Lambing Live comes to North East England

Hall Hill Farm, the north east visitor attraction of the year, located near Lanchester, is bringing ’lambing live’ to people’s homes and helping to tell the story of the Durham countryside worldwide, after installing a live video feed on its website with 24 hour live streaming of the lambing process.

The ’Lamb Cam’ is at Hall Hill Farm, the award winning tourist attraction near Lanchester, which is installing the region’s first ’Lamb Cam’ enabling people to see lambing live on their computer screens this spring.

Lambing has always been one of the most popular times at the farm. It all began at Hall Hill Farm 30 years ago when the working farm decided to open as an attraction in 1981 by inviting people to come and see their lambs during the lambing season – and the attraction grew from there.

Education is also a very important part of the visitor experience at Hall Hill Farm. Farm visitor centres are helping to teach children about farming and food. Statistics from 2008, show that one in five children had never visited rural areas or had any contact with the land, while 17% had been "once or twice". Those with no experience of the countryside were twice as likely to admit that they had no idea where their food comes from. And separate research showed that 26% of British children nationally think bacon comes from sheep.

The ’Lamb Cam’ will go live on Thursday March 29 in time for the lambing season and the Easter school holidays and the start of the traditional tourist season when the farm is now open daily until the autumn

Ann Darlington, tourism manager at Hall Hill Farm aid: "We like to keep introducing new ideas here at Hall Hill Farm. Lambing Live has proved so popular when screened on our TV’s that we thought we’d let our visitors see our own animals.

"Lambing is how Hall Hill Farm started out as an attraction over 30 years ago and it is great for our family to see that the animals that we have long cared for still as popular as ever. Even though the tourism attraction has grown massively over the years we have always remained close to our agricultural roots.

"The streaming will show everything from live births, feeding, frolicking and snoozing. We hope it will be both entertaining and educational for viewers and above all else an amazing experience as they watch from the comfort of their own homes or in the classroom."

Hall Hill Farm, which employs up to 50 people, welcomes thousands of visitors every year attracted by the family fun on offer and the opportunities to see and touch animals at close quarters. Visitors can bottle feed lambs, see fluffy chicks, inquisitive goats, magnificent Highland Cattle and get close to children’s favourites such as guinea pigs and rabbits, as well as enjoy a tractor or donkey ride around the beautiful countryside.

Named as the Visitor Attraction of the Year (small) in the North East Tourism Awards visitors can bottle feed lambs, see fluffy chicks, inquisitive goats, magnificent Highland Cattle and get close to children’s favourites such as guinea pigs and rabbits, as well as enjoy a tractor or donkey ride around the beautiful countryside. The popular Playbarn also opened last year providing a fun indoor play area for families to enjoy as well as shelter from the rain or find shade from the sun.