Adult Courses
Our courses and workshops in green living, rural skills and bushcraft take place in our beautiful learning Centre in the Hampshire South Downs, near Petersfield. We are proud to host a range of excellent tutors, including renowned permaculture teachers: Aranya, Morag Gamble and Caroline Aitken; Forest School pioneer, Jon Cree; bushcraft and nature connection leaders: Jonathon Huet and Jamie Corry; medicinal herb experts and a host of highly skilled craft teachers.
2019 |
July
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Roundwood Timber Framing
£410 Tuesday 16th - Friday 19th July 2019 09:30 - 17:00 Tutors: Dylan Walker and Paddy Cox |
Fully Booked
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A hands-on course in building with roundwood timber using traditional tools and techniques, working with local wood sourced from our site. From selecting your timber and peeling the bark, to visiting a completed project and raising the frame, this 4 day course will you give you all the practical skills you need to create your own beautiful natural outbuilding/shed/garden structure, designed to blend into its surroundings.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Deer Butchery
£150 Wednesday 24th July 2019 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Ian Gosling |
Fully Booked
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A whole deer in a day course - learn butchery and cookery skills on this intimate, 4-person training course in the Hampshire South Downs. We promise you the most delicious, melt-in-the-mouth meat that you will have ever tasted, all prepared by your own fair hands.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Clay Oven Building
£100 Friday 26th July 2019 09:30 - 16:00 Tutor: Dr. Sara Collins |
Fully Booked
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Learn the techniques to build a clay oven at our beautiful site in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will learn how to construct the oven from builder’s sand, clay, wood shavings and bricks. The course includes a pizza meal cooked in a completed cob oven.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
August
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Blacksmithing Two Day
£260 Thursday 15th & Friday 16th August 2019 10:00 - 16:30 Tutor: Joe Tyler |
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An exciting two days discovering the traditional art of blacksmithing, this course will teach you to create your own products including jewellery, intricate candle sticks, fire pokers or paper weights from reclaimed metal material.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Deer Butchery
£150 Friday 16th August 2019 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Ian Gosling |
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A whole deer in a day course - learn butchery and cookery skills on this intimate, 4-person training course in the Hampshire South Downs. We promise you the most delicious, melt-in-the-mouth meat that you will have ever tasted, all prepared by your own fair hands.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Gate Hurdles
£85 Thursday 29th August 2019 09:30 - 17:00 Tutor: Phil Clayton |
Fully Booked
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Learn traditional wood carving techniques to make your own sweet chestnut gate hurdle on this one day course in the Hampshire South Downs. Using a shavehorse and other traditional hand tools including drawknife, twybil, brace, side axe and hammer, you will learn to create your own hurdles, which you will take home with you.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
September
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Roundwood Timber Framing
£410 Monday 2nd - Thursday 5th September 09:30 - 17:00 Tutors: Dylan Walker and Paddy Cox |
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A hands-on course in building with roundwood timber with traditional tools and techniques, working with local wood sourced from our site. During this 4 day course, you will be laying out roof rafters and braces to a roundwood timber cruck frame using winter felled wood, finishing with a standing frame.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Roundwood Timber Framing 2: Rafters and Braces Masterclass
£95 Monday 6th September 09:30 - 17:30 Tutors: Dylan Walker and Paddy Cox |
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On this one day roundwood timber framing masterclass, you will be laying out roof rafters and braces for a roundwood timber cruck frame using local winter felled wood. This will result in finishing the roof structure for the timber framed shed built on the previous Round Wood Timber Framing I course.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Clay Oven £100 Saturday 14th September 2019 09:30 - 16:00 Tutor: Dr. Sara Collins |
Fully Booked
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Learn the techniques to build a clay oven at our beautiful site in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will learn how to construct the oven from builder’s sand, clay, wood shavings and bricks. The course includes a pizza meal cooked in a completed cob oven.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Jam and Chutney Making
£65 Saturday 14th September 2019 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Jill & Ian Sainsbury |
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Learn how to make delicious preserves from foraged and home grown ingredients on this training course in the Hampshire South Downs. We will make a chutney and a fruit jam on the course and participants will be able to get hands-on with every stage of the process.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Foraging, Fire and Folklore
£20 Wednesday 18th September 2019 18:00 - 20:00 Tutor: Jonathan Huet |
Fully Booked
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A special evening experience of wild food foraging, Celtic fire and storytelling. Bushcraft and Celtic folklore specialist, Jonathon Huet, will take you on a guided walk to forage for wild food and impart his knowledge on different native trees in each season. The walk will end with a primitive fire-lighting demonstration.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Introduction to Permaculture Design
£300 Friday 27th - Monday 30th September 09:30 - 17:30 Tutor: Aranya Refreshments and lunch included |
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This course is designed to introduce Permaculture principles but with an emphasis on supporting participants with designing their own homes and gardens. Our expert tutuor, Aranya, will cover the key principles of Permaculture design theory and how we can apply them in redesigning our homes and gardens to be both more sustainable and abundant.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Spoon Carving
£65 Saturday 28th September 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Jonathan Huet Hot drinks included |
Fully Booked
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Learn how to carve a spoon, spatula and butter knife on this wood carving course in the Hampshire South Downs. Our tutor, Jonathan Huet, will teach you how to use a knife, saw, crook knife and axe to whittle items from locally harvested green wood.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
