'Coming back to life': You can now go on a guided tour of a Shropshire heritage farm site as it gears up for reopening

A beloved heritage farm is offering the chance to go behind the scenes as it works to come back to life next year.

Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565

Acton Scott Heritage Farm was given the thumbs up by the Charity Commission earlier this year in an important step on the road to fully reopening in 2025.

Now the attraction near Church Stretton is planning to offer guided tours to showcase the farm ‘coming back to life’ . It had been closed by Shropshire Council in the summer of 2021 after 47 years of running as an attraction.

A spokesperson for the farm said: "There is still much work to be done to make sure we are ready to be fully open in 2025 but we want to be able to show you how we are progressing with our work.

Cider making at Acton Scott Heritage Working Farm was held as a thank you to the volunteers and many trustees in 2023.

"We are excited to offer guided tours to showcase the farm ‘coming back to life’. We very much hope you would like to join one.

"Each tour will have a maximum of 20 visitors so you can fully engage with tour leaders and demonstrators in the site. "

Each tour will last approximately two hours and visitors will be led by volunteers who have been working hard to bring the site back to life.

Each tour will visit all the key areas of the site and will explain what work has been done to maintain the site and our plans for the future.

There will be demonstrations of crafts and activities along the way.

But they say they will not be able to offer any animal interaction on the tours, however, Shropshire sheep, Dairy Shorthorn cattle and a selection of rare breed chickens will be on-site and there will be heavy horse demonstrations on some of the dates.

At the end of the tour, drinks and cakes will be available in the New Barn visitor centre. They will be seeking donations on the day to cover the costs of the refreshments.

The full website includes a table showing all the available tours this summer.

Tickets can be purchased from the website

The trustees are calling out for more volunteers to assist with getting the site ready, and those interesting in mucking in are asked to fill out the form online at form.jotform.com/231242077301039