Thornham's Blog

Farming at Thornham

2009-04-27T03:21:00.000-07:00

It was good last week to see the sheep on Blacksmith's Meadow being rounded up by sheep dog Roy. They had to be gathered together to be put through a foot dip. There were in fact two dogs earlier in the morning and they just knew their job so well. The sheep weren't stressed they just moved gently into the penned area. So much easier than when the Field Centre and Walks staff have tried to round them up without the help of the dogs! That took hours and everyone was stressed!

On Red House Farm they are busy with planting spring barley and sugar beet. They are spraying the crops and making best use of the lovely weather.

Our scarecrow fortunately doesn't stop the birds coming from the garden by the Field Centre office, we like to see him there!
Not everyone is interested in the farm or the garden, the play equipment is always popular.

more exciting signs of spring at Thornham

2009-04-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

Click on play and watch the video of the toad spawn and emerging tadpoles. The toad spawn is laid in long strings rather than the clump of frog spawn. Look at the bottom of the film for the tadpoles swimming around and as the camera moves up, the movement on the water is where there are masses of tadpoles breaking through the surface of the water on the pond. This video was taken of the pond on the left of the Spinney edging Hobby Close, not Spinney pond which edges the Park.

Blue tits have begun to build a nest in our box which has a camera inside, which is hugely exciting as they haven't used this box for the last couple of years. When you come to Thornham, the television screen to view the nest is in the lobby of the large meeting room known as the Display Centre.

The peacocks are strutting about displaying their magnificent feathers, the primroses and daffodils are out and the countryside is bursting into the green of spring. Well worth a visit to Thornham. Don't forget the Thornham Walks Easter egg trail and Easter bonnet competition on Easter Sunday 12th April. Start 2.00 p.m. meet at the main car park, children £3 accompanying adults free.

Seasonal changes

2009-04-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

As part of our work to give schools as much back up and follow up material as possible we are compiling an archive of photos for their use. Each month we are taking the same 32 photos of areas of Thornham used by school groups for them to compare and contrast what changes occur as the seasons change.

We have done January, February and March.

No: 1 Farm Pond in January No: 1 Farm Pond in February

No: 13 Pinetum in February No: 13 Pinetum in March

Check out the web site as the year progresses www.thornham.org.uk and click on the teachers' area of the site.

Environmental art at Thornham

2009-03-24T06:56:00.000-07:00

Environmental art is a popular course for both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 pupils.

A group of KS1 children made miniature gardens this week.

They had good fun collecting natural things in Red Wood and working as a team to design their gardens.

The children are encouraged to look for patterns and symmertry in nature, to look at colours and the variations in shades. They may collect materials on sticky cards, or enjoy a session mud painting. They may make banners or leaf rubbings or decorate trees with chalk. There are several artistic activies to choose from.

click here for link to thornham courses and then click on art.

If you are coming on a day trip to Thornham.........

2009-03-19T04:40:00.000-07:00

If you are coming on a school day trip to Thornham you may wonder what it will be like. Your teacher will have chosen a course for you to follow from our list on our web site www.thornham.org.uk Your teacher will have clicked on the teacher icon and selected 2009 courses. This will probably fit in with what you are doing at school, although you may be doing a fun course such as Team Building or Outdoor Living Skills.

Most schools arrive by coach, the coach parks in our coach park. Look out for the sheep in the field by the coach park. At the moment they are Norfolk Horn Sheep, though we sometimes have other breeds.

Your Thornham tutor will meet your coach and take you to the main Field Centre buildings

You come through the main entrance and see the Thornham Walks' notice board. Thornham Walks staff look after the 12 miles of footpaths at Thornham which are open to the public.

The path goes by the picnic site where you may have lunch if the weather is good. If there is time after lunch, you may be able to go on the play equipment.

As you turn the corner you will see the entrance to Thornham Walks, there is about half a mile of surface foot path which goes round our Walled Garden, look out for the ancient oak tree on the left which is about 600 years old. There are several information boards dotted along this path to help explain things about Thornham to you. The first one tells you how the late Lord Henniker and his wife started Thornham Walks, Field Centre and Walled Garden.

You will see the Field Centre and Walks office ahead of you and then as you go down the slope you will see the Display Centre where you will leave your bags and eat your lunch if the weather is bad. You may use the Green Room which is through the archway if the Display Centre is being used. This is a picture of Jean, our Education Officer outside the Display Centre.