October
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Children in Permaculture Training Course
£60-245 based on income Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th October 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Lusi Alderslowe & Rakesh Rootsman Rak Refreshments included |
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A weekend permaculture course for parents, grandparents, teachers and others to engage children in all aspects of permaculture. Composed of both indoor and outdoor sessions we will learn how permaculture ethics and principles can be applied to education, in how we speak, the activities we engage in and in the spaces we design.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Forest School Leader Training (Level 3)
£1,170 Starts Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Tutor: Adrian Goodhand |
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Our Forest School Leader training is run over a number of months with a small training group in our beautiful woodland setting. Our training offers an optimum combination of practical and tool skills, woodland and ecological management, leadership and risk evaluation and the application of learning theory.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Wooden Stool Making
£95 Saturday 26th October 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Phil Clayton |
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Learn green woodwork techniques and make your own rustic stool on this training course in the Hampshire South Downs. Our tutor, Phil Clayton, will teach you how to use traditional hand tools and woodcraft skills, to craft your stool from locally grown wood.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Forest School Assistant Training (Level 2)
£600 Mon 28th October to Fri 1st November 2019 Tutor: Adrian Goodhand |
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Train to be a Forest School Assistant in our beautiful woodland setting, with experienced Forest School Trainer, Adrian Goodhand.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Frame Basket
£75 Thursday 31st October 10:00 - 17:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur Refreshments included |
Fully Booked
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Willow weaving training course in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will make a hand woven gypsy style frame basket from sustainable locally grown willow. Use your basket for gathering berries, mushrooms, eggs, herbs or displaying treasures.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
November
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Unwind in the Woods:
A day of whittling and meditation £70 Saturday 9th November 2019 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Jonathan Huet Hot drinks and campfire cooked lunch included |
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Combining meditation and an introduction to basic whittling techniques, this workshop will give you the time and space to get away from a hectic everyday life and connect with nature. You will be guided to fully engage your senses in the relaxing skill of wood carving. Following a warming campfire cooked lunch, you will visit one of our yurts for a meditation session incorporating woodland folklore.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Natural Cosmetics
One Day: £65 Both days: £120 Saturday 9th November 2019 Sunday 10th November 2019 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Dee Dade Refreshments included |
Fully Booked
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Come spend the weekend learning how to make natural everyday beauty/bathroom products from ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboards, herb gardens and amongst the hedgerows. We will be making a variety of products including balms, oils, hair conditioner and toothpaste. Products that are kind to you, the earth, reduce single-use plastic and will save you pennies. Perfect to make for yourself or to give as gifts.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Hand-Sewn Book Making Course
£55 Saturday 16th November 2019 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Angela Thames |
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Make your own notebook, sketchbook or unique gift book, using three different hand-sewing techniques. You will take home 2-3 books made from decorative paper and card such as postcards, notecards, envelopes, packets and old calendars.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Garden Sculpture Course
£75 Friday 22nd November 2019 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Amanda Rayner |
Fully Booked
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Decorate your home or garden with a willow sculpture of your choice! Learn how to willow weave any nature-inspired object be it dragonfly, heart, cat, dog, chicken, pheasant, obelisk or simple garden decoration.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Deer Butchery
£150 Friday 29th November 2019 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Jamie Corry |
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A whole deer in a day course - learn butchery and cookery skills on this intimate, 4-person training course in the Hampshire South Downs. We promise you the most delicious, melt-in-the-mouth meat that you will have ever tasted, all prepared by your own fair hands.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
December
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Festive Willow Courses
£35 Friday 6th December 2019 10:00 - 12:30 or 13:30 - 16:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur |
Fully Booked
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Two festive willow half-day craft workshops - learn to make willow Christmas trees and rush reindeer or wreaths and stars.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
2020
January
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Willow Garden Sculpture
£75 Friday 10th January 2020 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor:: Amanda Rayner |
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Learn how to willow weave a sculpture for your garden on this craft course in the Hampshire South Downs. Choose what you would like to weave from a small animal to an abstract form. This course will take place indoors.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Eco-refurbishment
£50 Saturday 18th January 2020 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor:Sally Mareike |
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Learn to make your home more healthy, eco-friendly and economical on this one-day course. You will learn how to use low-tech and natural options to refurbish your space.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Coppicing
£75 Friday 24th January 2020 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Les Brannon |
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This course will give you practical, hands on experience in the traditional art of coppicing. You will work on a section of hazel woodland here at the Sustainability Centre which is being coppiced as part of a wider woodland management plan to undertake conservation work on site.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
