A walk round our Walled Garden

It's been another long sunny day today, and the gardens are looking great. The vegetable crops have particularly benefited, first from all the rain we had not long ago, and now from the sun. Since one of my tasks as Beningbrough's web editor is to make sure there are always seasonal images on our site, this lunchtime I took advantage of the sunshine and went to take some in our Walled Garden. Here on the blog, you can have a sneak preview. Enjoy!

The Pear Arch in our Walled Garden

Iris Apollo

Rhubarb chard

Salad crops

York St John students join the Beningbrough team!

The Teacher Training department at York St John have a very strong link with Beningbrough and each year, two students join the team for two weeks. The idea of these two weeks is that the students gain experience in a setting other than school, also known as 'SOTS'. This year Beningbrough gained two bright spark students who have worked alongside the Learning Team to experience education outside of the classroom.

Who's Who?
Hannah and Rebecca, both undergraduate trainee teachers, joined us for their first week in October. They had both completed their first year of university and their first placement, so had had hands on experience. When they joined us in October, they had never met each other nor did they know anything about Beningbrough or it's existence!


What did they do?
During their first week they were involved in all kinds of activities. They gave up their Saturday to come in and run an informal learning activity for families as part of our 'Play' weekend. They also joined me (Learning Officer) for a trip to East Riddlesden Hall to meet with other learning and community colleagues for a 'Sharing Learning' meeting. As well as all of that, they also worked on creating some story prompts for our 'Halloween' weekend to be used in our Story Den. Throughout the week they completed tasks such as a contextual analysis of the property and those who work there, they explored and became familiar with the education programmes and became aware of our informal learning programmes.

The students returned this week, bringing with them more knowledge, skills and ideas from another years worth of university input and another school placement. When asked to tell us about their experience, this is what they said:

Hannah:
"I feel that SOTS is a fundamental part of children's education as the children are discovering other settings outside of their school environment and are socially interacting with the wider community, supporting their holistic development. I also feel that the SOTS experience is significant for trainee teachers as it teaches us how to use the resources and other environments to enhance children's learning. My own opinion of taking children out of the school environment has completely changed. At first I thought it was just a trip out loosely related to the curriculum, as this is something I have observed previously. However, I now appreciate and recognise that the benefits to the children are immeasurable.

This change in attitude has also encouraged me to take a SOTS placement in the Washington Smithsonian Museums, in the USA, to learn about the children's different reactions and developments in other environments.

I have relished this experience and will most definitely take it into the classroom when I qualify as a teacher. I would encourage other teachers to utilise the experience to promote children's learning and to make the most of the outdoor opportunities available. I would also encourage universities to place trainee teachers in SOTS settings as I have gained a large number of both professional and personal skills, which I feel I could not get from the classroom."

Rebecca:
"I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Beningbrough Hall, and feel I have got lots from this placement. The experience will definitely help me in my future teaching. I have realised the potential for learning in an out of school setting, which I was unaware of previously. There are so many opportunities for learning in the National Trust and at Beningbrough. These vary from; Art based workshops, Victorian Servant Experience and The Great Fire of London which can be used across the key stages.

As there is such a variety of learning opportunities at Beningbrough, I will ensure that I will explore these at a variety of settings in my future teaching.

I have definitely developed professionally during this placement, and now value the potential at a setting like this."

Getting Hands On...

"Taking part in the Below Stairs Victorian Servant Experience workshop was a particularly enjoyable experience, which has enhanced our understanding of what happens here. Dressing up as Victorian servants certainly ignited the children's imagination, and allowed them to have a memorable experience.

We were able to interact with groups of children doing activities, as we were both leading different elements of the experience. This included hands on activities of making polish paste and then using the paste to polish brass objects. This gave the children an understanding of what life was like as a servant, in an authentic setting, which is something they wouldn't get from the classroom.

Observing children in a different context has expanded our experience and understanding of children's learning. We feel that taking children on a trip to another setting is vital to their own development and clarifying their knowledge and understanding of the Victorian period."

York St John are one of the only universities that run a compulsory SOTS programme which contributes to the student's end of year results. The SOTS programme is one which is successful and enhances the knowledge, understanding, skills and experience of the student. In turn this makes them a well rounded and well educated professional. Jan Spencer, York St John's Partnership Development Officer, is a great supporter of the SOTS placements and with her team, organises placements for around 120 students year after year. Her passion and determination to keep the programme alive, is great to see and Beningbrough is proud to be a part of it.

Make your own Gromit!

We've been practising making Gromit this week!

We've been having a go at making our own Gromit this week - and it's not as easy at you might think! But coming up at our Diamond Jubilee Grand Tea Party on June 4th there'll be a rare opportunity to learn how to make Gromit with an expert model maker from Aardman - and anyone aged 6+ can have a go! Why not book a place at one of our special workshops?

