Not even the devastation caused by foot-and-mouth could destroy people's love of Hall Hill Farm. Proprietor Ann Darlington tells Sharon Griffiths why it's so special.

TWENTY or so infant schoolchildren are sitting on straw bales enthralled by the antics of a baby goat. Nearby are Beckham and Owen - wallabies - plus Lawrence the llama. There are sheep, lambs, hens, chicks, cows, pigs, deer and donkeys. Elsewhere, swarms of small children gaze at the animals, wait for tractor or donkey rides, or charge through to the play area. Everywhere you look, there are children and animals, making pretty much the same sort of noise and clearly having a wonderful time.

Sixty thousand visitors a year come to Hall Hill Farm, at Lanchester. "And it was only meant to be a little hobby," Says Ann Darlington, looking round her and laughing.

She was 18 and just about to study agricultural marketing at Newcastle University, when her father Jack Gibson decided to open the farm to visitors at lambing time. "People were always ringing up wanting to see the lambs, so we thought we might as well do it properly, so we just opened up for Easter," she says. By the time Ann had qualified and got herself a proper job, visitor numbers were growing. So she gave up the job "and the company car" and came home to run the visitor attraction. "It was my baby," she says.

The visitor farm grew and flourished alongside the proper working farm, now run by Ann's brother David. "Everything was going really well. We'd built up the numbers and opened for a large part of the year. School trips came back to see us every year. We were well established, had more animals and were planning more attractions," says Ann.

And then came foot-and-mouth. "I was on holiday, a break before the season started, and I saw it on the telly and I thought 'oh dear'. By the time I got home, the disease was spreading and there seemed no sign of it getting under control. We knew it would come to us. It was just a question of waiting," she remembers.

There were soldiers on the gate to prevent people coming in and out. They could see the thick, black smoke from the fires burning the carcasses of their neighbours' cattle. "We checked our animals every day. We knew we wouldn't escape. It was just a case of waiting for our turn."

And, eventually, it came. The disease blew in and the family lost 1,400 sheep, five cattle, two pigs, three llamas, twelve goats and three deer, all slaughtered to prevent the disease spreading further.

As she tells the story, as matter-of-factly as possible, Ann's voice wobbles and her eyes fill with tears. "It was devastating," she says simply. Ann didn't think her part of the business would ever re-start - wasn't even sure if she wanted it to. "I couldn't bear the thought that we might have to go through all that again. I just couldn't do it," she says.

In fact, she got herself a job at Killhope and had a lovely time organising the exhibition of spar boxes. It was, in a way, a relief to be away from the farm, doing something completely different. "And only five days a week," says Ann.

And then the letters started arriving. "We had so many really lovely letters. There were letters of support and sympathy and others just asking us when we were opening again. I hadn't thought we could do it. Many of the staff had got other jobs. And it would mean starting from the beginning again. But those letters persuaded me. We'd put too much effort into it all just to let it go."

So, yet again, she gave up a nice safe job and came back to the farm, the energy and enthusiasm flooding back. "We cleaned and we cleaned and we cleaned. And then we cleaned again. We wanted no risk of anything. And when we opened, the visitors just came back," says Ann.

Now they're pouring in from March through until Christmas. And Ann barely has chance to catch her breath. She does everything. "I love the variety of it," she says. There are 40 part-time workers, but as Ann goes round, she is the one who knows just what's going on everywhere. She could be feeding an animal, checking a bit of broken fence, answering questions about the shop, the caf or the office; or shepherding a stray child. She'll cheerfully turn her hand to anything - even doing the puppet shows when needed. "That's something we started this year and they're very popular but if we're short of a puppeteer, then it's my turn. Let's just say I'm getting better," she says.

Every corner of the business is her domain but it's still a family business. Brother David's still farming, of course. Husband Steven works elsewhere but has sorted out the website for her and sons Richard 13, and Philip, nine, have already started helping out - as well as making the most of the super new adventure playground, purely in the interests of consumer research, of course.

Visitors come from all over and schools and families come back every year, many of them from the built-up areas of Teesside. As well as the simple pleasures for the younger children, the farm is increasingly involved in more scientific projects for older students.

"Many children have no idea of where their food comes from and how it's produced, so this is a chance to have a greater understanding between town and country," says Ann, which is one of the reasons why she was last year named as the NFU North East Farming Ambassador of the Year.

And there are bonuses that you can never fit into a business plan. "Children love the animals and it often has an amazing effect. If you have some tough little troublemaker, always causing bother, and put a lamb into his arms or show him the chicks, you can have a total transformation. Time and again, when I see some of the boys with the animals, teachers tell me: 'Oh he's a hard one, a real handful.' But this gives them a chance to show another side of themselves. That's the real magic of it all. That's why I love it," says Ann.

* Hall Hill Farm, Lanchester. Open daily 10.30am-5pm until 12 Sept, then weekends Sept, Oct; October half term and December weekends. Tel: (01388) 731333. www.hallhillfarm.co.uk