Stanhill's 17 dates are on sale at £7.50 a car and Broadditch has cancelled its field after the dry summer. Who is open, what it costs, the free patch.

Pumpkin picking near Sevenoaks means a short drive out of town, because the town itself has no pumpkin field. What it does have is half a dozen working farms within about forty minutes, most of them on the north Kent fruit-growing belt around Dartford and Gravesend, plus a couple of places closer in where you can buy a home-grown pumpkin without walking through a muddy field at all.

This guide covers the farms that actually grow and sell their own pumpkins, with the booking rules, the prices, and what each has confirmed for 2026. This year that matters more than usual: the dry summer has hit the Kent crop, one of the big local fields has cancelled its season entirely, and the patches that are open release their October tickets from late August and will not add to a full session.

What is confirmed for autumn 2026 so far

Two fields are now on sale, and one is not opening at all.

Stanhill Farm at Wilmington published its 2026 dates and opened booking in the first week of September (Stanhill Farm). It runs 17 dates, the earliest of any farm on this list:

  • Saturday 3 and Sunday 4 October
  • Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October
  • Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October
  • then daily from Tuesday 20 to Friday 30 October

Entry is £7.50 for one vehicle of up to eight people, or one walk-in group of up to eight, including parking and a wheelbarrow. That makes it the cheapest field entry in the area this year.

PYO Pumpkins at Hoo has been on sale since 5pm on Friday 28 August, with twelve dates from 10 to 31 October at £10 for a vehicle of up to seven seats and £15 for a minibus (PYO Pumpkins; TicketSource).

Broadditch is the bad news. The farm grows its pumpkins on rainfall alone, and this year’s dry summer has cut its crop from a normal 20,000 to around 1,500. It has decided not to open its pick-your-own field this October, and the Spooky Trailer Ride is resting with it. The carving workshops survive, Monday 26 to Thursday 29 October at £7.50 a person with the pumpkin included, and its homegrown pumpkins and squash will still be sold from the farm shop (Broadditch Farm Shop). The farm says this is a break for 2026, not the end, and it expects the field back for 2027 if next season grows normally. It is the same drought that has put Sevenoaks on a hosepipe ban since August.

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, two miles south of Sevenoaks, has published its 2026 Pumpkin Festival as Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November, 10am to 4pm, with no pre-booking and no charge on top of normal garden admission (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). Spadework has published nothing for 2026 (Spadework). All were checked on 8 September 2026.

Nothing below is a 2026 date unless it says so. Where a farm has not announced, we have given what it did last year so you can judge the likely cost, and linked the page where its 2026 details will appear.

Bar chart of places booked on each of the twelve October 2026 dates at PYO Pumpkins, Hoo, four days after tickets went on sale. Sunday 25 October leads on 49 places, then Saturday 24 October on 40 and Sunday 18 October on 35. The quietest are Friday 30 October on 5 and Thursday 29 October on 6. Each full date holds 880.
Four days into sales, the weekend before half term is going fastest and the half-term weekdays are barely touched. Nothing is close to selling out.

Pumpkin patches near Sevenoaks compared

Pumpkin picking near Sevenoaks: dates, format, cost and booking, drawn from the farm sections below
FarmRoughly from Sevenoaks2026 datesPick your own?Entry costBooking
Stanhill Farm, Wilmington25 min3 to 30 Oct, 17 dates, on saleYes, wheelbarrow patch£7.50 per vehicle, confirmed for 2026Essential, booking open now
Broadditch Farm, Southfleet25 minField cancelled for 2026; carving workshops 26 to 29 OctNot this year, droughtWorkshop £7.50 a head with pumpkinWorkshops bookable now
PYO Pumpkins, Hoo40 min10 to 31 Oct, 12 dates, on saleYes, field£10 per vehicle, confirmed for 2026Essential, booking open now
Spadework, Offham20 minOctober, not yet publishedYes, pumpkin gardenFree entry, pay per pumpkinNot needed
Castle Farm, Shoreham15 minShop, September to NovemberNo, sold from the shopFree to visitNot needed
Riverhill, Sevenoaks5 min17 Oct to 1 Nov, confirmedNo, pumpkin festivalGarden admission, £14 adultNot needed

Two patterns are worth noticing before you book anything. The pick-your-own farms charge for the car rather than the head, so a full car of eight at Stanhill works out at under £1 each to get in. And the free-entry options, Spadework and Castle Farm, are the ones you can do on a whim at 4pm on a Tuesday without a ticket.