Aardman Model Making Workshops
Monday June 4th, 11:30, 1:30, 3:30 (25 places per workshop, advance booking strongly recommended)
Ages 6+, children to be accompanied by an adult supervisor but only one per child due to space limitations.
Not just for the kids - adults may also participate! £5 per participant.
Bookings : 01904 472027.

There'll be plenty of other Wallace and Gromit themed happenings at our Jubilee tea party too, visit the events page on our website for details.

Visit Beningbrough events page

Vote for your favourite Wallace and Gromit film

Wallace and Gromit will be helping us celebrate the Diamond Jubilee!

Preparations for our Diamond Jubilee Grand Tea Party are well underway. We've been trying to decide which classic Wallace and Gromit film to show on our big screen in the Walled Garden but thought we'd ask for your help. Tweet the name of the film you'd like to see to @NTBeningbrough, or leave it in comments below.

Choose from: 

A Grand Day Out

A Close Shave 

The Wrong Trousers

A Matter of Loaf and Death

Vote for your favourite now!

A visit from Mother Duck

As you might imagine, Beningbrough's mother and baby room gets lots of visits from mums with babies - but not normally of the feathered variety! One of Beningbrough's resident ducks however, seems to have got to hear about the facilites on offer and last week, decided to go in and try them out! These fantastic photos were captured by visitors Mr and Mrs Ayres from Stevenage. We couldn't resist sharing them.

Two film crews and a wedding ...

The season is well and truly under way and what a spectacular start! April saw two film crews at Beningbrough, as well as our first wedding of the year.

The first film crew were from Daybreak TV, and arrived in the very early hours of the morning to cover the launch of the National Trust's 50 things to do before you're 11 3/4 campaign. Although we often have early

Daybreak TV presenter Katie Fawcett at Beningbrough with two visiting children

starts at Beningbrough, they aren't usually quite as early as 5am! The "50 things" campaign is all about getting out and rediscovering the things kids used to do before computer games came on the scene and we even managed to persuade a few children to come along and climb in our fantastic laurel den during the live broadcast. Some of the parents were interviewed, as was our resident elite ranger Des Cotton, an expert in safe tree climbing.

Elite ranger Des Cotton is interviewed live in our laurel den

The second TV crew to visit us in April were making a programme for BBC4 called "The History of Food." They filmed in the mansion, the Walled Garden and around the grounds and did a particularly nice shot with presenter Stefan Gates addressing viewers from the balcony in the Great Hall. What a great dramatic space! The programme will be screened later on this year. 

And then there was a wedding. Beningbrough's Great Hall is fantastic for weddings too, as well as film shoots! The couple and their party had the grounds totally at their disposal as the wedding was on a day when we were closed to the public. Seemingly miraculously, in a week where it had rained more than usual, the weather was lovely with quite a bit of sun. The wedding breakfast was in our restaurant, all beautifully decorated by the caterers - we loved the bunting! 

The Walled Garden Restaurant - ready for the wedding breakfast

And throughout May and June we're all set to be even busier with some fantastic public events including a Grand Tea Party for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Why not bookmark our events page? Don't miss out! 

Time Team Beningbrough

This weekend, National Trust Archaeologist Mark Newman and Dr Chris Gaffney of Geophysical Surveys of Bradford came to Beningbrough for the next phase of some ongoing archaeological work in our parkland. Previous work has uncovered evidence for the original Beningbrough Hall and the extensive formal gardens surrounding it.

The original house was the home of the Bourchier family from the 1540s until the building of the current mansion in 1716. We know relatively little about the Tudor house, but are now all set to unearth some more information. Two locations were chosen for this weekend's geophysical survey. The first is an area of what we believe to be the old formal gardens, and the second is a section of those gardens where we may also find remains of the house. 

The Bourchiers were a highly significant family in the Elizabethan era, and the evidence we have so far suggests this was reflected in the size of the gardens surrounding their mansion. A further clue is a later engraving (c1720) by Samuel Buck showing elaborate gardens to the front of the current house. The survey will help us fill in the details.

Local groups of archaeological enthusiasts and garden historians were invited to come and see the survey taking place and witness this new chapter in Beningbrough's history being written. Mark Newman, who has supervised the various stages of archaeogical work to date, led groups on a tour of the sites. Saturday's event and indeed the whole survey was funded by Natural England, as part of their support for the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme, in agreement with park tenant Mr.A.Jackson.

The results of the survey should be available to us towards the end of March - watch this space!

 

NT archaeologist Mark Newman welcoming visitors this Saturday 

Aerial view - the areas in green and red are the sites which were surveyed

Mark on site talking to visitors about the findings of previous archaeological work at Beningbrough

Dr Chris Gaffney explaining to a visiting group how gyophys can detect the hidden remains of Beingbrough's old gardens and mansion

Visiting groups get the chance to have a go at geophys themselves on site