Timelines and treasures

Timelines and treasures

family events in the summer mid-term holiday 

changing tools over time from the Museum colection

 

Timelines

Everything changes: plants, animals, clothes, tools...from dinosaurs to arrowheads, shoes to spaceships. Join artists from Buxton Museum to design your own timeline of a changing world. You might follow evolving elephants, growing tadpoles or elegant fashions. Draw your ideas onto your own Timeline Frieze to take home

Where: Buxton Library, Kents Bank Rd, Buxton, SK17 9HW
When: Thursday 1st June
Times: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30
Costs: this event is free, materials are provided just drop by and join in - allow 45 minutes for your frieze


 

an elephant timeline

Pop-up Museum
On Friday 2nd, we're popping-up at the National Trust's beautiful Ilam Park...
What treasures do you see at Ilam? What wonders can you find? Join the team from Buxton Museum and make your own Cabinet of Curiosity - your own little portable museum to take away. there will be real bones and fossils to hold and identify as well as other times from the Museum collection
Free activity (but NT car park charges apply)
Donations welcome
Dogs on leads welcome
No booking needed

Where: Ilam, National Trust: Ilam Park, Ashbourne, DE6 2AZ
When: Friday 2nd June
Times: 11am - 3pm
Part of the Trust’s “5 things to do before you’re 11 3/4”

These two events are aimed at families but everyone is welcome.
Children under 7 need to bring a grown-up with them
Both these events are part of Buxton Museum and Art Gallery’s Collections in the Landscape Project
The new events programme can be found at
https://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/leisure/buxton_museum/events/default.asp

Hoards and Secrets

Hoards and secrets,

beasts and beauties

Du.

Dubh.

Black.

Dove black.

Dove holes.

Dove Dale.

Caves,

Old sockets in a mountain skull,

Moss grown and lichen edged,

Drip, dripping, lime-sodden water, and

Water-sodden stone.

From “The Hills are waiting” 

published in “Old Stones and Ancient Bones”

Dovedale has long been a place for secrets. These limestone hills with their deep dales and water-worn caves are ideal places to slip away and set to rest those treasures you would keep safe from invaders or marauders or family perhaps or friends….who knows why someone buried a bundle of 26 coins in that cave high in the wall of the dale nearly 2,000 years ago. Since then, who knows how many thousands of visitors trekked up the path, and under the arch and into Reynard’s Kitchen Cave. Despite all those feet, all those inquisitive eyes, all those weary souls slumping on the floor for a rest, this fox cave* kept its hoard secret and safe until only two years ago.

And then there was us! On a stunning summer’s day with visitors streaming up the path from the carpark to the Stepping Stones, armed with picnic baskets and blankets and inflatable canoes and fishing nets and buckets and excitement, we were there. A pop-up museum and a supply of treasure chests and time to talk.

Hoards and Secrets was a day about discovery: encouraging people to look at Dovedale as that place of secrets: what would you hide? What do you value so much you would make sure none of the above could make off with it? Where would you hide it? 

My colleague Sarah and I were there as part of the outreach events side of the Collections project while Joe Perry and Laura Waters from Buxton’s Museum’s Collections in the Landscape museum-based team were braving the Dale with some “real” treasures (relatively speaking): crinoid fossils, a bison’s tooth, black Ashford Marble plate, pottery sherds, a Blue John egg….

ephemeral treasures, lasting delights

A day for talking and holding and turning things over and getting fingers covered in lustrous pink paint. While some folk talked treasure, we were making treasure chests and sending people off to peer and poke and think and wonder and decide what they called treasure (without becoming a force for the violent erosion of the dale)

some treasures were more alarming than others

Earlier this week, I had another day outside: in the rain this time. A day for Building Beasts and Beauties as part of Ness Garden’s Family Sculpture Week. There, in the shelter of the trees, we shaped leaf strings and leaf roses, and laughed our way into woodland characters that no-one had ever met before. There were swarms of twig-spiders, some cheerful cone-hogs, a giant leaf-python,  a Wood-witch with a most impressive nose and more….

