Horners Mill Education Initiative

Site History

The farm lies in an Area of Great Landscape Value. The landscape of this area is a unique combination of mixed farmland, large hedgerows, orchards and woodland set in a network of rivers and streams. Lower Thrift Farm is typical of the farmland of the area. It lies within an undulation landscape with many traditional features still commonplace such as ancient woodland, tree-lined watercourses and orchards.

Two of the existing orchards are on old orchard sites and one of the Key Objectives of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme is the conservation of traditional orchards in Herefordshire and Worcestershire. These traditional orchards are managed for their cider fruit with no pesticide use on the trees and extensive grazing. The farm's Orchard Management plan includes sympathetic tree maintenance work, new planting with varieties characteristic of the area, field boundary restoration and the management of the species-rich grassland.

Lower Thrift Farm is within the "Abberley and Malvern Hills Geopark". Whitbourne Brook, which runs through the farm's orchards, is of particular geological interest due to its stunning (actively forming) tufa deposits. Tufa is formed by springs emerging from beneath the Bishops Frome Limestone. The calcium carbonate dissolved in the spring water precipitates to form a soft white or grey sponge like rock. The tufa deposits often contain petrified plant and animal remains. The delicate tufa deposits are an important "geoindicator" of current environmental status, groundwater quality and are an indicator of rapid environmental change. Tufa supports lime tolerant species and the alkaline conditions of soils make this an ideal location to demonstrate the links between geology and biodiversity.

Horners Mill lies between two parts of the land and the remains of the mill-race or leat are to be found in the orchard. The leat was still in use 80-100 years ago, according to local knowledge. The mill was used for grinding corn by many of the farms in the immediate vicinity up until the mid-nineteenth century. Mr Richards' great-grandmother came as a little girl with her father to have corn ground at Horners Mill. Milling operations must have ceased not long after this.

The association with Mr Richards' family and Horners Mill goes back to his maternal great-grandfather who was a Gamekeeper on the Whitbourne Estate. The tenant of Horners Mill at that time was discovered poaching pheasants by the Gamekeeper, a very serious offence in those days. The tenant, knowing that if his misdemeanours were reported he would be evicted, attempted to silence the Gamekeeper and a savage fight ensued - the tenant attempted to drown the Gamekeeper in a well! The Gamekeeper managed to escape and the tenant lost his home. The Gamkeeper was offered the tenancy of Horners Mill and the holding has remained in the family ever since. Mr Richards' maternal grandfather purchased Horners Mill from the Whitbourne Estate in 1964.

Near the Teme, there was a public house and ferryman's cottage and the fishing rights used to belong to the Bishop of Hereford.

Hungry Dean is ancient semi-natural woodland and remains semi-natural in character. Gravel pits and coal pits are recorded in Hungry Dean and a coal pit workers cottage The woodland has an old track, still visible, which led to the cottage on the north side of the wood, which is know locally as Tinker's Bank. Dormice are known to live in the local woodlands, which is a priority species under both the UK and local Biodiversity Action Plans. Muntjack and fallow deer can sometimes be seen.

Appropriate Clothing and Footwear

There is no such thing as bad weather; only inappropriate clothing. Please ensure that you come well prepared for spending a day outdoors. Strong, waterproof shoes or boots are a must.

Health and Safety


General Behaviour in the Countryside



General Countryside Activities

General Field Study

Skills such as observation, recording by writing, drawing or photographing and species identification of wildlife will take on a different aspect when carried out in the wider and unfamiliar landscape of the countryside. Sketching apple blossom during springtime and fruit in the autumn could be linked to early lessons in nature study and variations in the seasons. Close observation of the patterns on plant leaves or attentive listening to birds and animal calls are all experiences, which can encourage a desire to study further.

It is sometimes easy to forget that, as adults, we are more likely to have experienced many moments of wonder, for example, the first time we saw the intricate and colourful design on the wing of a dragonfly or butterfly, the speed of a bounding deer, the brightness of rose hips in a hedge or simply the vastness of space that you experience at the top of a hill. These experiences are still to come for young people and a visit to the countryside is likely to provide a number within a short time. Try to include some time for sitting, looking and listening.

Walks and Trails

A guided walk or a site trail can provide a simple introduction to the site and also stimulate questioning about a variety of issues. Games, such as passports or postcard sticks, can be used to move groups from one area to another and they can become so engrossed in the activity that they do not realise that they have walked quite a distance.

In these activities, young people have to collect and attach to a card (prepared with double sided sellotape) or a short twig (with a long piece of wool or string attached) a selection of natural items (very small pieces of leaf or petal, but no living creatures). At the end of the walk each person explains why they picked up theses items and this forms either an entry ticket to the next part of the activity or it can be taken home so that they can recall their day to their parents, using the postcard or stick as a memory prompt.

