Caverswall Creamery’s Halloween maze draws thousands as visitor numbers grow

Moseley runs the Staffordshire farm with his four sons and has worked there for 23 years. He said the family needed other sources of revenue because it could not continue operating as it had through dairy farming alone. Visitors to the Halloween event walk through tall maize, where performers wait to frighten them.

The family’s first diversification was the creamery, which sold milkshakes and eggs directly from the farm. Seasonal attractions followed: a pumpkin patch came first, with a maize maze introduced the next year. The family subsequently developed the scare attraction.

According to Moseley, attendance has risen each year. He recalled that, on the opening weekend, the family was surprised by the turnout, with queues to enter lasting almost two and a half hours. He said the venture had worked well for the business.

All four sons perform in the maze, alongside some of their friends. Moseley pays them for their roles, providing them with income from the event. He said the family enjoyed staging it as well as running it commercially.

His eldest son, Jim, plays a character called “mad farmer Jim”, jumping out at visitors while carrying a chainsaw. Jim described people running away from his character and often ending up together in the mud.

Jim said some nights during the attraction’s first year brought a couple of hundred visitors, whereas attendance now reached into the thousands. He described the increase as substantial and said he would not exchange farming for anything, regarding it as a way of life.