Bar chart of six pumpkin places by rough drive time from Sevenoaks: Riverhill 5 minutes £14 adult garden admission, Castle Farm 15 minutes free to visit, Spadework 20 minutes free entry, Stanhill Farm 25 minutes £7.50 per vehicle in 2026, Broadditch 25 minutes field cancelled for 2026 workshops only, PYO Pumpkins at Hoo 40 minutes £10 per vehicle in 2026
The six options ordered by drive time from Sevenoaks. The two nearest need no ticket, and Broadditch's field is the one missing from this October.

Stanhill Farm, Wilmington

The closest large pick-your-own patch to Sevenoaks, on Birchwood Road in Wilmington just outside Dartford, DA2 7HD. Stanhill has run its pumpkin patch for over a decade alongside a farm shop, a maize maze and summer PYO, and the format is the classic one: grab a wheelbarrow, walk into the field, fill it, pay at the end (Stanhill Farm).

The 2026 dates are published and booking is open: the first three weekends of October (3 and 4, 10 and 11, 17 and 18), then daily from Tuesday 20 to Friday 30 October. Opening times for the patch are Monday to Saturday 9:30am to 3:30pm and Sunday 10:30am to 2:30pm. Entry is £7.50, and one ticket admits one vehicle of up to eight people, or one walk-in group of up to eight, and covers parking, wheelbarrow use and the photo spots. If your group arrives in two cars, that is two tickets, and the ticket provider adds a small booking fee (Stanhill Farm).

The pumpkins themselves are priced by size: £1.50 for a mini, £2.50 small, £4.50 medium, £7 large and £15 extra large. The headline deal is £39 for a wheelbarrow filled with as many as you can fit while still being able to push it. A barrow of orange pumpkins is fine, but the deal caps you at five of each squash variety and five white pumpkins (Stanhill Farm).

Two rules catch people out: tickets are non-refundable even if it rains, and the farm reserves the right to close the patch if the ground gets too wet to be safe. Dogs are not allowed anywhere on the farm, and picnics are not permitted.

What it means for you: with Broadditch’s field resting, Stanhill is now the closest full wheelbarrow-and-field patch to Sevenoaks, the cheapest to enter, and the only one open on the first weekend of October. The early weekends get the best pick of the crop, and at £7.50 a car there is little reason to wait.

Broadditch Farm Shop, Southfleet

Broadditch, at Manor Farm on New Barn Road near Southfleet, DA13 9PU, normally runs a three-acre pick-your-own pumpkin field alongside its farm shop. Not this year. The farm grows on rainfall rather than irrigation, and the dry summer has left it expecting around 1,500 pumpkins against a normal crop of 20,000. Rather than open a field that could be picked bare in a weekend, it has cancelled the pick-your-own event for 2026, and the Spooky Trailer Ride that ran from the pumpkin field is resting too (Broadditch Farm Shop).

What survives:

  • Pumpkin Carving Workshops, Monday 26 to Thursday 29 October, £7.50 a person with the pumpkin, tools and clearing up included, bookable now
  • homegrown pumpkins and squash on sale from the farm shop, open Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm
  • an unannounced “something new” for younger visitors that the farm is keeping under wraps

What it means for you: if Broadditch is your family’s regular patch, book Stanhill or Hoo instead this year. The farm is clear this is a one-season break, not a closure, and it expects the field and trailer ride back for Halloween 2027 if the next crop grows normally.

PYO Pumpkins, Beluncle Farm, Hoo

The furthest of the four, at Beluncle Farm on Stoke Road, Hoo, near Rochester, ME3 9LU, and about forty minutes from Sevenoaks on the A2 and M2. It is also the most strictly run: booking is online only, half-hour arrival slots, and the farm is explicit that there is no entry without a ticket (PYO Pumpkins).