We hope you have a lovely day!

Wildlife and vegetable gardening at Thornham

2009-03-12T05:12:00.001-07:00

When you visit Thornham take a look at our wildlife and vegetable garden. The garden began as a resource for schools to give them ideas how to attract wildlife to their own play grounds (see our Playground Pioneers course on our web site www.thornham.org.uk go to teachers' page then click on course list) The vegetables were added as back up for our food, farming and the environment course which teaches children where their food comes from.

The garden has expanded hugely this year, it is looked after by Tim Page from the Upper Waveney Valley Project.

Tim and his team of volunteers have this year made 6 new raised beds which will be planted with potatoes, parsnips, runner beans, broad beans, lettuce, onions, garlic, squash etc. Herbs are grown in old tyres, and soft fruit in one of the raised beds.

Tim plans to grow sweet peas and nasturtiums in hanging baskets to attract insects, he is going to add to the mixed wildflowers which are planted near the pond which he has recently cleaned out. The log pile behind the pond has been extended, this provides shelter for newts over winter and shelter for woodlice, snails etc. Sunflowers and globe thistles will be planted behind the pond for their nectar and then seeds. There are several bird feeding stations around the garden and honey suckle is growing up the side of the shed.

Signs of Spring

2009-03-05T04:08:00.000-08:00

There are some positive signs of spring, the song thrushes are singing around the Walled Garden and nut hatches in the Pinetum.

The snow drops are still looking really good.

The flowers are out on the yew, but not yet releasing their pollen.

John, the Ranger, has been doing work in the Nuttery which is just outside the Walled Garden. He has been coppicing and planting 6 new hazel coppice stools. The coppicing was done in the past so tool handles, chair legs, thatching pegs etc could be made from the wood before it got too big. John usually leaves between 6 and 10 young shoots in case the deer attack all the new growth. The coppicing will happen about once every 8 years.

Harvest Home at Victorian Thornham

2009-02-26T02:33:00.003-08:00

We are gradually putting back- up material onto our Thornham web site www.thornham.org.uk This is an additional resource for schools to refer to following a trip to Thornham.

Victorian Thornham is a popular course when the children take on the characters of people who lived on the Thornham Estate in Victorian times. They learn what they did for a job, where they lived and even where they are buried in the grave yard at the church.

They visit our Walled Garden and learn something of the work of the gardeners there and particularly about the head gardener of that time John Perkins. He put together elaborate table decorations for the house. These photos are from a book published by John Perkins of his table decorations, the book gives elaborate instructions on the flowers/leaves/fruit to be used. This one is for a "Breakfast or Luncheon Table. This decoration is simple and effective composed of leaves of the Mrs Pollock geranium, which are only just lapped one onto the other; taking care that the leaf stalk is cut completely off."

This table decoration John Perkins said is "very appropriate for the decoration of the first evening's entertainment.......roses are arranged as shown; and single blooms of Scarlet Geraniums are to be placed where indicated on the letters"

There is a contemporary newspaper article on our web site about the Harvest Home at Thornham in 1871. The Harvest Home celebrated the end of the harvest and a hot lunch and the tea in the afternoon was served to 300 people. Following a service of thanksgiving in the church there was a Punch and Judy show for the children and races for the adults such as climbing the greasy pole or donkey races as well as sack races, the prizes varied from a new hat to a new fork.

For more information about the Victorians at Thornham see www.thornham.org.uk click on the teachers' page, then courses for 2009 and then History.

Bats

2009-02-17T02:21:00.000-08:00

Our colleagues at Thornham Walks and the Upper Waveney Valley Project held a very popular bat box making event at Thornham on 16th February.

About 35 children came to make bat boxes which most of them took home hopefully to entice bats into their gardens.

Where to site bat boxes

Site them in a sheltered position as high up as possible on a tree or wall making sure the entrance is clear
Attach the box securely. If you are fixing your box to a tree, make sure you don't cause damage.
Once the bat box is in place, don't disturb it. Bats and bat roosts are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
The occupancy of boxes can be checked by watching at dusk during the summer and looking very carefully for the small black droppings underneath.

