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We’ve visited Mayfield Lavender Farm every year since the twiglets were born! Last week we went on our annual trip there, so I thought I’d share some of my top tips, such as the best time to visit and so on. Hopefully they will help you to make the most of your visit to Mayfield Lavender Farm! I’ll also share some of the photos we took. (Everyone loves a bit of lavender spam, right??!)
Mayfield Lavender Farm is a 25-acre lavender field with a cafe and shop. It’s the perfect place for a lovely family trip to capture some beautiful memories.
Where is Mayfield Lavender Farm?
Mayfield Lavender Farm is located in Woodmansterne, near Banstead in Surrey. It’s approximately 15 miles from Central London, and can be accessed easily by car or public transport. For full directions, check the website. We’re lucky that we live pretty locally so it’s not far for us to travel π
When should you visit Mayfield Lavender Farm?
The lavender usually starts to bloom towards the middle to end of June, but is at its best between July and August. Mayfield Lavender Farm is open every day from 9am until 6pm, until August 31st.
I would definitely advise you to avoid weekends if at all possible, as it gets sooo busy. We went on a Friday, which may well have been busier than other weekdays.
The most important thing I would advise is to go as early in the day as you can! The lavender field opens at 9am, so get there as close to that as possible. When we went, we arrived at 8.45am and there was already a queue of cars waiting to get in! The field did feel pretty quiet to begin with but it rapidly got busier.
And by the time we left at around 11am, it was really quite busy, with a long queue for the cafe. At this point, they were turning cars away. According to the website, staff will direct visitors to a nearby sports club if the car park is full. I’m not sure if they were doing this or just limiting numbers due to Covid-19. (It does say on their website this may happen at the moment).
How much does it cost to visit Mayfield Lavender Farm?
Entry to Mayfield Lavender Farm costs Β£4 per adult. Parking is free once you’ve paid for entrance. Children under 16 go free.
If you’re arriving by car, a member of staff will just take your money through the window then you just go and park. Simple!
Covid-19 safety measures
In accordance with current guidance, face masks must be worn in the shop. When queueing for the shop or cafe, you have to maintain social distancing and wait 2 metres apart from other customers. The cafe are serving a more limited menu than usual, with no hot cooked food. The picnic tables are wiped down very regularly.
Mayfield also ask that you respect other people’s space when exploring the lavender field.
Important Info
Dogs
Dogs are allowed but must be on a lead.
Picnics
Picnics are not permitted anywhere at Mayfield Lavender Farm. In fact, you’re not allowed to bring your own food at all, as it produces too much rubbish.
Toilets
There are portaloos in the car park, which are not entirely ideal but clean enough. (Mayfield aren’t allowed to build permanent toilets as the land is on the Metropolitan Green Belt Of London).
Accessibility
The farm is fairly accessible for disabled visitors/wheelchair users – obviously it is a field so there is some uneven ground etc. There is a track around the perimeter of the farm and a footpath through the centre of the lavender with a grassed surface. (Also useful to know if you’re bringing a buggy). Getting between the actual rows of lavender isn’t really possible though. There is also disabled parking close to the entrance.
Tractor rides
You can take a tractor ride tour around the lavender farm. Rides cost Β£2 per person (babes in arms are free) and tickets can be bought from the shop or cafe. A circuit of the farm takes around 15-20 minutes.
Refreshments at Mayfield Lavender Farm
There is a relaxed, al fresco cafe under a marquee with picnic table seating. At the moment the seating is fairly limited and socially distanced. Usually the cafe serves light lunches – sandwiches, burgers, paninis etc. Even barbecues! But at the moment there isn’t any hot food due to Covid-19.
The cafe serves coffees, teas and a variety of cakes, biscuits etc, including lavender treats. I tried a lavender muffin and it was so yummy! They do a lavender cream tea which sounds lovely, as well as ice creams.
There is also a little silver van at the opposite end of the field from the main cafe, which serves hot drinks. This is sometimes open – I’m not sure when though! It wasn’t open when we visited but it provided some fun photo opportunities!
Kids love running around in the lavender!
The twigs had such a great time running up and down between the rows of lavender. We started off taking a few more posed photos. Then when they got bored of that (pretty quickly!!) we just let them run around and play, and took some more natural shots.
