Lambs and meerkats draw big crowd

North Shropshire College opened up its Walford campus in Baschurch to visitors for its spring lambing day and thousands of people turned out for the event.

The college had more than 400 ewes to lamb this spring and most of the new arrivals have already made their appearance. Another attraction for the visitors was the college's new meerkat enclosure. Meerkat pups were born at the college last year and this was the first opportunity for the public to see them.

Lucy Evans, marketing manager, said: "We had a wonderful event, the weather was brilliant and the college was packed with families.

"I am not sure how many people attended until we get the final count up from the gate. All I know is we had 1,000 flyers, one per car made, and we ran out. We had lots of repeat families with us again."

On the farm side of the campus, people were able to see cows being milked by a robot or in the more traditional parlour via a viewing platform. There was also farm machinery and horses to see.

For the little ones there was a small course with ride-on pedal bikes and tractors. The campus's mini zoo area was also open, consisting of alpacas, meerkats and birds of prey.

Indoors, people viewed the exotic animals ranging from chameleons to tarantulas. Other activities and attractions included a climbing wall, face painting and a bouncy castle. Ms Evans added: "The RAF helicopter arrived at 12pm which was awesome.

"Porthywaen Silver Band played and Clive Knowles officially opened our new meerkat enclosure at 2pm. There were so many lambs this year as it was a bit later, there are now just 50 ewes were left to lamb.

"There was also clay pigeon shooting, climbing wall, mocktail bar for the children and cocktails for adults, North Shropshire Pony Club in the indoor arena, vintage engines, Easter egg hunts, face painting, milking display. The list was endless."