Cannon Hall Farm: Home to Springtime on the Farm, hundreds of animals and a huge playground

Cannon Hall Farm is a large, family-run farm attraction sitting in the rolling Pennine foothills in South Yorkshire – well-known across the country for regularly featuring on Channel 5's popular prime-time series Springtime on the Farm.

It is home to hundreds of animals, features one of the biggest outdoor adventure playgrounds in the North of England, has a massive indoor play area and an incredibly-popular local farm shop.

Building its success to this point has been no easy task for the Nicholson family.

The farm near the village of Cawthorne in the district of Barnsley opened to the public as a tourism attraction for the first time on Good Friday 1989 – with an old farm building used as a tearoom and local youngsters having the chance to feed goats and lambs.

Over the years, an adventure playground and farm shop were added, then a new £1.5 million farmyard, the demolition of the existing farmyard and the opening of the Hungry Llama indoor play.

As the Cannon Hall website explains: “ They developed the very first farm visitor centre of its type in the world – one that allowed visitors to watch with the farmers during their day to day work – which can be as varied as assisting in a birth, milking, shearing or tractor work- from the safety of a viewing platform.

“And 30 years after that first vision, Roger Nicholson succeeded in not only creating jobs for his three sons…but in building a multi-million pound tourist attraction that employs over 270 local people.

“Roger is now in his seventies – but he’s in the barns every single day – training the next generation of farmers and educating visitors to help them understand how important British farming is.

“And he even has his own fanbase, a new generation of visitors that watch his series of live online broadcasts, led by his sons, educating people about being a farmer and what it entails.

“Farmer Roger has his legacy – the Nicholsons have kept the treasure that is Cannon Hall Farm safe for the next generation.

“He’s certainly not ready for a quiet retirement either with ambitious plans in the pipeline for further expansion Roger the businessman farmer is still leading the way in rural diversification – and creating childhood memories for a new generation as he does so.”

The widespread popularity of Cannon Hall means that not only does it have its own annual calendar, it even now has an official Top Trumps card set.

Their special version of the classic card game for all the family has images of their very own animals and farmer-approved facts.

It is fair to say that Cannon Hall Farm has become a definite ace in the pack for the Yorkshire tourism industry.