Rural Skills Workshops
The Green Room provides the ideal off-grid location for learning new skills and meeting like-minded people. Leading out onto Alderfen Marshes conservation area, the Green Room offers a comfortable base with access to wide-open space, aiding creativity and experiential learning.
With solar powered lighting and heat from a wood burning stove, fuelled by wood grown and harvested on Alderfen Marshes, the Green Room is green by name and green by nature.
Courses and workshops are limited to a maximum of eight people; this ensures plenty of opportunity for one-to-one focus from your tutor. Sessions are informal and interactive providing an opportunity to meet, mingle and learn alongside like-minded people.
3 places available
Introduction to Willow Weaving:
Sunday 3rd March: 10.00am to 12.00pm
£40.00 per person
- Learn about weaving tools and techniques
- Aquire a life-long skill easily replicated at home
- Make your own unique tray
- Learn how to grow and collect suitable cuttings
A great introduction to the art of willow weaving. In two hours learn to weave a useful and attractive tray from local hedgerow cuttings under the expert tuition of Jonathon Carrie of Norfolk Hedge Baskets.
Included in the price:
Tuition, materials and tools
Tea, coffee and light snacks
You will need to bring:
Sturdy footwear.
Willow Growing and Coppicing:
Saturday 9th March: 9.30am to 12.30pm
£30.00 per person
- Coppicing tools
- Short Rotation Coppicing
- Planting willow cuttings
- Coppicing for firewood production
- Harvesting whips for weaving
- Natural weed control
- Wildlife benefits
This course introduces you to the tools and techniques used in willow coppicing. Experience how to transform willow scrub and create a willow coppice from scratch. Understand the practical uses including basketry and firewood production as well as benefits to wildlife.
Included in the price:
Tuition
Tools and gloves
Tea and coffee
You will need to bring:
A packed lunch. Wellington boots and outdoor clothing suitable for weather conditions on the day.
6 places available
Willow Bird Hide Workshop
Saturday 16th March: 10.00am to 2.30pm
£45.00 per person
- Selecting and cutting the willow
- Designing and locating the hide
- Measuring and spacing
- Planting the frame
- Weaving the walls
- Management and maintenance
- Wildlife benefits
This course explores the art of creating a living willow structure. The bird-hide offers an attractive and useful natural feature to any piece of land. This hide project can be recreated in different ways to suit gardens of all shapes and sizes.
Included in the price:
Tuition
Cutting tools and gloves
Tea and coffee
You will need to bring:
A packed lunch. Wellington boots and outdoor clothing suitable for weather conditions on the day.
Green Woodcarving:
Spoon Carving Workshop
Saturday 30th March: 9.30am to 4.30pm
Saturday 27th April: 9.30am to 4.30pm
£75.00 per person
- Selecting your tree and branch
- Understanding the tools for carving
- Designing your spoon
- Creating a spoon ‘blank’ with an axe
- Carving the detail using a selection of knives
- Finishing the spoon
- Tool maintenance
This course is an interactive and enjoyable introduction to green wood carving. Under expert guidance from Monica Cass, let your creative juices flow as you split, chop and carve your log into a unique spoon. Take your new skills (and your spoon) home with you, ready to tackle your next green woodcarving project.
Included in the price:
Tuition
Wood, carving tools and gloves
Tea, coffee and light snacks
You will need to bring:
A packed lunch. Sturdy boots and outdoor clothing suitable for weather conditions on the day.
Charcoal Making:
Available with wild-camping
£25.00 per pitch
- A brief history of charcoal burning
- Understanding the process
- Equipment and uses – ancient and modern
- Wood and fire preparation
- Burning the charcoal
- Cooling times
- Cooking over your charcoal
This course introduces you to the tools and techniques used in charcoal production. From traditional methods dating back to pre-Roman times, to using modern equipment, enjoy the experience of making and using your own charcoal from scratch.
A two-hour workshop during the day gives you the knowledge and skills to turn wood into charcoal, then head back to camp to produce your own.
Included in the price:
Tuition
Tools, equipment and gloves
Firewood
Bushcraft Woodcarving:
Oak Mallet and Willow Pegs
Available with wild-camping
£25.00 per person
- Identifying and selecting suitable wood
- Using a hand-axe for carving
- Carving a camping mallet from a single piece of green wood
- Splitting and carving tent pegs
Try your hand at green wood carving during your stay at Alderfen Marshes. Learn how to use a hand axe to carve a log into a handy camping mallet and make a set of willow guy-rope pegs from a single log
This two-hour workshop is a rewarding and fun way to enhance your wild-camping skills.
Included in the price:
Tuition
Tools, equipment and gloves
Wood for carving