Summer holidays: fun, frivolity and and a chance for some gently cheerful family learning….  

*just a few miles up the dale is Foxhole Cave, another place for secrets and mysteries that I visited back in April. 

Many thanks to the National Trust for allowing us to creatively provoke their visitors in Dovedale

Summer events, 2013

Stone and Water, the community group I am deeply involved with here in Buxton are lining up some summer holiday events as part of our ongoing Ancient Landscapes project

They are all designed as lively family events but stray grown-ups are welcomed in their own right too! So why not come along and enjoy a fossil and a bit ofcreativity for your own sake!

The Ancient Landscapes Project is supported by the Peak District National Park's Sustainable Development Fund

Event summaries: details follow

All events are free (car parking charges may apply in some places). Family events suitable for children from 4 years and over

1. Tuesday 30th July: Life in ancient seas, at the Moorland Discovery centre, National Trust Longshaw nr Hathersage

- make your own prehistoric rockpool model! Sessions 11 - 1 and 2 -4, no booking needed

2. Thursday 1st August: Monsters from the Limestone, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery: SK17 6DA, making large puppet fossil animals from the depths of the ancient Peak District seas!, 10-30 -12.30, 1.30 - 3.30

3. Tuesday 6th August: Winnat's Pass Walk: exploring the millstone grits of the Dark Peak. Meet: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, S33 8WP, at 2pm. Walk 2 - 4pm, some steep slopes and off paved footpaths

4. Wednesday 7th August: Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Brough Park, Leek, 11 - 3: meet the Ancient Landscape team and make your own finger-puppet fossils or ancient seascape

Events in detail

I found this image on line
 - apologies to original artist!

1. Life in ancient seas

Date: Tuesday 30th July 2013

Venue: Moorland Discovery Centre, National Trust Longshaw, nr Hathersage

Times: 11 - 1 and 2 - 4

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed)- car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll look at fossils to understand the animals of the times, draw those animals and the corals and seaweeds they lived in. Then visitors can make their own model rockpool as a piece of ancient seaside to take home

2. Monsters from the Limestone

Date: Thursday 1st August 2013

Venue: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, terrace Rd, Buxton SK17 6DA

Times: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Exploring life in the Carboniferous Seas that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll look at fossils to understand the animals of those times, and build our own limestone creatures as puppets and masks - make a pet trilobite, wear a giant brachiopod, or have a tame crinoid or nautiloid to ripple home with you….

Basic activity is straightforward with lots of options for people to experiment with

we cna only hope the Pass will
be this bright in August -
it was blocked with snow in March!

3. Winnat's Pass Walk

Date: Tuesday 6th August 2013

Meeting point: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, Castleton, Hope Valley S33 8WP

Times: 2 - 4pm

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

With National Trust Rangers, we will explore the geology of this dramatic gorge, meeting the millstone grit that eventually covered the limestone of the White Peak. A Stone and Water will help the group explore creatively: drawing rocks and shapes, composing instant poems, making up wild stories about the cliffs and caves of the Pass.

This walk will last 2 hours, has some steep slopes and will not remain on paved surfaces. Strong footwear essential and clothing to suit the weather

4. Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Date: Wednesday 7th  August 2013

Venue: Brough Park, Leek (beside the Leek Leisure Centre)

Times: 11 - 3

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll be making personal finger-puppet trilobites and pet ammonites and models of ancient seasides…

Hopping around in June!

Events where you just might find this Toad over the next month

 

telling stories at Dove Valley Centre

Sunday June 9th

The Big Bird, Beast, Bug and Botany Hunt

When: 11.00 - 16.00

Where: Dove Valley Centre

Under Whitle Farm

(between Sheen and Longnor)

SK17 0PR

www.dovevalleycentre.co.uk

Our Ancient Landscapes project will be there among the Birds, Beasts, Bugs and Botanicals. We'll be there with fossils to look at and draw, models to handle, people to talk to, a wall to stare at (just in case we can find anything!) and our usual exciting, messy, colourful and engaging creative activities

I'll be there helping on the Landscapes stall but mostly to tell stories of farms and fields and the plants and animals and stranger inhabitants of the Dales and Moorlands

setting up for last year's Big B day

Sunday June 16th

Father's Day at Ilam Park

puppets for parents?

