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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.
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Summer Workshops at Westmill Farm '08
Natural Pigment Day Sun 20th July 10-4 (families/adults) Experiment with plants, minerals and natural materials. Creating pigments and pictures
Outdoor Skills & Ancient Technology Day
Sat 23rd August 10 til 4 Learning and practicing a myriad of natural crafts and skills (children/families)
Badger Day! Sunday 24th August. Visit and study badger's sets, identify the tracks and learn about their lifestyle. |Then help create a giant badger sculpture from 100% natural materials Eco Wind Join in with a range of acticities beneath the graceful turbines Nature Creativity Day for Children (aged 5-12)
Wed 28th May 10-3:30 Green Woodwork Day Sat 12th April 10-4 (families/adults) Learn and practice traditional woodland crafts The Bards of Barbury Castle
Sat 17th May 6 p.m. An evening of songs, stories and poems around the fire in the roundhouse at Barbury Castle. Performers welcome. Sacred
Singing Sun 23rd March & Sun 13th April 3 til 6 p.m. Gather and sing sacred songs and share food cooked on an open fire ............. Skinning, Curing &
Tanning sat 1st December 10-4 Traditional work with furs, skins and hides (families/adults)
Primitive Fire Skills Saturday 12th January Warm up with some fire lighting techniques through the ages (children/families/adults)
Animal Tracking, Observation & Finding Familiars Saturday 19th January 10-4 (children/families/adults)
Birch Besom & Broomstick Making
Sunday 20th January (children/families/adults) Other Events:
24th-31st March '07 weaving British folk music and song into the Kartong
Festival of Arts, Music & Culture in The Gambia
Saturday 6th Jan '07 Storytelling Yurt BBC RaW Cities Festival, Trafford Centre, Manchester
'Folklore and Mythology
of the Forge'
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Latest News: ''Sounds Like Summer!'' Aston Rowant Nature Reserve, Sunday 13th July 12-6 Come and enjoy an eclectic mix of musical performances all inspired by the beauty of the reserve. Make your own natural musical instruments, try out instruments from around the world, enjoy local foods and take part in a unique musical trail around the reserve. Phone 01844 351833 to learn more. "Festival at The Farm" Sunday 6th July, Purton House Organics
Skep Making
Bark Horn Making Project April/May '08 Whit Horns, May Horns and Shepherd's Horns
MUSICAL HAPPENING IN DUPNICA
CAVE, SLOVAKIA Spring 2008 Maytime Bealtinne Art Exhibition, Taste Cafe, Swindon.
Green Man crafted by Lynette Thomas Wood Carving and Green Woodwork Workshops
at Root & Branch Horticultural Therapy Centre January, February and March 2008
Ancient Tree Lore - Sunday 13th April, 10:30-17:00 and Male Mysteries - Sunday 14th June, 10:30-17:00 at 'Gaea' in the Chiltern Hills
2007 Neolithic & Bronze Age Living History
at Durrington Walls with the Sat 8th & Sun 9th Sept
Burn the Wicker Man at Ragged Hedge Fair Sept 1st & 2nd
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:
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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
Thursday 11th May- 'Crooked Sixpence' Folk Duet.
Traditional Music and song...
...plus a tale of the Hughendon Water Serpent.
Church House, Hughendon, Buckinghamshire. 8p.m.
photos by Neil Pinnock
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.
Westmill Windfarm Public Open Day 21st June 11-4 (families/adults)
for more details
