Our Breathing Places 'Outdoor Classroom'.....
For a few years now we have been running 3 day environmental awareness residential courses with primary schools from areas such as Halifax and Todmorden. The children help to create new woodland at various sites and take part in Forest School sessions in the marvellous mixed woodland of Hardcastle Crags, using the old Lady Royd Playing field near Gibson Mill, as our ‘Outdoor Classroom’. But then...
In 2008 we received a grant from the BBC Breathing Places project to improve public access and biodiversity in Knott Wood, and develop an ‘Outdoor Classroom’ of our own. Knott Wood is a 20 acre secondary succession woodland on the south facing slope of the Calder Valley, one mile east of Hebden Bridge. In bygone years ago the land was used for pig farming, and had been largely cleared of the original damp oak wood that had dominated the valley since the last ice age. The crumbling dry stone walls and crumbling pig shelters are all that's left of the land's previous use. Nowadays nature is reclaiming the land, assisted by our sister organisation, the Knott Wood Coppicers, who are slowly but steadily replacing sycamore with diverse indiginous species.
We built paths from the existing public footpath through the East field, to a central seating area built with dry stone retaining walls around a terrace cut into the slope. This was the most labour intensive job of the project with up to 30 groundwork volunteers taking part in the initial earth moving phase. We also built a two-chamber dry compost toilet, and, with the help of local volunteers, two ponds were created, and many bird and bat boxes were installed to encourage wildlife.
Nowadays, children attending the residential courses get to benefit from half a day in this beautiful setting, as well as the original outdoor classroom at Hardcastle Crags. We also take classes for one day woodland activity days, where they take part in such things as habitat surveys, tree identification and nature walks, and building low rope bridges between trees.