Ice cream farm among UK’S hottest attractions
AS SOME of the country’s most popular tourist attractions, the likes of the British Museum, Tate Modern and the National Gallery have long drawn millions of visitors from around the world.
But these internationally recognised sites now have a rival – a little known family-run theme park in Cheshire.
The Ice Cream Farm, Tattenhall, has in the space of a few years transformed itself from a struggling dairy farm to a theme park that last year saw more than 821,000 people flock through its gates – propelling it into the top 20 most visited free attractions in the country for the first time, alongside the likes of the Science Museum, Brighton Pier and the Serpentine Gallery.
The dairy farm was forced to diversify into other money-making ventures following a cut in milk subsidies.
Over the years it branched out into an ice-cream-based theme park, and in 2014 the Fell family which founded it 30 years ago decided to sell off the farm’s dairy herd.
The following year it underwent a £5million redevelopment programme, which saw it open the world’s largest purpose-built ice cream parlour. Visitor numbers rocketed, last year drawing almost as many as the Museum of London and more than the Museum of Liverpool, according to Visit England’s annual survey.
Numbers were boosted when Tom and Margaret Fell and their two sons Jonathan and Graeme started using social media to promote their business.
Jonathan Fell said: “Because we’re off the beaten track people still can’t believe the kind of footfall we have.
“We’re in a rural location, so I think many families still want to go out and experience the countryside.”