keep them in our herd long term.

We’ve recently rehomed two of our beautiful nanny goats to a rescue centre in Kent.

The 50th Exhibition, including the fascinating display of foreshore finds, is open again this week:
• Thurs 24th July 5:30-7:30
• Fri 25th July 11:30-4:00
• Sat 26th July 11:30-4:00

The Farm is a green oasis for many species including this Jersey Tiger moth. Spotted resting on the willow arch, check out the bright orange underwings as it flies away!

Celebrate our 50th Birthday! July 19th, 11:30am-4:30pm.
Exhibition, BBQ, Tours and Talks. (Exhibit free, tours and talks ticketed).
surreydocksfarm.org.uk/fifty-years/

1/2: On Saturday July 19 I'll be leading more tours at @surreydocksfarm.bsky.social, revealing the fascinating history of this former wharf through all the artefacts we've found on the foreshore and all the structures around the site. And we'll be having a closer look inside the display cabinets...

3/3: I've now added it to the rest of the collection of receiving station crockery in the display cabinet on the @surreydocksfarm.bsky.social riverside. This china all dates from the 1880s to the 1930s - I think this latest piece is probably early 1900s.

2/3: It's so rare to find such a large piece, and one with the Metropolitan Asylums Board roundel...

1/3: Just a tiny strip of blue in the mud led to my best Metropolitan Asylums Board find in several years! This bowl comes from the smallpox receiving station formerly on the @surreydocksfarm.bsky.social site. Follow the thread to see more...

Did you know we have two walnut trees on the Farm? Over the next few days we’ll be harvesting fresh green walnuts to sell in our farm shop. They’re perfect for pickling! Call into the Farm this weekend to purchase some and let us know what you make with them!

1/2: I'm a ladybird enthusiast, so was very excited to see this hop plant @surreydocksfarm.bsky.social absolutely covered with them - both adults and larvae. They're mostly two species: the tiny Two-spots, and the large Harlequins. All the larvae you can seen in these photos are of the Harlequin...

Farm Spring Fair, tomorrow, Saturday 10th May from 11am-4pm! Join us to watch sheep shearing, plus extra activities on offer including farm-themed fair games, animal handling, craft stalls, plant sales, BBQ and bar area in the field with live music and more!!

This Tree Echium at @surreydocksfarm.bsky.social commands all the attention, but just below it is something equally special: three different species of Speedwells, all currently in bloom. Thus this patch retains its SSSI status - yes, it's a Site of Special Speedwell Interest!

Farm Gym volunteers put in a fantastic effort tonight! We worked together to woodchip around the community plots; then split into groups to weed a growing space, shift pots of soil and tidy up pruned branches. 💪🏻
The team were rewarded with a peak inside the goat barn to meet the new goat kids! 🐐

Have you met our new piglets yet? Polo and Rolo’s second litter was born on Friday evening. The piglets are already growing fast, zooming round the barn then crashing out in a piglet pile up together.

It’s house sparrow nesting season and the Farm provides plenty of nest material from straw, grasses and last year’s globe artichoke heads! Volume up to hear the Spring bird song on the Farm, as this little sparrow is busy foraging.

The first lambs were born here at the weekend, they’re doing well and enjoyed going out in the field! All the ewes are pregnant and due this month, so there’ll be more lambs to come!

Feed The Lambs - Surrey Docks Farm We have taken on four lambs and can offer four slots to bottle feed these lambs at lunch time and in the afternoon. When can we feed? We are offering the chance for visitors to bottle-feed our four l...

Apologies for any issues this causes, we’ve had to change as we’re a small team and won’t have staff with website access available on Tuesday! So from now on please check on Monday mornings for new lamb feeding slots to be released here: www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/product/feed...

Lamb bottle feeding update!
More slots will go online on MONDAY between 9 and 10am for bottle feeding dates from 12th - 18th April.

One of our students chose to plant a blueberry bush to tend here. Blueberries require special ericaceous (acidic) compost, so he’s planted into a pot filled with this compost and will water with rainwater to retain the pH levels - as tap water is usually too alkaline.

Tiny tadpoles! These were seen in the wildlife pond @surreydocksfarm.bsky.social yesterday. It's always amazing how quickly they develop; the second photo shows the round black eggs of the frogspawn early in March, and the third photo shows them a week later, developing into embryos - and now look!

Meet the Queen of Tomatoes! We’re going for the record number of tomato varieties grown (at Surrey Docks Farm) this year!
The greenhouse is filling up nicely with young plants, soon some will be on sale so you can either grow your own at home or pop in for freshly picked tomatoes this summer.

We handled the small animals inside, then the rain stopped and we could go out to feed the sheep and hold a lamb. Our animals provided a wonderful therapeutic benefit and fuelled lots of reminiscing and sharing opportunities.

Last week we welcomed a group from Time & Talents for their Spring visit. We reminisced about their farm memories over lunch; Eduardo the turkey was a firm Surrey Docks favourite, but we also heard of their childhood memories of neighbours rabbits, growing up on farms and rearing chickens.

Our horticulture team had a great time at the SOIL exhibition at Somerset House! We were gifted tickets and spent a several hours exploring.
We even spotted a potential reference to our farm manure (via the project at Stuart Road Allotments, where we’ve delivered many ton bags of manure!)

We’ve taken on even more little lambs that need bottle-feeding and you can get involved! Sessions are held at 12:45pm and 4:40pm, booking must be made in advance. We release slots a week at a time, with more dates released on Tuesday mornings. www.surreydocksfarm.org.uk/product/feed-the-lambs-2025/