Father's Day BBQ and Games

When: 11.00 - 16.00

Where: Ilam Park, Postcode: DE6 2AZ. Ordnance Survey grid reference SK132507.

I'll be on the Ancient Landscapes team will be at this National Trust event at Ilam Park

Tempting as it is, we won't be "fossilizing fathers" but we may well invite you to look at some of the fossils we find in the limestone of the area, to make printed fossil cards for Dads, cast your own fossils (for anyone), make trilobite puppets and personal nautiloids….

Our activities are free but car parking charges apply. There are lots of other activities on at Ilam that day - but come and hunt us out!

ancient animal fingerpuppet

Winter celebration (3)

Images arriving from our end of project procession on 3rd December at Calke Abbey

Setting the site...

a bird and a seed pod 

sun lantern catches the sunset

the procession assembles

and sets off...

the walk began in twilight but darkness gathered quickly....

at the front of Calke Abbey itself

at the end of it all, relaxing and enjoying the music

With thanks to everyone involved!

Drummers came from Calidiscopio, a lively, lovely group based in Derby!

Moments of beauty

sagging into the aftermath of the Winter celebration project, I'm sure I'll say something more coherent soon but here are immediate reflections and some images

the toadstools always draw interest

a seedpod lantern

the company assemble

Moments of Beauty

a morning of stormwind and rain lifting into a cold, bright afternoon,

my mood after a sleepless night clearing with the weather,

seeing installations growing,

excitement brewing,

late afternoon sun catching a sun lantern

sunset and crowds gather,

come one, come many, and more

ten becomes twenty, becomes fifty,

musicians arriving,

fifty becoming a hundred and more

the first beats of the drums,

samba shaking the bricks,

echoes bouncing  off the old walls of Calke Abbey

a trail of lanterns through the trees

a hundred becoming two

too long a trail to see the end

but ti cherish the movement of lights through the trees

sunsetting behind old oaks,

the beat of the drums,

the sudden shift to fiddle and guitar,

the silence of  the company lining an avenue of lime trees

to the huskiness of a native flute,

a wonder of lantern ghosts and carriage,

to watch the company fall in behind

holding a moment poised between noise and wonder

the company

a ghostly lantern coach

even after the event, the toadstools were causing trouble

Winter Celebration 2

Hasty posting here of images form this week's workshops - lively, messy, full of excitement!

first stages of a Lantern Coach

the Lantern Family waiting for a lift

a toadstool lantern escapes!

glue everywhere

some glue ends up in the right place

after workshop - the lantern collection grows

the beginning of one of the more sedate toadstool lanterns

Add caption

starting point for some toadstool lantern adventures

Winter Celebration

music under the trees, and a long line of glowing lanterns weaving down to the Hall, 

shining deer may step briefly out of the woods and unexpected flowers 

and butterflies suddenly shine in memories of summers gone

(our first ideas)

"what makes our villages special?" is the question lying behind a Winter Celebration project now in full glue-and-tissue bedlam in south Derbyshire.

Combining workshops with communities in the villages of Ticknall and Weston-on-Trent with the neighbouring National Trust Calke Abbey estate ( visit them here!  ), the project sets out to celebrate people, places and creativity, culminating in a lantern procession through the estate grounds in the late afternoon of Saturday 3rd December

Workshops to date have offered:

skill-sharing with local volunteers

a noisy evening with Ticknall Youth Group

an afterschool session at Weston-on-Trent ( Weston Primary School  )

cooperative sessions involving the Ticknall Toddlers Group with Key Stage 1 children from the local school (  Dame Catherine Harpur's School )

an exciting afternoon where Key Stage 2 pupils worked with the Ticknall Art Group to make the most ambitious lanterns of the project so far!

People - because "people are what makes our village special"