Come and spend a day or more in our newly planted woodland in Stapleford, near Tarvin, Cheshire, meeting others, learning bushcraft skills and participating in various Forest School activities.
We have increased availability due to popular demand.
We are able to take unaccompanied children from age 7.
Every school holiday we are able to host 20 children aged 7 to 12 inclusive on our 1 day, open access days. These days incorporate elements from bushcraft and forest school along with basic elements from military survivial training.
We run more advanced courses, spanning 3 days, normally Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, for frequent flyers and older children. These courses dig deeper into bushcraft and survival training and do include an element of homework for the 3rd day's cooking.
For younger children, under 7, with parents, we accommodate up to 6 families on our family days. Generally these are concurrent with open day sessions and 3 day courses with instructors leading the events in different parts of the plantation and families choosing which to engage in with the ability to move around from one to another or take self lead time should they want.
The price for attendance at an open session is £20.00 including VAT for online payment or £22.50 including VAT for oline booking and pay on the day.
The price for attendance on a 3 day course is £50.00 including VAT for online payment or £57.50 including VAT for online booking and pay on the day.
The price for attendance on a family day is £40 per family including VAT for online payment or £45.00 including VAT for online booking and pay on the day.
Payment is made in advance through our booking system.
Click here to access our booking system and view all our events. When viewing the map on the booking system, our gate is at the little yellow star.
Each day comprises the following:
Our ultimate ambition is for parents to collect a buzzing, excited child who has a tall tale to share about repelling Viking hoards with a bow and arrow or perhaps commando crawling through long grass and securing a jungle clearing from the sneezing dragons. Who knows? Each participant on each day should have something they have made to bring home, we do, however, promise that the big stuff can be left behind and doesn't need to be squeezed into your boot although we do understand how protective some children can be of their pet twig or favourite rock.
There is plenty of scope for children who attend multiple sessions to advance from basic to intermediate skills.
We teach fire by friction from the most basic fire plough, through fire drills to the good old flint and strike. We only use natural materials as tinder, kindling and fuel.
Participants will learn to use bow saws, bill hooks, training knives and loppers to render brash and logs into useful sizes. Full safety instruction will be given in each tool, followed by an assessment before a participant is considered for allocation of a tool. Once the tools are allocated the participants will need to collect various sizes of wood and reduce them to useful pieces depending on their tool and the wood requirement.
Participants will learn some useful knots and lashings required to create useful items and connect pieces of wood together. We'll try making cord from nettles and under bark.
Participants will scavenge from the wood piles and log piles and using tools and knots and lashings will create items ranging from 3 legged stools through to beds and perhaps bows and arrows or spear launchers. The shelters will range from single person debris huts through to complicated cabins.
More advanced fire making with different uses and construction taught. Worksheet provided as aide memoir.
More advanced tool use along with knots and lashings to construct different shelters, useful items such as chairs and beds and utensils like spoons and pot hangers.
In three teams, selected on day 2, attendees must have completed an element of homework to contrive a menu of starter, main course and desert to be cooked over an open fire whilst constructing a team shelter and a luxury item.
The family day is a condensed version of the 3 day course based around the premise that adults will lead their children.
Each participant must bring with them the following:
This is an issue that concerns some visitors of a more sensitive disposition. Our toilet facilities are rudimentary but not unhygienic. Boys are directed to pee on the compost heaps, perfectly reasonable and hidden. For the girls and boys requiring a seat we use compost toilets which are similar to caravan or camping toilets except that we don't use water or chemicals. Once the "wipe" is carried out, the "flush" is simply covering the evidence with sawdust. We provide disinfectant gel and hot water with antibacterial soap afterwards. When the toilet is full it is emptied onto the compost heaps for 2 years of thermophilic composting before being added to the vegetable patches. Many books are available as to why there is nothing wrong with this and our prime example, listed in the library, is the Humanure Handbook. Click here for a picture of our compost toilet, a shiny new "luggable loo".
Before lunch and any other consumption of food we always provide hot water and antibacterial soap and disinfectant gel.
Our preference is to use hot water and antibacterial soap because it gives a much deeper cleansing than just rubbing gel onto muddy hands.