We were careful to keep our distance from others but having arrived so early, that was very easy to do. In fact, we were nowhere near anyone else! Even when it was getting a lot busier, it was still easy to keep your distance. Not so easy to take photos with no-one in the background though!!
We managed to get a family photo but you can’t see a lot of lavender in it oops!!
Top tips for lavender photos!
1. From the car park at the bottom, if you head up towards the left of the field, we found that the lavender there was thicker and taller than elsewhere. Great for getting some in the foreground of photos!
2. The phone box is a great photo prop!!
3. It’s the perfect place to work on your Instagram poses! Here’s me perfecting my gazing-wistfully-into-the-distance pose, like a proper Insta w*nker π
Mayfield Lavender Nursery and Shop
There is also Mayfield lavender nursery a little way up the road towards Epsom. They have a lovely gift shop there too if you fancy a browse somewhere a bit quieter! It sells a range of plants, garden accessories and lavender products including toiletries, sachets and culinary treats. It’s open all year round and they also sell fresh fruit and veg.
We were lucky enough to be able to have a photoshoot with photographer Rachel Thornhill there a couple of years ago. You can read all about it here. If you’re looking for a Surrey-based photographer to take beautiful lavender photos of your family, she’s amazing and great with kids!
Mayfield Lavender Farm is well worth a visit!
In conclusion, I would thoroughly recommend a visit to Mayfield Lavender Farm. It’s such a lovely place to spend time with family and get some beautiful photos to treasure.
I really hope you enjoyed reading about our visit, and I hope my tips are helpful if you decide to go too!
Thanks for reading! Til next time,
Hannah xx
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Check out some of my other posts for more ideas of fab family days out:
22 Comments
Oh this looks lovely – I can almost smell the lavendar. What a lovely outoorsy and summery thing to do!
It’s such a lovely place to visit, and so nice to have the photos to compare each year π xx
Wow just look at that pop of purple – absolutely beautiful. Were you welcomed with lots of bees as they love lavender #dreamteam.
Haha yes there were absolutely squillions of bees! π
We have a lavender field near us, which we often in the summer. Really interesting to read how other lavender farms operate. Your photos are beautiful. #mmbc
Lavender fields are so pretty aren’t they! π Thank you xx
Stunning pictures, I have never been to a lavender farm before but my husband pointed out we are passing a different one next week so we may have to visit! Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time
Ooh have fun if you do! π
Hannah this is beautiful! What fantastic pictures. I’ve never been to a lavender farm, to be honest, didn’t even know it was a thing. I need to get my act together and find one! Thanks so much for linking up at #KCACOLS. Hope you come back again next time
Aww thank you! Haha well it seems to be a thing on Instagram! We just happen to live really near one π xx
I Need to go now. Beautiful photos thank you for the great tips x x #KCACOLS
Thanks so much π xx
Beautiful pictures. I want to visit a lavender farm. So pretty. #kcacols
Haha do it! They’re so beautiful π
Ahhh your photos look stunning! It sounds like such a lovely morning out – and funnily – I was actually looking at the Mayfield website the other day. I’d love to go to smell what the fields smell like. How were the bees? I know there were probably zillions… but I’m guessing they were too busy with the Lavender to pay any notice to people? Thank you for sharing with the #DreamTeamLinky xx
Thanks so much – aw you should go! There were a lot of bees and tbf when my two were younger we had more issues with them as C was quite scared. We hardly noticed them this year weirdly even though there were tons! Like you said, they’re not interested in people at all π
What gorgeous photos of your children in amongst all of that beautiful lavender. We’ve never visited a lavender field but I’m very tempted to do so at some point. Good to know that it was easy to keep a distance even when it started to get busy and good tips about when best to arrive. Thanks for linking up to #CountryKids
Aw thank you, glad it’s useful π
How cute your kids look in the photo. A great place to stay. My family and I will definitely plan a visit to Mayfield Lavender Farm.
Gorgeous pics! This is actually quite close to me and I would love to get some arty pics of my kids so thanks for the tips. Thanks for linking up with #dreamteamlinky
I’ve seen some gorgeous posts from the lavender fields over the years in blogging. Yours are definitely some of the most beautiful and dreamy. What a lovely place on a summers’s day. A great idea for some outdoor fun with minimal covid risk #CountryKids