Where to go pumpkin picking near London this Halloween

If you're a southwest Londoner, why not head out to Surrey for this pumpkin bonanza? The fields at Crockford Bridge Farm are often too muddy for visitors to pick their own in early October (check before you go), but their annual outdoor Pumpkin Market is a much cleaner, still thrilling trip. Pumpkins and gourds of every shape, size and colour are piled up on haybales in a display which runs from mid-October until Halloween, or whenever its bountiful crop sells out. Plus, there's family fun galore laid on at the weekend as Hallowe'en approaches, including kids' entertainers and spooky games.

New Haw Road, KT15 2BU. Oct 4-19. £6 per person. 

Pumpkin picking is just the tip of the iceberg at Rogate Pumpkin Patch. As you wander the farm, you’ll come across a story-telling pumpkin princess, a ‘bubble witch’, an array of pumpkin-themed games and a pirate ship. But the best bit? Picking season here ends with a big old Pumpkin Smash, which invites people to come and obliterate leftover pumpkins with bats, slingshots, spiked walls or their bare hands (all child-safe, of course). Not only is it brilliantly and cathartically messy – it helps feed the farm’s livestick and enriches the land for next year’s crops. The Pumpkin Smash 2025 is happening November 1-2. 

Rogate Pumpkin Patch, A272, GU31 5EG. Oct 17-Nov 2. £9 per person. 

Garsons in Surrey is sprouting another 10,000 squash of all sizes for the public to snaffle at their annual Pumpkin Parade. This event gets seriously popular, so book your Pumpkin Pass in advance to secure your spot. 

Winterdown Rd, KT10 8LS. Oct 1-31. £6 per person.

Run by brothers Toby and Max Williams, this 150-acre Kent farm grows 20 to 30 varieties of fruit and vegetables, including a huge patch of pumpkins in various shapes and sizes. Fill up a wheelbarrow for affordable prices and turn your home into an autumnal wonderland. Just bear in mind that you’ll be living off pumpkin soup until at least Christmas.

Birchwood Rd, DA2 7HD. Oct 4-30. £6 per each group of up to eight people. 

Hounslow adventure park Hobbledown Heath has had an autumnal makeover complete with a huge pumpkin patch. Great squashes have taken over an expansive meadow on the River Crane, right beside the Hounslow Heath nature reserve. Grab a wheelbarrow and wend your way through the rows of brightly-coloured gourds and take your favourites with you. Book a combined ticket and you can make your pumpkin-picking sesh into a full day out, by sticking around to enjoy Hobbledown’s ultimate adventure playground and zoo, too. 

Hobbledown Heath, TW14 0HH. Sept 26-Nov 2. From £6 per person. 

Each year, Kent's Four Winds Farm holds a bonanza of squash-harvesting and spooky fun in the run up to Hallowe'en, including a scarecrow hunt, face-painting and tea and cakes. Pickers are reminded to bring wellies and a strong bag for their spoils.

Four Winds Farm, Penshurst Rd, TN3 0LL. TBC. 

Head to Essex and you'll find not one but two popular Foxes Farm pumpkin patches: one in Basildon and one in Colchester. They'll be open every weekend in October, plus each day over halfterm. As well as selecting and uprooting squashes, you and the kids can scale a haybale mountain, get lost in a five acre corn maze, and play outdoor games galore. At the Colchester location, you can do all that – but as dusk settles in for some extra spooky atmospherics. Book your timeslot in advance to secure a spot.  

Watch House Farm, SS15 4ER and Green Lane, CO6 3PR. Oct 4-31. £7-£8 per person. 

Surrey pumpkin patch Priory Farm has the added lure of tractor rides that'll take you straight to the field. If that seems too much like hard work, you can also buy a pre-picked squash from the free-to-enter Pumpkin Palace. Once you've secured your future jack-o’-lantern, take the kids on a treasure hunt or follow the Halloween trail.

Sandy Lane, RH1 4EJ. Oct 18-31. From £6.

Mayfield Lavender Farm’s pumpkin patch is the first stop on it’s Malice in Wonderland Halloween fest. The pumpkins of all shape and sizes are dotted throughout the lavender rows, waiting to be picked, pulped, painted or popped into pies. Once you’re satisfied with your harvest, you can follow the White Rabbit’s trail through cobwebs, hauted mirrors, the Mad Hatter’s garden and on the ghost tractor train, solving clues and riddles to win a mystery final prize.  

139 Reigate Road, Epsom KT17 3DW. Oct 4-31. From £5 per person. 

Lathcoats Farm in Essex earns its living mainly from fruit, but in October the pumpkins pop up. Some of them grow undercover in a massive polytunnel, while others are piled up in fields, so pumpkin-picking can be an all-weather activity here. The farm’s Pumpkin Festival also offers a Halloween hunt, alongside spooky mobile workshops for kids and autumn wreath workshops for adults. While you’re there, fill your boots with apples too their Pick Your Own.

Beehive Lane, CM2 8LX. TBC.

The Pumpkin Picking Village in Chelmsford, Essex is as rustic as it sounds. Its fields of gourds situated on a picturesque farm that sits alongside rolling green hills and sweet village houses. Head along on weekend when the farm hosts pumpkin festivals full of hay bales, farm animals, and pumpkin-themed games. The farm offers dedicated dog-friendly and SEN sessions. Or if you’re looking for a way to get into the Halloween spirit, try their spooky pumpkin picking nights, when the fields are open after dark with fairground rides. Ghost train anyone?

Marsh Farm, South Woodham Ferrers, Chelmsford, CM3 5WP. Sep 26-Oct 31. From £6.99.

Surrey's Secretts is bringing back its annual Pumpkin Week, which boasts a ton of activities around the key event of picking your own pumpkins. Expect fancy dress competitions, scavenger hunts and pumpkin-themed refreshments. 

Hurst Farm, Chapel Lane, GU8 5HU. Oct 19-31. Price TBC.

This working family farm in Maldon, Essex is packed full of pumpkins in every shade of orange imaginable. If you’re after some good-looking gourds for a decorative display, this is the place to get them. It’s also free entry, so perfect for large families. 

Cobbs Farm, Maldon Road, Goldhanger, Maldon, Essex, CM9 8BQ. Dates and prices TBC. 

Pumpkin Patches don’t come fancier than the one at Tewinbury, a luxury farm hotel set in 700 acres of lush Hertfordshire countryside just 30 minutes from King’s Cross. Taking place over the Halloween weekend, its Pumpkin Patch Paradise event invites visitors to frolic through the hotel’s picturesque grounds, select their perfect pumpkin, and finish the day off with a warming autumnal tipples and hearty grub from an array of food trucks.

Hertford Road, Welwyn, Hertfordshire, AL6 0JB, Oct 29-Nov 1. £8 per person (pumpkins cost an additional £2-£9).

If you want to go all out on the spooky vibes this Halloween, then head to the family-run Cammas Hall farm in Hertfordshire this October. By day, it's all kid-friendly fun, but the twilight sessions amp up the fear factor. In previous years, it's had an impressive array of extras: costumed Hallowe'en characters roaming the fields, a Terror Tunnel, and a haunted Maize Maze. 

Needham Green, CM22 7JT. Dates and prices TBC.