Down at Glottenham we just love being in the woods.
Whether we are quietly contemplating the wildlife, leading a class of children in Forest School, foraging something tasty to eat or admiring one of our talented friends craft something beautiful from a branch, the woodland is a magical and special place that seems to call to us from our ancestral past.
So imagine how excited we were when we proposed that the Glottenham gang could come together and create a unique experience of total weekend woodiness – and all parties said a resounding‘Yes!’
Rather than the usual courses which restrict you to one subject - be that making a spoon, or to doing a herb walk, we developed a weekend where guests were able to try their hand at everything, with Forest School thrown in for the small ones allowing them to concentrate and relax. It was a total immersion into the life of the woodland – from charcoal making to nature awareness, wood carving to using a pole lathe, basket weaving and foraging. Guests came away with new skills, some handcrafted goods, and benefiting from working in a beautiful and relaxed environment.
Richard Ely is a traditional greenwood craftsman with a background in organic farming and horticulture. He has spent the last 14 years working and managing coppiced woodland, alongside the likes of Ben Law, and developing his skills with traditional tools and methods to make a range of woodland products for home and landscape. Richard was our first choice to build the roundwood kitchens at Glottenham, and we covet his gorgeous chairs in the Glottyngham dome enviously. He also makes the charcoal that we supply for our guests, or helps us to make our own. Gold medallist in the International Leg to Log competition, he can fashion a beautiful item from a branch in moments, and he plays a mean banjo to boot! http://www.greenwoodcraftsman.com/
William Del Tufo of Wild Roots has been carving since 1979, and spent many years travelling from Castle to Castle demonstrating Dark Age methods of wood and leatherworking and teaching Nordic runes and ancient firelighting techniques. We love his individual style and we are obviously not alone – Boris Johnson ordered a whole bundle of medieval style trenchers for the Lord Mayor’s dinner exactly the same as we have in our yurt and domes, and not many people can claim that Prince Charles has played their stegosaurus xylophone and blown their ferret digeridoo!! More recently he, his partner and their beautiful daughter have been growing veg using only horse powered tools and they run a local veg box scheme from their space in Rushlake Green https://www.wildrootsveg.com/
And your hosts, Emma and Robert, who between them introduced the group to woodland management, medical herbalism, wild food foraging and cooking, and entertained children with fun and games to bring them closer to nature.
