ELDERLY care home residents got to milk a plastic cow and meet the animals when they visited a farm.

Residents of Ingleby Mill Care Home – including Annabelle Hubbard – met and fed a Shetland pony, sheep and pigs, as well as more exotic animals such as wallabies and llamas, when they visited Newham Grange Country Farm in Coulby Newham.

And the trip took one resident, Joyce Marsay, 96, down memory lane.

The former farmer showed her fellow residents how to milk a cow – the first time she has performed the task in over 20 years.

A new exhibition at the farm gives visitors the chance to experience milking a cow, despite there being no real dairy cows on the farm.

As a farmer's daughter, Joyce used to help look after her family farm and tended to the animals every day.

She said: “It’s strange going to milk a cow after all these years. It felt very lifelike.”

Kirsty Walsh, activities coordinator at the care home, in Ingleby Barwick, said: “While Coulby Newham is just outside Middlesbrough, it really feels like you’re way out in the countryside, on a proper farm.

“It’s great to know that lovely places like Newham Grange Country Farm are so close by for our residents to enjoy.”