thornham field centre, walks and walled garden are part of the Thorham Estate in north Suffolk

Wednesday 3 December 2008

Thornham Walled Garden Christmas Fayre








Thornham Walled Garden held their annual Christmas Fayre this week on 3rd December. There were some good stalls, the Walled Garden clients had made chutney from fruit grown in the garden and cakes.


The Walled Garden clients had also made delicious soup, mince pies, cakes and biscuits which were very much enjoyed.

The Revd Adrian Mason led the carol service

Everyone joined in the traditional carols




For more details about the Thornham Walled Garden Project which is part of the Thornham Field Centre Trust please see www.thornham.org.uk

Thursday 27 November 2008

New bridge - Jack's Belt

It was pretty snowy at Thornham last weekend, but no one took any photos! However, by Monday morning the only thing left were the last traces of several snowmen. On Wednesday this week a new bridge was built crossing the river in Jack's Belt.



The earth was dug out and a new bridge replaced the old one.


It looks really good, do walk down that way and try it out.

Wednesday 19 November 2008

Month by Month at Thornham


To help school groups who visit Thornham see what it is like here at various times of the year, we are taking photos each month at certain points on the Estate which are used by schools for our different courses. This video gives an idea of the sort of areas we are going to cover and were taken in mid November.

The photos will also be available on our web site www.thornham.org.uk

They should be particularly useful for schools who do habitats or food, farming and the environment.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Thornham's Ancient Oak Trees


Thornham is famous for its magnificent ancient pollarded oak trees. Their age is hotly debated, but some could be around 800 years old. As well as gracing our hedges, footpaths and byways they survive particularly in the the Park and in adjoining woods and fields that were at one time part of the Park. The first picture shows one of the biggest oaks growing by the surfaced footpath, near the Walks car park.

Pollarding is the practice of pruning trees at a high level so they sprout out of the reach of animals. The new branches were cut for fodder, firewood, fencing and so on. It is pollarding that has allowed oaks to survive to a great age. It is very many years since most of our oaks were pollarded and the branches are now the size of trees, but you can see evidence of the pollarding in the branched shape, and in the break in the pattern on the bark where it was cut.

Although Thornham Hall existed in Tudor times the Park was probably created in the 18th century. The fashion was to imitate a medieval royal deer park or royal forest, such as those at Windsor and Epping. These ancient features are rich in magnificent trees, which were seen as symbols of old and powerful families. So when fields were cleared in front of the Hall to open out our new park, the roads, ditches and hedges were swept away, but notable trees were carefully preserved.

Most of these trees had grown in hedgerows, hence their alignments and the traces of ditches and banks still visible between them.
However, around the Folly there is a group of oaks and this is considered to be rare evidence of wood pasture, or of an earlier park.

There is a helpful article you can read at www.britarch.ac.uk/ba/ba36/ba36feat.html, and an interesting book: 'Suffolk's parks and gardens' by Tom Williamson.

Wednesday 5 November 2008

November at Thornham



We have to admit it has been a bit of a grey and drizzly week at Thornham, however the school from Bramfield enjoyed a sunny and happy day doing our team building course.

The winter is a good time for maintenance and the Thornham Owl Project have over 180 bird of prey boxes which they have to check over the winter. The project which works alongside us at Thornham Field Centre put up boxes they have made in the locality. They are for birds of prey.

Each box is numbered and monitored and when the chicks hatch they are weighed and measured (by licensed handlers) Check out more pictures on the video below:

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Bird Banquet




Thornham Walks and the Upper Waveney Valley Project ran a very successful bird feed making activity yesterday for children during half term.

They had drilled lots of logs with large holes for the children to fill with seeds and various berries and other bits and pieces which they had collected from a walk around Thornham. The seeds were mixed with melted lard.



Tuesday 21 October 2008

Tuesday 21st October 2008



Autumn Colours
The national news is full of the wonderful colours of the trees this autumn because of the sunny weather. It is well worth coming to Thornham to see for yourself.

There are still a few flowers left in our wild life garden which you can find by the Field Centre Office. This garden is maintained by Tim from the Upper Waveney Valley Project and his volunteers. The garden has been made to give visitors and school groups some ideas for what they can do to garden to attract wildlife and how to grow vegetables in raised beds and containers. Tim has just been given a green house and he is busily planting sweet peas for next year, he has also made a compost area to rival that on Gardener's World!

Take a short walk along the surfaced path to the Thornham Walled Garden. The clients in the garden have been working very hard to harvest the fruit and vegetables which they make into jams, jellies and chutneys. It is interesting to wander amongst the fruit trees looking at the labels, they are old fashioned varieties such as Lord Derby, Lady Henniker, Lord Lambourne, Newton Wonder.

Several of the Walled Garden clients enjoy cooking and today were making
flap jacks and short bread biscuits.
For more details about Thornham Walled Garden see our web site www.thornham.org.uk


Half Term Activity
Don't forget to come to our Birding Banquet on Monday 27th October. This activity is organised by Thornham Walks and the Upper Waveney Valley Project. Come and make your own bird food and feeders. We will start with a walk to collect berries and seeds which will be added to a lard and seed mixture and put into various feeders for you to take home to feed the birds in your garden. Start 2.00 p.m. ends 4.00 p.m. meet in the main car park. The cost is £3 per child (accompanying adults free)

Monday 13 October 2008

Monday 13th October 2008

A Monday at Thornham.


A baby Limousin calf was born earlier this morning, the rest of the cattle were on the other side of the Park leaving mother and baby to have a rest.

The beautiful weather of the weekend continued today which was good for the Primary School children who came to have a day of P.E. at Thornham. They followed our Photo Trail and did a Point to Point exercise in the Maze Field alongside our demonstration garden.



They had a very energetic day. They also had fun doing team building games in Jack's Belt.




There are still some interesting fungi about such as Drayad Saddle Fungus and Common White Helvella






Volunteers from the Walled Garden were working hard with our Ranger, John, in the Pinetum raking and clearing after John had cut down the thistles, brambles, rank grass etc. It is important to do this so the wild flowers will grow next year.





Thursday 2 October 2008

An autumn walk at Thornham


OCTOBER 2008
At Thornham you can take a gentle stroll along the surfaced foot path or pick up a Thornham Walk's map from the car park and go further afield. The cattle are still on the Park, they are prize winning Limousins (with one or two Belgian Blues) they will soon be taken in for the winter.

Follow the path as it meanders through the woods, you may see
spindle


a few blackberries, although they are nearly over



there should still be some haws

and some sloes

look out for fungi, it is quite a good year this year. You might like to come on the Thornham Walks Fungi Foray on Sunday 19th October (booking essential, please ring 01379 78345)



When you reach the Walled Garden, it is worth having a look inside. The garden is maintained by the clients who come to the garden for horticultural therapy. They range in age from 15 to over 50. Some clients enjoy mowing the grass, some pick the fruit which is sold to visitors and in a shop in Eye. Some have their own vegetable plots. Cooking is a popular activity and fruit and vegetables grown in the garden is made into jams, jellies and preserves to be sold to visitors. They make delicious soup and apple cakes for their own lunches.



Return to the surfaced path and take a look at the Folly. Look carefully and notice that it is made of recycled pieces from the local church.

Wander off the path along one of the grassy rides, or return to the car park. We do hope you enjoy your autumn walk at Thornham


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