Farm at heart of family for five generations where you can pick your own sunflowers

Tucked away in a Wirral woodland you'll find a fifth generation family farm where you can pick your own fruit and flowers.

Mum and daughter Charlotte and Sue Reed opened Benty Farm Tearooms in Thurstaston back in 2014 on the farm where their family have lived for generations. The idea for the tearooms, based off School Lane, was born from Charlotte's grandad Henry who used to live on the farm with his wife Jean.

Charlotte, 31, told the ECHO: "It was always an idea of my grandad's just to serve cream teas on the cobbled yard. We thought 'let's try it.'

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"Gran was always making bread and things like that so I always think 'imagine if she was in here now with us.' She was up at six every morning.

"We serve breakfast and lunch wise we just do sandwiches to order, soup is always homemade. Afternoon tea is quite popular and again it's all homemade. We try and source as much as we can locally, obviously that's not always possible."

The farm dates back to the 1800s and was previously owned by Charlotte's great-great grandfather Herbert Hughes, followed by her great grandparents Milly and George, gran and grandad Henry and Jean, and it is now owned by her mum and dad Sue and Pete.

The tearooms itself has soared in popularity over the last 10 years, attracting visitors from across Merseyside and beyond. The afternoon tea includes a selection of sandwiches and homemade cakes, from lemon poppy buns to carrot cake and viennese whirls, as well as quiche and scones with jam and cream.

The family also open up their fields at different times of the year for flower and fruit picking. In spring, visitors can walk among 10,000 tulips and pick their own flowers, while in the summer the farm is open for strawberry and raspberry picking.

This is followed by sunflower and pumpkin picking, and Christmas trees later in the year. Sue said: "As time has gone on farmers have had to diversify.

"Mum and dad started on the fruit which was planted in the ground then, 30-40 years ago. That's how the fruit has evolved.

"It used to be a lot of older people picking fruit to make jam, plus people picking to eat, but now it's more families."

Charlotte said a lot of regulars visit the tearooms during the week, while at weekends people travel from further afield. Speaking of living in such an idyllic location, she added: "It's great, I love it. The winters are wet but the summer comes and everything is green.

"People come and they say 'we got lost in the woods and we just stumbled across you and we're totally lost.'"

You can read more about Thurstaston village here.

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