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Bucknall city farm being brought back to life by volunteers

BBC Land being clearedBBC
About 100 volunteers are helping to clear the site

A city farm which used to welcome 90,000 visitors a year before closing amid council cuts is to be resurrected.

Volunteers have set up a charity so they can reopen the farm at Bucknall Park in Stoke-on-Trent which they say will help children enjoy the outdoors.

It shut in 2011 and has since become overgrown and neglected.

Paul Cotterill from the charity said he had arranged for animals to be returned ahead of an April reopening.

"Some of the people don't get out into the countryside, they don't get to see the farm animals and it's an education," he said.

"It teaches people chickens don't come from supermarkets."

Kate Mason-Smith and husband Steve
Volunteers Kate Mason-Smith and her husband Steve said it was great to bring the land back into use for their children

The farm used to cost £175,000 a year to run. It closed under measures to help the city council make multi million-pound savings.

New homes had to be found for more than 120 animals when it shut after operating for more than 30 years.

Local councillors said they wanted to help bring the farm back into use after the council transferred the three-acre site to the charitable trust to manage.

Helen Leighs, one of about 100 volunteers, said a lot of land needed clearing.

"The paths were not visible, they were just a sea of moss so we've managed to clear all of the paths and now that's all accessible," she said.

Paul Cotterill
Paul Cotterill said having a connection with the countryside educated people

Another volunteer Kate Mason-Smith said she used to visit the farm as a child and was really pleased it was being brought back to life again for her children.

Her husband Steve added: "I'm happy that it's here and it's good to bring our children, to bring it back to the community, and volunteer so they have something in 20 years' time that they've seen come back from ruins to the heyday and how it should be."

Mr Cotterill said he believed it was the only city farm in Staffordshire.

"I think the nearest ones around are in Nottingham, Sheffield, Birmingham, so it will hopefully be a worthwhile attraction for not only the city, but for the county," he said.

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