Halloween Pumpkin Palace enchants families at popular farm park on edge of Harborough district

Staff at Mini Meadows Farm have collected all their pumpkins to form a ‘Pumpkin Palace’, stacked to the ceiling with straw bales and the bright orange autumnal fruits. The move was inspired following concerns over weather after September’s flash floods.

Guests are invited on a walk-through experience where they will discover a ‘cursed’ old barn set to spook at every turn.

Families can enjoy hair-raising mazes, seasonal games and the opportunity to meet Halloween characters.

Guests can also carve their pumpkins at the farm, saving kitchens tables across the country from messy pumpkin juice and flesh. The farm team will feed the pumpkin innards to resident pigs and chickens, with any uneaten waste being composted to help grow next year’s batch of pumpkins.

Owner Ben Barraclough said: “We’ve experienced an unprecedented amount of rain in September, so this year we’ve decided to bring the pumpkins inside. It will be a sight to behold with pumpkins literally stacked from floor to ceiling in our Pumpkin Palace. Our teams have been working around the clock to make sure that this year’s Halloween festivities are enjoyable for everyone and we can’t wait for our guests to come and visit our Pumpkin Palace and Bewitched Barn. It’s going to be spooktacular!”

Activities are running daily until Halloween on (Thursday October 31).

Every child receives a free pumpkin as part of their park admission.