The woodland trail incorporates various wildlife, agricultural, geological, landscape and historical features within the area.

Sketching and Photography

Countryside landscapes provide rich stimuli for drawing, painting and photography. You may choose to focus on small detail such as the structure of a single flower or Tufa deposits or embrace the whole landscape.

Map work

Open countryside provides opportunities for mapping exercises, allowing young people to work on a large or small scale. For example, maps of the whole site can be prepared showing all the features visited during the day or a simple map depicting just one area.

Livestock

Many young people have little opportunity to have close contact with animals such as cows and sheep. However such contact provides opportunities for introducing an attitude of caring and nurturing as well as some obvious scientific studies about life and death processes.



SPECIFIC LANDSCAPE DETAILS AND ACTIVITIES

OLD ORCHARDS

Landscape Details

Once a common feature throughout England, small, traditional orchards are increasingly rare. Many have been grubbed up and those remaining are often left unmanaged because it is no longer economic to do so. Orchards are valued for their contribution top the local landscape, their links with our rural history and for the enjoyment they can offer to visitors. They support a wide range of lichens, wildflowers and animals including owls and woodpeckers. Old orchards in Herefordshire are characterised by widely spaced standard trees of old and often scarce varieties.

Widlife

The orchard is planted on a field alongside the Special Wildlife Site Whitbourne Brook, and adjacent to good quality, species rich grassland, and Special Wildlife Site Ancient Semi-Natural woodland, the site holds excellent wildlife. New woodland and land which has just been taken out of arable in order to plant additional standard orchard also abut the orchard.

It has anthills, and has a sward of white clover, crested dogstail, smooth-stalked meadow grass, patches of sweet vernal grass and many coarse grasses including cocksfoot. The sward has grasshopper and bush cricket and good numbers of butterflies (members of the Brown butterfly family are abundant). There are a wide range of species, which are found in wet grassland within the southern boundary where there is a ditch and wet conditions. There are some young fruit trees, and many older trees, providing a range of opportunities for wildlife with decaying wood provided continuously.

ACTIVITIES

Maths
Fruit crops provide a variety of opportunities for estimating, counting and weighing. E.g.; How many apples, average weight of apples, total number or weight of fruit per tree and from the orchard as a whole. Fruit itself can offer studies in symmetry and counting such as how many pips and in what pattern.
Science
Old orchards provide a rich habitat for studying plants, lichens, birds and insects. Species can be recorded and food chains identified. As the production of a crop is dependent upon successful pollination, visits to orchards at flowering and fruiting times can be linked to studies of plant life cycles and insect studies.
Most fruits are now available in a number of varieties and these can be compared for appearance, size, final use and with permission, taste. Follow up work can include cooking and producing drinks from fruits.
English
Research the ways in which fruits have played important role in literature and have led to sayings such as an apple for the teacher, and an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Celebrate Apple Day in October.
Art
Fruit has traditionally been used as a subject for still life drawing whilst orchards have been used by artists to convey countryside activity. Investigate famous painters or schools of art who have done this and use the orchard, photographs taken during your visit or samples of fruit for drawing.
Geography
Old orchards will contain standard (ie: tall) fruit and nut trees. Fruit production and processing has changed and fewer, smaller trees can now produce larger crops. Investigate how such changes have affected the local landscape and local industry. The affects of cold or harsh weather at flowering times can have a critical effect on fruit production and so orchard studies can be linked to general weather studies and comparisons can be made between weather monitoring at different locations e.g.: school and the farm.

History

Local areas were known for their particular type of fruit and sometimes this is reflected in local place names and festivals. Investigate if this is true for this area.


WATERSIDE AREAS

Landscape Details

England contains an intricate network of waterside landscapes including rivers, grazing meadows, flood meadows, brooks, lakes, ponds, canals and drainage dykes. The distinctive and often restful character of these areas makes them attractive to visitors.

The farms' watercourses are of importance, with the Whitbourne Brook designated a Special Wildlife Site, and the Teme a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Farming operations may affect the quality of water throughout the river system. The Whitbourne Brook appears to have a good clean supply of water, and stock damage of banks is not taking place. Tufa deposits are found near the waterfall in the Bottom of Tytherley (marked on the map).

Wildlife

It is likely that the watercourses support good numbers of invertebrates and this forms a good base for the food chain. The Whitbourne Brook, and the watercourses on the farm which feed it, has a rocky substrate and the dipper is known to breed there. The dipper, which feeds on invertebrates in the water, is only able to survive on clean watercourses. Signs of otters are found on this brook and associated streams and ditches.

