Hopefield Animal Sanctuary

Hopefield Animal Sanctuary is based a 5 minute drive away from Brentwood town center in Essex.

Hopefields Animal Sanctuary was set up by a couple in 1983, they where saddened by stories of horses and ponies being abandoned on the Rainham marshes. You can read more of there story by looking at there website.

I had come across an offer on Groupon offering a family ticket for £6, normally tickets are £3 for adults £2 children and under 2's go free.

Bank holiday weekend was coming up so I asked my mum and her lodger if they fancied a day out and off we went along with my 2year old son in tow. We arrived and parked in a field behind the sanctuary, plenty of space although a number of people parked down the lane leading up to the sanctuary making driving along quite tight! Walking around to the entrance and handing over the voucher I was asked to leave my name and phone number, in case they needed to contact me while I was there, I think this is more for marketing purposes!

As we walked round in to the sanctuary my son was in heaven, an open grassy area supplied with a bouncy castle, slides and trikes galore for him to play with along with picnic benches for families to sit down and lunch or rest, it took us 10 minutes to get him under control, we then went to look at the animals.

The first thing we come to was a 'chicken' coop, I say chicken loosely as there was also a peacock strutting around showing off his incredible feathers. Lots of hens, and a few cockerels, to which my son impressed us with his imitation of a cockerel crowing! Moving away from the coop we looked came across a number large and small baby pigs, my son recognised the pigs and so lots of oink oink cry's and shouting 'Peppa pig Peppa pig'!

We then wondered inside to a hut which had a number of hutches with run's and many many rabbits and guinea pigs jumped around, much to my son's delight as we got to the end one of the volunteers was holding a rather large extremely furry rabbit, which was extremely calm and survived the 'gentle' petting my son inflicted on him.

Moving outside we moved around some aviaries with many different types of birds. This is where we got to see many many goats, sheep. The stable blocks contained a few of the horses, and the stable doors all held a description and story of the horses that are there and a plaque in memory of those no longer with them. Some extremely sad story's go along with these animals, Hopefield really is there savior. A reptile room was available to see, a member of staff is needed to enter.

We moved around some more and come across a giant bull, happily wondering around his field, in the field next door where the horses out of the stables, the field stretched back quite some way, and there where many many horses. A little pond sat by the field and a number of ducks and geese wondered around intrigued by the visitors (and bread).

Are last stop was to the cafe, beautifully clean and offering hot and cold drinks, food/snacks and ice creams. We had bought a few things to eat ourselves but sat down in the sunshine enjoying some ice creams while my son enjoyed the slides and the bouncy castle again.

Overall we spent at most 2 hours there, it was a beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed seeing the animals and playing on the bouncy castle and slides. I do think if it had rained we would not of stayed as long, you do have to cross a field when parking, and then entering the site, this would not make pushing a buggy or wheelchair easy if wet and muddy.

--Sweetielol (talk) 05:33, 8 May 2013 (UTC)