Adventure playground fun for Stoke Mandeville goats as kind family donates new equipment

Bucks Goat Centre responded to a Facebook shout-out last week, when an Aston Clinton family wanted to get rid of children's play equipment from their garden.

Local resident Sophy was overjoyed to be able to donate the kit to the goat centre, as her family are big fans of visits there to see the animals and have fun.

She said: "It's the best thing ever, we visit every school holiday and inset day as my son is obsessed with the goats, it's the perfect place for it."

And now the lucky goats are enjoying enrichment like never before, now that the activity set is installed in their pen at the farm.

Ruth Higgins, who runs Bucks Goat Centre, said: "Goats are like children and love to play and climb, so this equipment is perfect, especially this close to the warmer summer weather.

"When we spotted the post on Facebook we knew that Bucks Goat Centre would be the perfect, albeit unusual, home for the kit, and the goats have wasted no time in getting stuck in. Thank you so much to the kind people who donated it."

Bucks Goat Centre's residents are currently experiencing a little more noise than usual, as HS2 works are going on in the area, so extra enrichment provides the perfect distraction while the noise is going on.

The farm has even appointed popular goat Skid the road safety monitor, and the friendly goat is the face of the Goat Centre's regular HS2 road updates for visitors on their Facebook page.

Ruth added: "We won't lie, the HS2 work has been a challenge but we are so happy to see that it is not putting off our loyal visitors. It is still very much business as usual and the whole of Layby Farm really is a great destination for a trip out, with shops, our cafe and of course the Goat Centre. We are really looking forward to summer and won't let anything stand in our way when it comes to providing a brilliant experience for visitors."

To find out more about the Bucks Goat Centre go to www.bucksgoatcentre.website