FED up with queues and the traffic at town centres and shopping malls? Then head for the country instead. Southolme Farm Adventure Toys must be unique, even in the recent annals of farm diversification. It's a 250-acre working arable farm with a lot of sheep. However... a paddock at the back of the house is full of climbing frames, slides, tunnels and Wendy houses. The front garden is taken up by a large trampoline, the yard is full of pedal cars, tractors, and speedy-looking go-karts, and the barn is a shop, stocked from floor to ceiling with the best sort of tough and traditional wooden toys.

And all because 12 years ago, the farmer's little girls wanted a climbing frame.

After buying the climbing frame for young Louise and Emma, the farmers, Belinda and Neil Metcalfe, saw an opportunity to start selling the big outdoor toys. If nothing else, they have the great advantage of land to display them, where children can test them to their hearts' content.

Now they are one of the biggest stockists of Little Tikes in the country, selling to customers from a huge area all over the North, and by mail order and via the Internet to customers all over the country, even the world.

Which, given the current state of farming, is probably just as well.

"So many of the independent toy shops have closed in recent years, that all that's left are the large multiples," says Belinda, pouring tea in the farmhouse kitchen. "They tend to stock quite a narrow range."

Manufacturers started referring customers to Southolme Farm which prompted them into mail order and, 18 months ago, on to the Internet. And, whereas a generation ago, a farmer's wife might have started her day seeing to hens or cows, Belinda starts by sorting out all the e-mail orders and getting toys ready for despatch by the two courier vans.

They even sell to Americans - though usually for young relations in this country. "Some of the messages we're asked to put on make us smile, but more than 75 per cent of our business is now mail order of various types." But people still come miles to shop in person. "Just last weekend we had people come specially from Bradford, Doncaster, Bolton and Sheffield. They make a day out of it."

It's easy to see why. You won't find Barbie and Harry Potter here, but this is where you'll find the toys you won't find anywhere else. Even when the weather's too murky to tempt children out on to the climbing frames, the toys in the barn are brilliant.

While dolls' houses have long since been taken over by adults who fancy themselves as Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen on a miniature scale, these dolls' houses are meant for children. Costing from around £55, they are interesting and varied with lots of nice design and interesting features, but they are also tough and made to be played with, not looked at, and yet should still survive to be heirlooms.

There are wooden farm sets, garages, forts, safari parks. Lots of Brio wooden train set, chunky table football games and bagatelles. Ovens, shops, dolls' beds, Noah's Arks, easels, basketball sets, "lots to help them use their imagination."

And there are ride-on toys. In the barn are little wooden trikes and vivid plastic tractors and ride-on cars. But, outside in the yard are the real beauties - splendid go-karts big enough for adults, from around £215. Trampolines start from £40. A big one costs £300-£400, but they can go up to thousands.

"There seem to be so few toys now that cater for children over six. But they don't all want to be playing electronic games or computers all the time, they still want to be children, for some of the time at least."

Louise and Emma, although still at school, have long since graduated from being toy testers to being IT consultants for the family firm. Neil helps out when things are quiet on the farm.

But for Belinda and the staff, Adventure Toys is a full time job, a sideline that became a successful business in its own right.

* Adventure Toys, Southolme Farm, Little Smeaton, near Northallerton. (Just off the A167 Northallerton-Darlington road). Tel (01609) 881302 www.adventuretoys.co.uk

Enormous range of outdoor toys for the garden, toys to ride on, trampolines, indoor toys for the playroom, wooden toys. Little Tikes, tp, Super Tramp, Brio, joytoys.

Opening hours: Monday to Friday 10am-5.30pm; Saturday 10am-6pm. Sunday closed.

Learn to haggle

WE all know we should shop around to save ourselves money, but do you realise how much that could be?

Which? The Consumers' Association magazine, recently compared costs. By combining shopping on the high street and online, they saved £473 on the five items.

* £296 was saved on a widescreen tv, Panasonic TX-28PK3. Debenhams was the highest price, £799, although that included a five-year warranty, but so did John Lewis' £649 deal. Qued-uk.com offered it at £503, with a one-year warranty.

* Which? saved £8.50 on a 100ml bottle of Hugo aftershave by Hugo Boss. www.pafumery.co.uk and www.burginsperfumery.co.uk were the most expensive at £26.50, but John Lewis was only £18.

* An independent retailer charged £300 for a Bosch dishwasher, including delivery and installation, whereas Powerhouse wanted £380 plus £16 for delivery and installation.

* Selfridges charged £14.50 for Elton John's new album, Songs from the West Coast, but cd-wow.com charged only £9, including delivery.

* qed-uk.com charged £567 for a Nikon digital camera but an independent retailer charged only £500.

Which? has always encouraged customers to ask shop staff for a discount. Dixons agreed to knock £10 off the price of the digital camera and two independents offered to reduce their prices by £20 and £60.

Happy haggling!

Published: 07/12/01