Brooks Farm in Leyton to get charitable status by the summer (From East London and West Essex Guardian Series)

Brooks Farm in Leyton to get charitable status by the summer

4:43pm Thursday 11th March 2010 in

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A CITY farm nestled among a dense residential area provides a welcome taste of the countryside for children and adults alike.

Brooks Farm, a semi-working farm in Skeltons Lane Park, Leyton, welcomes thousands of children each year, who meet and learn about the animals.

Run by three full-time staff and a small pool of volunteers, the farm, which is free to the public, hoipes to get charitable status this summer, which staff hope will help to attract more funding so they can continue their work.

Education officer Sandra Lloyd gives educational tours and provides activities for school children, and takes animals into schools for pupils to meet.

She said: “It is important for kids to see animals they don't normally see, learn how they are fed and ask questions.

“They see a turkey, which they might only seen dead on the table at Christmas, and get to feel a warm, newly hatched egg to show them they don't come from Tesco.

“It is so essential for kids living in the city to experience that and it helps to support what they are learning in class.”

The menagerie of pigs, goats, sheep, birds, rodents and Merlin the llama has a new edition in eight-month-old Irish moiled cow Zeta.

But as a semi-working farm, the stock changes regularly as off-spring are sold and sometimes new animals are brought in.

Isabella Archman, 41, of Sophia Road, in Leyton, brings her two children, five-year-old Isabella, and one-year-old Oscar.

She said: “We come here quite often. Oscar loves it. We are very lucky because it gives him a taste of country life. Many children don't get to see animals close up.”

Farm manager Teigh O'Neill said a group he hopes that a committee of trustees should be elected by the summer so that the farm, which was formerly funded by the council, can begin as a charitable trust.

He said: “Getting charitable status will hopefully have financial benefits. There are a lot of improvements which we want to make, to get new buildings and renovate the farm.”

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