Pumpkin picking near Sevenoaks: 3 patches open, 1 cancelled

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.

Where you can pick pumpkins this October

Three patches are open into the last week of the season, and one is not opening at all.

Stanhill Farm at Wilmington opened its patch on Saturday 3 October, the first in the area, and says its pumpkins were irrigated through the drought, so there are plenty to pick (Stanhill Farm). It runs 17 dates:

• 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 opened on Saturday 10 October and has dates 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. In their place it has added a Little Frights Trail for young children, 24 to 31 October, and the carving workshops survive, Monday 26 to Thursday 29 October at £7.50 a person with the pumpkin included; its homegrown pumpkins and squash are still 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.

Spadework at Offham opened its PYO Pumpkin Garden on Monday 5 October and runs it to Saturday 31 October, Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm, free to enter, free to park and no booking (Spadework). It is the only one open seven days a week, and the only one you can walk into without a ticket.

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). All were checked again on 24 October 2026, and the dates and prices below are 2026’s unless the text says otherwise.

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Pumpkin patches near Sevenoaks compared

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.

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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 patch opened on Saturday 3 October and runs the first three weekends of October (3 and 4, 10 and 11, 17 and 18), then daily from Tuesday 20 to Friday 30 October. On the evening of 24 October the first slot still on sale in the booking system was 10.30am on Sunday 25 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).

The drought that closed Broadditch’s field has not touched Stanhill’s, because the farm irrigated its pumpkins all summer. New this year are face painting and glitter art, marshmallow toasting and a few fairground rides, all charged separately and only open to patch ticket holders. Face painting is on selected dates only: Saturday 17, Friday 23, Saturday 24, Sunday 25 and Friday 30 October (Stanhill Farm).

Tickets are sold by arrival slot rather than by the day, seven hourly slots on Saturdays and weekdays with the first at 9.30am and the last at 3.30pm, and five on Sundays from 10.30am to 2.30pm. Each slot is capped at 100 tickets, and a ticket is a carful, so a busy Saturday is 700 cars spread across the day.

When we last read the farm’s booking system, on 20 September, nothing was close to full. It showed 833 tickets gone of 11,100 on 20 September, and the crush was all on one weekend: Sunday 25 October, the Sunday before half term, led on 168 of 500, and Saturday 24 October followed on 141 of 700. The emptiest dates were the weekdays just before half term, with two tickets gone on Wednesday 21 October, five on Thursday 22 October and nine on Tuesday 20 October.

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 the closest full wheelbarrow-and-field patch to Sevenoaks, the cheapest to enter, and its irrigated crop means it is not short of pumpkins. It is open every day from now until Friday 30 October. Sunday 25 October was four times busier than anything else on the booking system in September, so if you can, take a weekday of Kent’s half term instead, and go early in the day for what is left of the big carving pumpkins.

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
• a new Little Frights Trail, an indoor walk through spooky scenes with skeletons, pumpkins and scarecrows, pitched at younger children, Saturday 24 to Saturday 31 October, 10am to 4pm daily, no booking, pay on the day

What it means for you: if Broadditch is your family’s regular patch, book Stanhill or Hoo for the picking this year; the Little Frights Trail is the reason to still go in half term with small children. 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).

The field opened on Saturday 10 October. Tickets went on sale at 5pm on Friday 28 August, and the booking calendar has since grown by a day: twelve dates are 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). Weather can still cancel a day: the farm closed on Friday 23 October because of Storm Austen, and it asks visitors to check its website, social media or recorded phone message before leaving home (PYO Pumpkins). Dogs are not allowed on the farm or in the field.

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).

On 20 September none of it was close to full either. Each full date holds 880 tickets, eleven slots of 80, and the farm’s own booking system showed 537 taken across the season, up from 256 on 1 September. Sunday 25 October was the front-runner on 110, followed by Saturday 24 October on 95 and Sunday 18 October on 73. The half-term weekdays were the ones nobody had claimed: Thursday 29 October had seven tickets gone, Friday 30 October twelve and Wednesday 28 October twenty-one. Halloween itself, Saturday 31 October, had twenty. The booking system now sits behind a security check that stops us re-reading it, so treat those as a guide to the pattern rather than today’s numbers.

For half term the farm has a deal with Fenn Bell Zoo nearby: £5 zoo tickets a person with the code pyopumpkin, for anyone holding a PYO Pumpkins ticket, valid 24 October to 1 November (PYO Pumpkins).

What it means for you: worth the drive for a proper field of home-grown pumpkins and squashes in every size and colour. Five dates are left after this weekend: Tuesday 27 to Saturday 31 October. On the booking system the Thursday and Friday were the quietest days of the season, so they are the ones to pick for a field without a crowd.