Tickets went on sale at 5pm on Friday 28 August, and the booking calendar has since grown by a day. Twelve dates are now bookable, not the eleven the farm first advertised (TicketSource):

  • Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October
  • Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October
  • Friday 23, Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 October
  • Tuesday 27, Wednesday 28, Thursday 29 and Friday 30 October
  • Saturday 31 October

Eleven of those run half-hour arrival slots from 10am to 3pm. The exception is the new Tuesday 27 October, which opens at 11am and takes its last arrival at 1.30pm, so it is a half day with six slots rather than eleven. Gates shut at 3.30pm whichever day you go (PYO Pumpkins).

Admission is £10 per vehicle for up to seven seats and £15 for a minibus of eight to eighteen, unchanged from 2025, plus TicketSource’s booking fees. Pumpkins, squashes and corn are priced from £1 to £15 each, so a family filling a boot can easily double the entry cost. The ticket is for one named vehicle: if your group arrives in two cars, that is two tickets, and a ticket sitting in the wrong car will not get that car in. There is no walk-in entry except by prior arrangement. Refunds are not given, but you can move a booking to another session up to the day before if space allows (PYO Pumpkins).

Four days in, none of it is close to full. Each full date has 880 places, eleven slots of 80, and the farm’s own booking system showed 256 taken across the season on 1 September. Sunday 25 October is the front-runner on 49, followed by Saturday 24 October on 40 and Sunday 18 October on 35. The half-term weekdays are the ones nobody has claimed: Friday 30 October had five places gone and Thursday 29 October six.

What it means for you: worth the drive for a proper field of home-grown pumpkins and squashes in every size and colour. There is no rush at these numbers, but if you want a Sunday, take it now, and if you want half term without a crowd, the Thursday and Friday are wide open.

Spadework, Offham

The one on this list that is not a commercial farm. Spadework is a registered charity on Teston Road in Offham near West Malling, ME19 5NA, which has supported adults with learning and other disabilities for more than three decades. Its trainees choose the varieties and sow the seed in January, and the pumpkin garden opens to the public in October. It has been growing pumpkins since 2018 and put more than forty varieties in the ground in its 2024 season (Spadework).

There is no entry ticket and no need to book. You park, walk in, pick what you want and pay at the kiosks, and everything you spend funds the charity’s care services. If you cannot tell a carving pumpkin from a cooking one, there is a Pumpkin Bible at the kiosks that separates them: Crown Prince for the kitchen, Jack O’Lanterns for the doorstep. Spadework also runs bookable torchlight picking sessions on a handful of October evenings, which are the one part of the operation that needs a ticket (Spadework). The wider site, with its café, farm shop, garden centre and gift shed, opens Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm (Spadework).

What it means for you: this is the answer if the idea of paying £10 to park in a field annoys you, or if you have not booked anything and it is the Tuesday of half term. The garden opened on 7 October in 2024, so early October is a fair bet, but ring 01732 870002 to check before you set off because the dates move with the harvest.

Buying a Kent pumpkin without the field

Not everyone wants a wheelbarrow and wellies, and two places near Sevenoaks sell home-grown pumpkins with no mud involved.

Castle Farm at Shoreham, about fifteen minutes north of town, is best known for its lavender, but it grows a wide range of pumpkins and squashes that are hand-cut and sold at the Hop Shop farm shop from September through to November. In autumn they are stacked in trailer-loads in the courtyard, so you choose from a display rather than a field (Castle Farm). If you want cooking squash rather than a carving pumpkin, this is the better shout of the two.

Riverhill Himalayan Gardens, two miles south of Sevenoaks at TN15 0RR, runs a Pumpkin Festival as its end-of-season event, and it is the one date near Sevenoaks you can already put in the diary. The 2026 festival runs from Saturday 17 October to Sunday 1 November, 10am to 4pm. There is a pumpkin hunt around the gardens with sweet treats for finding them all, and a grotto and summer house set up for carving, where you bring your own pumpkin or buy one there and the tools and inspiration are provided. No pre-booking is needed, you pay on arrival at the ticket office, and there is no charge on top of normal admission. At busy times the carving grotto fills up and you may be asked to come back later (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens).