February
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Natural Cosmetics Workshop
£65 Saturday 1st February 2020 (or book Sunday 2nd February as well for £120) 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Dee Dade |
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Come spend the day learning how to make natural everyday beauty/bathroom products from ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboards, herb gardens and amongst the hedgerows. We will be making a variety of products including balms, oils, hair conditioner and toothpaste. Products that are kind to you, the earth, reduce single-use plastic and will save you pennies.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Natural Cosmetics Workshop
£65 Sunday 2nd February 2020 (or book Saturday 1st February as well for £120) 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Dee Dade |
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Come spend the day learning how to make natural everyday beauty/bathroom products from ingredients you can find in your kitchen cupboards, herb gardens and amongst the hedgerows. We will be making a variety of products including balms, oils, hair conditioner and toothpaste. Products that are kind to you, the earth, reduce single-use plastic and will save you pennies.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Frame Basket
£75 Thurs 6th Feb 2020 10:00 - 17:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur |
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Willow weaving training course in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will make a hand woven gypsy style frame basket from sustainable locally grown willow. Use your basket for gathering berries, mushrooms, eggs, herbs or displaying treasures.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Hedgelaying
£75 Friday 7th February 2020 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Les Brannon |
Fully Booked
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You will gain practical, hands on experience in the ancient art of hedgelaying (South of England style). A local hedge will be laid using traditional tools i.e. billhook, broad axe and hand saws. The stock proof barrier created will then be trimmed by hand and secured with stakes and top binding.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Obelisks (morning)
£35 Thursday 20th February 2020 10:00 - 13:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur |
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Willow weaving training course in the Hampshire South Downs. Experience the delights of creating a support for climbing plants like sweet peas or green beans. Come with enough space to transport your work home and plant up your creation into a pot or straight into the ground.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Obelisks (afternoon)
£35 Thursday 20th February 2020 14:00 - 17:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur |
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Experience the delights of creating a support for climbing plants like sweet peas or green beans. Come with enough space to transport your work home and plant up your creation into a pot or straight into the ground.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
March
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Kitchen Gardening
£240 Sat 14th - Sun 15th Mar 2020 and Sat 20th - Sun 21st Jun 2020 09:30 - 17:30 Tutor: Caroline Aitken |
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The first of two seasonal weekend courses on creating and managing a successful and abundant food garden. This weekend course will include hands-on practical sessions together with the theory you need to make your kitchen garden grow and keep your larder full. The next weekend is June 20th-21st.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Spoon Carving
£65 Wednesday 18th March 2020 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Jonathon Huet |
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On this green woodwork course, learn to use a knife, saw, crook knife and axe to carve a spoon, spatula and butter knife from a locally harvested tree. This course will cover tool maintenance through to those important finishing touches.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Pendant Carving
£75 Saturday 28th March 2020 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Giles Newman |
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Learn how to carve your own beautiful wooden pendant with simple knife techniques on this one day course. Create your own unique piece of wearable wood art with nothing more than a knife and a little imagination.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Pendant Carving
£75 Sunday 29th March 2020 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Giles Newman |
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Learn how to carve your own beautiful wooden pendant with simple knife techniques on this one day course. Create your own unique piece of wearable wood art with nothing more than a knife and a little imagination.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
April
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Clay Oven
£100 Saturday 4th April 2020 09:30 - 16:00 Tutor: Dr Sara Collins |
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Learn the techniques to build a clay oven at our beautiful site in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will learn how to construct the oven from builder’s sand, clay, wood shavings and bricks. The course includes a pizza meal cooked in a completed cob oven.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Trug Making
£140 Thursday 8th & Friday 9th April 2020 10:00 - 17:00 Tutor: Dominic Parrette |
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This course will cover the construction of a traditional trug made from sweet chestnut and white willow. Learn from a professional trugmaker how to cleave, shave, steam-bend and soak the wood and make your own garden trug.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Woodland Folklore
£60 Tuesday 14th April 2020 10:00 - 16:00 Tutor: Jonathon Huet |
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On this one day introduction course, discover the spiritual practices of the Celtic Bard: stories, poems, woodland traditions and meditation. This unique course will take you through an in-depth exploration of the trees, plants, landscape and seasons.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
May
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Natural Wellbeing
Herbs, Compassion and Resilience £65 Saturday 16th May 2020 09:30 - 17:00 Tutors: Sarah Hillyer & Suzanne Burnett |
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A health and wellbeing workshop focused on herbal medicine and awareness. This powerful one day course will engage us with the techniques needed to build resilience using only natural and intuitive processes; offering ideas, knowledge and tools we can use to strengthen and bring resilience and wellbeing into everyday life. Accommodation availability and prices.