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).

The 2026 garden opened on Monday 5 October and runs to Saturday 31 October, seven days a week, Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm (Spadework). Those dates are only in the charity’s events calendar: its pick-your-own page is still a blog post from October 2024, so do not read that as this year’s plan.

There is no entry ticket, no time slot and no need to book, and parking is free. 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). In past seasons the charity has also sold tickets for torchlight picking evenings; nothing of that sort is in the 2026 calendar yet, so ring 01732 870002 if that is what you want.

What it means for you: this is the answer if the idea of paying to park in a field annoys you, or if you have not booked anything and it is the Tuesday of half term. It is the only place on this list open every day of the season, and at twenty minutes it is the nearest field where you pick your own.

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 covers both weekends of half term. 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

• One weekend takes the crush. When we read both ticketed farms’ booking systems on 20 September, Sunday 25 October and Saturday 24 October, the weekend before half term, carried far more bookings than anything else, while half-term week itself sat almost empty.
• Go on a weekday if you can. Kent County Council’s October half term in 2026 runs from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October (Kent County Council), but most Sevenoaks schools broke up on 16 October and are off for two weeks, 19 to 30 October, as our October half term guide sets out. Weekdays are still far quieter than the weekends.
• Go early in the day in the last week. By the final days the fields are picked over and the biggest carving pumpkins go first. Stanhill’s last day is Friday 30 October, Hoo’s and Spadework’s Saturday 31 October (Stanhill Farm; PYO Pumpkins; Spadework).
• Check before you leave. Hoo closed for the day on Friday 23 October because of Storm Austen, and tickets at both field farms are non-refundable, so look at the farm’s website or social media on the morning (PYO Pumpkins).
• 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.
• No ticket, no plan? Go to Offham. Spadework’s garden is open every day from 5 to 31 October, free to enter and free to park, with nothing to book.

If you are building the rest of half term around this, the October half term guide has the other 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, free to enter and open every day from 5 to 31 October 2026 (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.

Are the Kent pumpkin patches sold out yet? Not when we last counted. On 20 September, three weeks into sales, Stanhill had 833 of 11,100 tickets gone and PYO Pumpkins at Hoo 537 of about 10,200. The one date worth booking early is Sunday 25 October, the Sunday before half term, which is the busiest at both farms; half-term week itself was nearly untouched. On the evening of 24 October Stanhill’s booking system was still selling slots from 10.30am on Sunday 25 October.

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 close in 2026? Stanhill’s last day is Friday 30 October; it opened first, on 3 October, and is open daily from 20 October to the end (Stanhill Farm). Spadework’s free garden at Offham stays open daily to Saturday 31 October (Spadework). PYO Pumpkins at Hoo opened on 10 October and finishes on Halloween, Saturday 31 October, with no picking on Monday 26 October (PYO Pumpkins), and Riverhill’s Pumpkin Festival runs to Sunday 1 November (Riverhill Himalayan Gardens). Broadditch’s field is not opening at all (Broadditch Farm Shop).

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, alongside a new Little Frights Trail from 24 to 31 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), and not at PYO Pumpkins in Hoo, which bars them from the farm and the field (PYO Pumpkins). 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 by hourly arrival slot and caps each one at 100 cars, which keeps the numbers in the field manageable (Stanhill Farm).

Sources

• Stanhill Farm 2026 dates, opening times, £7.50 ticket, pumpkin prices, irrigation, extra activities and site rules: Stanhill Farm; arrival slots, slot capacity and tickets sold per date: the farm’s own Beyonk booking system
• PYO Pumpkins at Beluncle Farm, 2026 prices, ticket and site rules, dog rule, 23 October storm closure, Fenn Bell Zoo offer: PYO Pumpkins; opening and closing times: FAQs; the twelve on-sale dates, slot times and remaining places: TicketSource
• Broadditch 2026 field cancellation, crop figures, Little Frights Trail, carving workshop dates and prices: Broadditch Farm Shop
• Spadework 2026 pumpkin garden dates, hours, free entry and parking: Spadework events calendar; varieties and the Pumpkin Bible: Spadework; site opening hours: Spadework home
• Castle Farm home-grown pumpkins and squashes: Castle Farm
• Riverhill Pumpkin Festival 2026 dates, times and booking: Riverhill Himalayan Gardens; season end and events calendar: Activities and Events; admission prices and opening days: opening times and prices
• Kent October half term 2026 dates: Kent County Council

Prices, dates and booking rules were checked against each farm’s own website on 24 October 2026. Ticket counts are from each farm’s booking system on 20 September 2026 and move daily. Spadework’s dates come from its events calendar rather than its pick-your-own page, which has not been updated since 2024, so ring 01732 870002 if you are making a special trip.