The natural world is a treasure trove of learning and wisdom...

Acorn Education is dedicated to integrating nature and education, and providing experiential learning for all of the senses.

Seeking to improve our connections to the natural environment and gain a greater awareness, a sense of place, a sense of history, roots and culture, arts, crafts, skills and knowledge.


" Outstanding" Chris Faultey, Times Educational Supplement.

 

 

 

Winter Workshops at Westmill Farm '08/'09

Our aim is to create a safe and nurturing environment for all to explore
nature and express themselves.
contacts & booking

18th 19th 20th August
Prehistoric Days
Stone Age, Bronze Age & Iron Age
Become part of a prehistoric tribe! From hunters and gathers… to early farmers, standing stone and henge builders… through to smiths and charioteers. Practice some prehistoric cookery, decorate the walls of the round house, visit the sacred spring, then make ancient music as a bard of old.


Sunday 9th August
Bee-skep and Basket Day
Come along and learn to make skeps for your bees or baskets for your needs practicing the ancient art of lipwork using grasses, briars and withies.


4th, 5th & 6th August
Nature Creativity Days for Children aged 5-12
Games, crafts and adventures inspired by the natural world. Enjoy a morning of exploring the woodland and hedgerows… then spend an afternoon creating pictures, poems and plays.

 

Sunday 12th July 10-4
Animal Wise Day
Brush up on your animal knowledge. Learn some fun nature awareness techniques. Practice tracking and stalking skills. Then enjoy some tales of this island’s beasts and their folklore.

Saturday 27th June 10 -4
Prehistory Day
Become part of a prehistoric tribe for a day and learn about the ages of Stone, Bronze & Iron. Hands on experience with artefacts, tools, clothes and a prehistoric lifestyle, then settle down for some storytelling in the roundhouse.

Friday 29th May 10-4 Wood Wise Day

Brush up on your Tree I.D. and discover which woods are good for which purposes. Learn some fun nature awareness techniques. Then practice fire lighting skills, whittling and green woodwork.

Thursday 28th May 10-4 Plant Wise Day

Brush up on your plant I.D. Then learn about wild foods, dyes and pigments, string and rope, medicines, magic and folklore.

Bows&Arrows

A whole day of learning about bows and arrows. then shave down your own bow stave and fletch some arrows ready for target practice.

Making Bark Horns

Learn about the time honoured Grass Green Horns of British and European Folklore... then create horns and whistles and reeds and make some traditional noises!


'Green Woodwork'


Come and enjoy a day making something rustic for your garden on the pole lathe and shave horses
using no electricity!


Fire Lighting!

Come and light safe and supervised fires using many different techniques practiced through the ages.


Tracking and Stalking days

identifying and following trails and tracks, then practicing cunning ways of silent movement and stalking.

Besom & Broomstick making

Come along and make some sustainable brooms and brushes from Birch, Heather, Broom, Bramble, Hazel, Ash and Willow.


'Shelter Days' family days of making Hurdles, Wattle and Daub, Dens and Debris Huts form
100% natural materials.


'Willow Days'
A whole day of learning about Willow! Its botany, uses, history and
folklore... with a chance to weave, make a sculpture and get creative.


'Wild Food Harvests'


A day of exploring the fields, hedgerows, woodlands and wetlands of Westmill Farm. Learn the identification and uses of various roots, berries, seeds, leaves and funghi for food and drink, medicines and pigments. Bring baskets and bags to take some of your harvest home.
'Tree Lore Days'
A whole day of brushing up on tree I.D. Practical sessions on some of their uses. Art, folklore and storytelling to help the woodland come alive.


Natural Pigment Days

Experiment with plants, minerals and natural materials. Creating pigments and pictures

Outdoor Skills & Ancient Technology Days

Learning and practicing a myriad of natural crafts and skills

Eco Wind Westmill Windfarm Public Open

Join in with a range of acticities beneath the graceful turbines

Nature Creativity Day for Children (aged 5-12)

Sacred Singing

Gather and sing sacred songs and share food cooked on an open fire

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Skinning, Curing & Tanning

Traditional work with furs, skins and hides (families/adults)

To Westmill Farm: From the A420 take the Turning signposted Highworth and
Sevenhampton, B4508. The new wind turbines will be on your right. Look
out for the Acorn Education sign on the left

Kartong Festival of Arts, Music & Culture

in The Gambia

 

Storytelling Yurt

BBC RaW Cities Festival, Trafford Centre,

Manchester

'Folklore and Mythology of Smithcraft & the Forge'

 

Latest News and Events:

'Greenspace Project' at Longcot & Fernham School

outdoor classroom collaboration with artists Sarah-Jayne Ebdon, Chris Park and the school children

Storytelling Chair carved at Longcot & Fernham School

 

Making the Gaea Labyrinth at 'Gaea', Emerald Valley, Wendover Dean.

 

 

Caduceus Totem Pole project for Root & Branch



"The Bard of Barbury Castle"


stories, songs, poems and accoustic arts to enter the
circle of bards, or simply come to support and witness this hilltop
happening. The theme for entrants this year is: Life, Death & Re-birth

Coleshill Open Day & Food Festival, Sat 12th September 2009
Free admission, 1100-1700
Local food and drink, talks, wine, cider sampling, cheese ++
Children's activities, guided walks

Ragged Hedge Fair, Abbey Home Farm 2008

photos and Video by Mike Grenville of Changingworlds.info

story walks - willow sculpture - moving and erecting a megalith!