How to encourage bats to your garden

Bats need insects to feed on, so if you have a pond with varied planting, will help encourage insects
Scented night-time flowers attract moths on which bats may feed
Pipistralle bats (the most common species in Britain) often hunt in more open country, so gardens with large grassy areas may be more popular
Noctule bats are often seen near4 hedgerows or in deciduous woodland. If you are close to a wooded area, having a mixed native hedge can concentrate the supply of insects on which a variety of bat species feed.
Larger species, such as Daubentons bat, often hunt over water so a good sized pond is an advantage.

10th February

2009-02-10T06:26:00.000-08:00

Although the snow has just about gone, the heavy rain has meant everywhere is very muddy, the snowdrops growing near the nuttery by the Walled Garden are beautiful and well worth a visit.

The birds are very active on the feeders at Thornham, try to keep your feeders filled up with a variety of food. Black sunflower seeds provide high energy food, niger seeds will attract gold finches, robins, blackbirds and thrushes enjoy meal worms.

If you haven't already done so, this is a good time to clean out your bird boxes, if you don't do this then parasites living in the boxes can infect the new brood of baby birds.

February and more snow....

2009-02-04T03:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the inactivity of the blog but I have been away, during which time the snow really came down and made Thornham look beautiful. We often see this muntjak deer in the pinetum and Ranger John was fortunate to get this photo.

With half term coming up you might be looking for something for your children to do why not come to the Thornham Walks and Upper Waveney Valley joint Bat Box Building activity on Monday 16th February. No need to book, meet at the main car park at 2.00 p.m. finish at 4.00 p.m. Cost per child is £3.00 if you would like to buy the bat box the cost is £3.00. There is no charge for accompanying adults.

14th JANUARY 2009

2009-01-14T03:59:00.001-08:00

Although we don't have too many school groups venturing out to see us in January, it is a busy time of year for the Education Officer, updating all the courses, checking that markers on trails are still in place (there can be problems when the instructions on a trail say turn left at the ash tree on the map only to find that it has been cut down!)

Jean, our Education Officer, also makes improvements to the courses and updates them appropriately. See our the range of our courses on our web site at thornham.org.uk and click on the teachers' area and then 2009 course list.

This winter's task is to put follow up/back up material on our web site thornham.org.uk to give added value to a trip to Thornham. For example if you bring a class to do archeology at Thornham then when you return to school you can click on the course list and onto the archeology link to find photos of things which your class will have seen as well as old Thornham Estate maps etc.

This is the site of the old village green at Thornham Magna and Gull Lane an ancient Green Lane in the village which are part of our archaeology course.

One of our History courses looks at the parish church of St Mary's Thornham Magna and we have added information about the wildlife in the churchyard, worksheets we use inside the church and photos of various aspects of the church.

We are also taking monthly photos of the same areas around the Estate to help school groups with their follow up work. For example if you come and do our Food, Farming and the Environment course we will eventually have photos each month showing them the fields they have studied and how they change each month. If you study habitats you can compare the pond dipped in June with what it was like in January. Or check how the hedges have changed etc.

A snowy start to the year

2009-01-06T03:58:00.000-08:00

It was a bitterly cold start to 2009 and our first days back at work after the Christmas break.
The snow is still lingering at Thornham, check out the snow for animal tracks to see what has been about.

If you come to Thornham listen for woodpeckers starting to drum as they set up their territory. Tawny owls are also setting up their territories.

Look out for Redwings and Field Fares arriving from Scandinavia. You may hear nut hatches
calling.

Don't forget to keep feeding the birds and if you haven't already done so, clean out your nest
boxes

Thornham Walled Garden Christmas Fayre

2008-12-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

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

New bridge - Jack's Belt

2008-11-27T10:21:00.000-08:00

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.

Month by Month at Thornham

2008-11-19T03:26:00.000-08:00

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.

Thornham's Ancient Oak Trees

2008-11-11T04:22:00.000-08:00

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.

November at Thornham

2008-11-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

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:

Bird Banquet Video

2008-10-29T03:02:00.000-07:00

Bird Banquet

2008-10-28T03:52:00.000-07:00

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 21st October 2008

2008-10-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

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 13th October 2008

2008-10-13T07:06:00.000-07:00

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.

An autumn walk at Thornham

2008-10-02T02:22:00.000-07:00

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