ACTIVITIES

Maths
Estimating area and volume of water bodies through measurement of size and water flow. Sort water creatures and plants using features such as numbers of legs, colour, shape.
Science
Survey the plants and animals living in different areas beside and within the water. Develop a database and update on subsequent visits at the same or different times of year. Look at the way in which plants or animals are adapted to live in still and flowing water. Study the life cycle of amphibians, mammals and birds living in wetlands and waterside landscapes.
English
Use the setting and inhabitants of waterside and wetland landscapes as a focus for creative writing projects.
Art
Use the beauty and the grotesqueness of insects present as a basis for sculpture, stained glass work or painting.
Geography
Consider the ways in which humans have influenced this landscape for example through pond or watercourse creation, pollution, through building dam. Compare this waterside habitat to others that have been visited.
History
Review how this particular area has changed over time considering what role it has played in relation to human activity, the landscape ( eg; erosion and changing locations) and whether there is evidence of natural succession from open areas of water through marsh to scrub invasion and finally woodland.
Technology
Make up a kit for pond study to include a long handled net, an underwater viewer, quadrants and collection tray.

OLD MEADOWS AND PASTURE

Landscape details

There are some excellent examples of species rich pasture on the farm, which are a precious reserve for rare flowers and insects and provide breeding and hunting grounds for birds, enhancing the diversity of the countryside and giving pleasure to anyone visiting them. Pasture species include; field woodrush, self-heal, birds foot trefoil, catsear, common spotted orchid, early purple orchid, cowslip and toothwort. (A comprehensive list with frequency indicated by DAFOR is available on request)

All of the meadows within the open access area have wet areas and banks and lie against the Whitbourne Brook, a Special Wildlife Site. Management includes removal of stock in wet conditions and winter. No fertiliser applications will encourage the spread of wild flowers.

ACTIVITIES

Science
Survey the plants living in the area and, if possible, compare this to other grassland areas, which have been managed more intensively (for example using fertilisers, selective herbicides or managed for silage cutting rather than hay cropping). Observe the animal populations, including birds and investigate which food chains exist within the area. How are these affected by the way in which the area is managed?
English
Using information about the farming year and the site, write about the seasonal activities that take place on the site.
Art
Grasses, flowers and leaves can be sketched or photographed. Children can be encouraged to survey their own school playing fields or nearby parks for more species to draw. With the permission of the owner some specimens could be pressed or leaves treated to reveal their skeleton of veins.
Maths
Search for and collect mini-beasts (handle carefully) and sort these using a variety of criteria such as number of legs, where you found them (damp or dry, light or dark, ground level or above ground level) or what they eat. Develop methods for estimating abundance for example using a numerical scale or the DAFOR scale. Please return all mini-beasts to the meadows where you found them.
Geography
Look at the seasonal management of the area and consider how this affects the lifecycles of the plants and animals present. E.g. Hay crops were traditionally taken after the majority of plants had produced seed.

Teacher Resources

The following list provides some suggestions for further sources of information.

ORGANISATIONS

Countryside Commission
John Dower House
Cresent Place
Cheltenham
Gloucestershire
GL50 3RA
Tel: 01242 521381


English Nature
Northminster House
Peterborough
Cambridgeshire
PE1 1UA
Tel: 01733 340345


Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group
National Agricultural Centre
Stoneleigh Park
Warwickshire
CV8 2LZ


Food and Farming Information Service
National Agricultural Centre
Stoneleigh Park
Warwickshire
CV8 2LZ
Tel: 01203 696969 Ext 207


Learning through Landscapes
3rd Floor Southside Offices
The Law Courts
Winchester
Hampshire
SO22 9DL
Tel: 01962 846258
Although a school grounds based organisation many 
of the LTL's publications contain suitable activities.


Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Lodge
Sandy
Bedfordshire
SG19 2DL
Tel: 01767 680551



GENERAL BOOK RESOURCES

The following resources include a wide range of outdoor activities, some linked to the National Curriculum.

Exploring our Environment
Field Studies Council
Preston Montford
Montford Bridge
Shrewsbury
SY4 1HW
Tel: 01743 850370


Exploring Grassland - a resource pack for investigations in schools
suitable for 8-12 year olds
Kent Trust for Nature Conservation
Tyland Barn
Standing
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 3BD
Tel: 01622 662012

Old Orchards Resources

Orchards – a guide to local conservation
Common Ground
41 Shelton Street
London
WD2H 9HJ
Tel:0207793109


Community Orchards
Common Ground
41 Shelton Street
London
WD2H 9HJ
Tel:0207793109



Waterside Resources

Science in the Environment
Perlethorpe Environmental Education Centre
Nottinghamshire County Council
Perlethorpe
Newark
NG22 9EQ
Tel: 01623 822218


Freshwater Habitat Pack
Cornwall Trust for Nature Conservation
Five Acres
Allet
Truro
Cornwall
TR4 9DJ
Tel: 01872 73939

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