We visit the city farm near Bristol with a new cafe serving up delicious breakfasts

A year ago Bath City Farm put out a plea to the public for help to continue. “It is vital that we raise £30,000 to care for our animals and maintain the farm over the next year,” said director Brendan Wisteich.

It triggered a huge response from the local community which backed the fundraiser with 244 donors raising more than £34,000 - and with good reason. Bath City Farm is simply an urban oasis, and certainly a place to visit with the family over the summer.

Tucked away in a part of the city called Whiteway, two miles from the city centre, this attraction is accessed via one of many footpaths across its fields, or via a small car park off a road called Kelston View.

It was opened in the 1990s when the local community banded together after the owning farmer retired . The aim was to create a farm accessible for everyone with new features added year on year, including a wonderful cafe in 2022.

On arrival, signposts direct you to different parts of the farm. You can either go straight on to the cafe (more on this later) or turn left and pick up a walkway taking you in between paddocks and fenced areas with all kinds of animals; from pigs to chickens to goats.

And as if petting and feeding some of the animals wasn’t enough, the city farm surely offers one of the best views of the city Bath. Standing by the pig enclosure, the view across the area on a good day is enough to take your breath away.

But that’s not all. From the pig enclosure you can head out across some of the 37-acre farm site on guided trails, or turn back around and check out the ‘hub’ to the farm where activities for adults and children are regularly held.

Garden and farm shops are open every Sunday selling home-grown flowers and meat reared on the site. Throughout the week there are also volunteering sessions for adults, covering everything from baking to plant-growing. And for children and young families there is an afterschool and Saturday club.

Back at the entrance, you can then head to the newly-built cafe with a large children’s playground next to it. To be honest, the cafe is an attraction in itself, and I’m sure many inside when I visit have come to the farm just for a coffee or even some food within the modern, airy building.

The menu is moderately-priced, and the quality of food is excellent. A farmer’s breakfast costs £8.99, while scrambled eggs on toast is £5.99. For later in the day, a ploughman’s costs £9.95, while a cheese and ham sandwich is £5.95. A white Americano coffee is £2.50.

I went for the farmer’s breakfast, which was delicious. The sausages were plumb, the bacon crispy and the fried egg done perfectly for me. There was also a hash brown along with mushrooms and tomatos.

With our country losing city farms to developments, Bath City Farm shows how they can be saved, and more importantly turned into a valuable cog for a thriving local community.