One catch for half-term week: Riverhill closes on Mondays and Tuesdays as usual right through the festival, so within Kent’s half term you can only go on the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, plus the weekends either side (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). The festival then closes the gardens for the year: the 2026 season runs to 1 November, and after that Riverhill shuts for the winter (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens).

Riverhill’s 2026 admission is £14 for an adult, £7.50 for a child aged four and over and £39 for a family, with under-fours free. It opens Wednesday to Sunday and bank holidays, 10am to 5pm, closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and is cashless (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens).

Getting the timing right

  • The weekends go first. Four days into sales at Hoo, the two Sundays and the Saturday before half term were carrying most of the bookings while the half-term weekdays sat almost empty.
  • Go on a weekday if you can. Kent’s October half term in 2026 runs from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, so the two weekends either side are the crush (Kent County Council).
  • Go early in the month for the best pick. By the last few days the fields are picked over and the biggest carving pumpkins have gone. Stanhill’s 3 and 4 October weekend is the earliest field open this year (Stanhill Farm).
  • Wellies, always. Stanhill reserves the right to close the patch if the ground gets too wet to be safe, which tells you what it is like when it is open (Stanhill Farm).
  • Take a card. Riverhill is cashless, and most farms now prefer cards in the field.

If you are building a full half-term week around this, the October half term guide has the rest of the options, and the Halloween events guide covers the trails at Hever, Knole and elsewhere. For the year-round list, see things to do in Sevenoaks.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the closest pumpkin picking to Sevenoaks? Spadework’s pumpkin garden at Offham is the nearest place you can pick your own, about twenty minutes away and free to enter (Spadework). For a full field with a wheelbarrow, Stanhill Farm at Wilmington is closest at roughly twenty-five minutes (Stanhill Farm). Closer still, but picking from a display rather than a field, are Castle Farm’s Hop Shop at Shoreham and Riverhill on the town’s doorstep.

How much does pumpkin picking cost in Kent? Entry is usually charged per car, not per head. Stanhill is charging £7.50 per vehicle of up to eight in 2026 and PYO Pumpkins at Hoo £10 per vehicle of up to seven, with pumpkins on top at roughly £1 to £15 each depending on size (Stanhill Farm; PYO Pumpkins). Spadework at Offham charges nothing to enter and you pay only for what you pick.

Do I need to book a pumpkin patch in advance? For the field farms, yes. Stanhill says pre-booking is essential, and PYO Pumpkins operates a no ticket, no entry rule with no walk-ins except by prior arrangement (Stanhill Farm; PYO Pumpkins). Spadework, Castle Farm and Riverhill all take walk-ups.

When do Kent pumpkin patches open in 2026? Stanhill opens first, on Saturday 3 October, and sells 17 dates through to 30 October (Stanhill Farm). PYO Pumpkins at Hoo is selling twelve dates from 10 to 31 October (TicketSource), and Riverhill’s Pumpkin Festival runs 17 October to 1 November (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). Broadditch’s field is not opening this year (Broadditch Farm Shop), and Spadework had announced nothing when we checked; its garden opened on 7 October in 2024.

Why is Broadditch not doing pumpkin picking in 2026? The drought. Broadditch grows on rainfall alone and expects around 1,500 pumpkins this year instead of its normal 20,000, so it has cancelled the pick-your-own field and the Spooky Trailer Ride rather than open with too few pumpkins to go round. Its carving workshops still run from 26 to 29 October, and it says the field should return in 2027 (Broadditch Farm Shop).

Can I take a dog pumpkin picking? Not at Stanhill, which does not allow dogs anywhere on the farm (Stanhill Farm). Policies vary elsewhere, so check the individual farm’s page before you set off rather than assuming.

What is the best pumpkin patch for young children? Spadework, because there is no ticket, no time slot and no pressure, and the garden is small enough that a three-year-old can walk it. For the wheelbarrow-and-field version, Stanhill sells tickets by timed session, which keeps the numbers in the field manageable (Stanhill Farm).

Sources

Prices, dates and booking rules were checked against each farm’s own website and booking system on 8 September 2026. Booking numbers move daily. Spadework had not published 2026 dates when we checked, so confirm with the charity before you travel.