"Festival at The Farm"

Sunday 6th July, Purton House Organics

 

Skep Making

Hackled skep

 

Bark Horn Making Project April/May '08

Whit Horns, May Horns and Shepherd's Horns

 

MUSICAL HAPPENING IN DUPNICA CAVE, SLOVAKIA
in commemoration of Michal (Kern) and Ivans (Laucik & Korman)

Spring 2008

Maytime Bealtinne Art Exhibition, Taste Cafe, Swindon.

Green Man crafted and photographed by Lynette Thomas

Wood Carving and Green Woodwork Workshops

at

Root & Branch Horticultural Therapy Centre

January, February and March 2008

click for more details

 

 

 

2007

Neolithic & Bronze Age Living History

at Durrington Walls with the

Stonehenge Riverside Project

Sat 8th & Sun 9th Sept

 

 

Burn the Wicker Man at Ragged Hedge Fair 2007

Sept 1st & 2nd

 

 

The Natural House Project

and Art & Architecture Week

Round House Hermitage being built

at Compton Verney

16th June- 6th July

 

 

 

Habitat Houses for Hedgehogs

in Haddenham School!

The Grove in Aylesbury and Thomley Activity Centre

 

Seasonal Birch Besom Making!

 

Home Made Kayak Project:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round houses by Acorn Education

To have one built for you or to come along to a roundhouse building weekend email Chris@acorneducation.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Round House for Bedgrove Infant School October '06

 

 

 


The Round House at Barbury is Complete!

 

Many thanks to the dedicated crew,

the vibrant volunteers, the bright eyed schools groups,

the Swindon Ranger Team, Nature For All... and the Heritage Lottery Fund

 

Jim, Orc and Des... Thatchers, Wattlers and Daubers

Artists Romilly Swann and Nancy Gladstone painting the interior with natural pigments

Dan carving some of the oak lintels

 

...Visit Barbury Castle Local Nature Reserve and Iron Age Hill Fort to enjoy this Ancient British style shelter

designed and built by Acorn Education

named 'The Wrens Nest'

Living History at Barbury Castle

 

 

 

Giant Dragonfly

 

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During three free family workshops

at Acorn Education Centre, Westmill Farm, Watchfield, Oxon. SN6 8TH

we constructed a celebratory Dragonfly Sculpture

that was decorated at the Dragonfly Ball

and will be displayed on the Coate Water Nature Reserve lake later this year

sponsored by the Big Lottery 'Awards for All' initiative

 

Labyrinths

Plant Kingdom and Mineral Kingdom Labyrinths designed and created

by Chris Park of Acorn Education for Creative Landscspes,

Whitlenge Gardens, Hartlebury, Worcestershire... April '06

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Materials and landscape consultant- Keith Southall of Whitlenge... the paths are made of Red Gra... the standing stones are Welsh Slate and sea washed stones

to visit the beautiful gardens for your self click here

 

Heritage & Folklore

St. George's Day Mummers Play, at The Quarry, Swindon, a day celebrating the saintly heritage of England and the dedication of the Local Nature Reserve and SSSI... Sunday, 23 April '06

above photo by Lynette Thomas

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Tree Dressing at Stanton Park. In collaboration with the Ranger Team and Nature For All... The dressing of two Yew trees in the beautiful park, teaching nature awareness and the folklore of the Yew.

 

Storytelling Tours for the White Horse, Uffington Castle, Weyland's Smithy and the Avebury Complex....

 

ACORN EDUCATION ADVENTURE

THE CORACLE ORACLE JOURNEY FOR PEACE

Ecological artist Chris Park took a unique Pilgrimage for Peace last year. He single-handedly navigated a home crafted, primitive coracle boat from an Oxfordshire spring to the sea, through 190 miles of Britain’s water ways, carrying a magic Egg.


The voyage began on Wednesday, August 17 2005. Chris, 32, and his strange cargo, ageless, departed from Bath House Spring in Watchfield, near the White Horse at Uffington, and travelled along the river Cole to join the Thames near Lechlade. He then continued down the Thames to London and to the river estuary, pausing to visit various places of worship, education and art.


“Our journey seeks to integrate and unite many divided faiths and cultures,” says Chris. “It celebrates water as a unifying bond between all races, creatures and creeds, nourishing all and rejecting none. The waterways pass through all kinds of communities and I hope many will be inspired to come and greet the magic Egg.”

To read a diary with pictures of the whole journey click here.

Making of the horsehide coracle

Making a green willow framework for a coracle


Coracles are prehistoric craft, made traditionally from animal skins stretched over a wooden frame. Chris has built several coracles using only primitive technologies; he made the craft for this pilgrimage from willow and horsehide, cured in salt.

 

Rawhide used to tension the frame and the seat...

The horse hide is salted and de-fleshed with flint and bone tools


“Willow represents the plant kingdom and the horsehide heralds the animal kingdom,” explains Chris. “The salt is from the mineral kingdom and the journey will unite the human kingdom along the way. May the harmony of our lands be complete.”

 

Strips of hide are cut to sew the hide to the frame...

 

the finished coracle above made with just willow & horse hide

 

Chris Park worked with the BBC for the seven week project called Surviving the Iron Age and works extensively with schools and artistic projects all over the UK. He is a descendant of Mungo Park family, the Scottish explorer, who navigated the African river Niger exactly 200 years ago.


For more information on Chris’s coracle adventure, including details of the route, the construction of the coracle and the concepts behind the work, call: Chris Park 07816591151 chris@acorneducation.com

 

To read a diary with pictures of the whole journey click here.