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Fire, Foraging and Folklore
£20 Wednesday 20th May 2020 18:00 - 20:00 Tutor: Jonathan Huet |
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A special evening experience of wild food foraging, Celtic fire and storytelling. Bushcraft and Celtic folklore specialist, Jonathon Huet, will take you on a guided walk to forage for wild food and impart his knowledge on different native trees in each season. The walk will end with a primitive fire-lighting demonstration and you will hear a traditional story around the glowing embers of the fire and learn the folklore of native trees. Accommodation availability and prices.
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Wooden Stool Making
£95 Tuesday 26th May 2020 09:30 - 16:30 Tutor: Phil Clayton |
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Learn green woodworking techniques and make your own stool. Using traditional hand tools such as a froe, carving axe, drawknife and a shavehorse, participants will hand-craft a beautiful stool to take home with them.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Dragonflies and Fish (a.m)
£35 Date: Thursday 28th May 2020 Time: 10:00 - 13:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur |
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Learn how to weave a dragonfly in a spiral 'corn dolly' weave in brown willow and how to make a wishing fish with a 'figure of eight' weave. These can be placed outside on sticks or hung up. They make great decorations for adorning the garden, pond or even plant pots.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Willow Dragonflies and Fish (p.m)
£35 Date: Thursday 28th May 2020 Time: 14:00 - 17:00 Tutor: Louise Arthur |
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Learn how to weave a dragonfly in a spiral 'corn dolly' weave in brown willow and how to make a wishing fish with a 'figure of eight' weave. These can be placed outside on sticks or hung up. They make great decorations for adorning the garden, pond or even plant pots.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
June
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Clay Oven
£100 Saturday 6th June 2020 09:30 - 16:00 Tutor: Dr. Sara Collins |
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Learn the techniques to build a clay oven at our beautiful site in the Hampshire South Downs. Participants will learn how to construct the oven from builder’s sand, clay, wood shavings and bricks. Course includes a pizza meal cooked in a completed clay oven.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Cordial Making Course
£65 Date: Saturday 13th June 2020 Time: 10:00 - 16:30 Tutor: Jill & Ian Sainsbury |
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Learn how to make tasty drinks from hedgerow ingredients on this cordial making course. Our tutors will guide you around the Sustainability Centre grounds, teaching you to identify and forage tasty ingredients from our local hedgerows, which you will then prepare and turn into syrup which can be taken away with you.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
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Fire, Foraging and Folklore
£20 Wednesday 17th June 2020 18:00 - 20:00 Tutor: Jonathan Huet |
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A special evening experience of wild food foraging, Celtic fire and storytelling. Bushcraft and Celtic folklore specialist, Jonathon Huet, will take you on a guided walk to forage for wild food and impart his knowledge on different native trees in each season. The walk will end with a primitive fire-lighting demonstration and you will hear a traditional story around the glowing embers of the fire and learn the folklore of native trees. Accommodation availability and prices.
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Kitchen Gardening
£240 Sat 20th - Sun 21st June 2020 and Sat 14th - Sun 15th Mar 2020 09:30 - 17:30 Tutor: Caroline Aitken |
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The second of two weekend courses on creating and managing a successful and abundant food garden. The course will include hands-on practical sessions and all the theory you need to make your kitchen garden grow and keep your larder full. From crop planning to soil care, pest control to storing produce, Caroline will show you environmentally friendly and sustainable ways of growing your own food.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
July
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Medicinal Herbal Workshop-Bolster your body
£20 Wednesday 1st July 2020 18:00 - 20:00 Tutor: Sarah Hillyer |
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Learn how to start your own medicine chest from herbs that you gather on this course run by local herbalist Sarah Hillyer. The leaves and flowers you find on this summer course will help to strengthen bodily systems such as your gut, heart and lymphatic system
Accommodation availability and prices. |
November
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Hedgelaying
£75 Friday 27th November 2020 09:30 - 17:00 Tutor: Les Brannon |
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On this training course in Hampshire, you will gain practical, hands on experience in the ancient art of hedgelaying (South of England style). A local hedge will be laid using traditional tools i.e. billhook, broad axe and hand saws. You will also learn about the history of hedgerows in our landscape and their habitat importance.
Accommodation availability and prices. |
