Lakeside Care Farm

We follow the Wiltshire Council School Term calendar, see here: https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/article/1684/Term-dates-and-holidays

We will inform you directly of changes to any days within term time, for example, if we are running staff training days and are therefore closed to students.

The Care Farms are not usually open to students during the holidays, unless arranged specifically as a bespoke package arranged with the Care Farms’ Manager.

Our original site has been open since November 2016 and started with just a handful of staff and students altogether. Lakeside has now grown to accommodate 10 students on site each day each with their one-to-one worker. Between 2016 and 2021, Lakeside worked with 400 students, many of whom moved onto mainstream or special school.

• Main building encompassing kitchen, cloak room, tool store and accessible toilets.
• “Art room” – a stand alone building for activities.
• Tool store
• Two polytunnels
• Raised and ground level growing beds
• An animal shed with therapy rabbits.
• We have two therapy Kune Kune pigs and chickens with their own enclosures.
• “Newt Island” – an island shaped into a newt with a Neolithic sarsen stone placed on the head to represent the eye. The surrounding trench naturally fills and empties of water throughout the year.
• Two fire circles
• Forest School areas
• Wildlife pond
• “Playing field”
• Bee hives on the wider nature reserve
• Access to the Lower Moor Nature Reserve and Sandpool woods.
• Old farm house – encompassing garage, staff room and office (staff access only).

The office is contactable from 8:00 – 16:00 Monday to Friday. We have an answerphone.

Telephone: 01666 860 699

Dean Sherwin (Care Farms' Manager): deans@wiltshirewildlife.org  / 07887 758380 

Lakeside Care Farm is located on the Trust’s Lower Moor Nature Reserve, within 30 minute drives of Swindon and Malmesbury.

For safeguarding reasons, visits are by appointment only. Please contact the landline or Dean Sherwin to discuss arranging a visit and for volunteering opportunities.