Apple Day, 2013

the ammonite tree

A bit belated, but here are images from our Ancient Landscape activities at the Dove Valley Centre's delicious Apple Day but in October

We sent the AL artwork and artist) in as a reminder to visitors to look under their feet and to remember that the earth the fruit trees were growing in drew its form from the stony bones of the earth. And here those bones reflect the ancient seas of 300 million years ago….

preparing decorations 

a jellyfish is captured in wax crayon 

ready for action

Belemnite-streamers

the fossil streamer-tree

High tide again!

High Tide again

From December 14th to February 22nd 2014, our Ancient Landscape will be adding its own distinctive wooly touch to Buxton Museum and Art Gallery’s “White Peak, Dark Peak” exhibition

Celebrating the inspiration that the gritty Dark Peak and softer landscapes of the limestone White Peak have offered  artists over the centuries, the exhibition features prints, paintings, finds and poems from the Museum collection. It includes several new pieces added to the collection during the Enlightenment! initiative.

Quietly loitering on one wall, is a poem by one of our own Ancient Landscape artists. Gordon MacLellan’s “The Hills are Waiting” is included as an invitation to visitors to step out and go exploring these dramatic landscapes for themselves.

Public events: we are planning a public event on Tuesday 18th February 2014 - more details to follow. There might be a weekend event as well...

Useful links:

Gordon’s blog

The Museum’s Collections in the Landscape programme

who could resist paddling in this ancient sea?

Apple Day, 13th October

Apple Day

Sunday 13th October 

11.30 - 3.30

Dove Valley Centre

No, we're not fossilising apples nor pretending they are the first of the Carboniferous fruits! But thsi Apple Day falls from its tree deep in our ancient limestone landscape, just where muddy water shales meet the limestone of the lagoon floor

Add caption

So, our Ancient Landscape will be rippling itself around on this Apple Day to remind everyone of the geology under their orchard feet!

So come along and play with a trilobite or two!





And try some of the Apple Days activities as well:
apple tasting and identification
apple recipes
apple juicing
orchard wildlife walks
techniques for pruning your own trees
storytelling
and other fruitful delights!

Where: Dove Valley Centre, Under Whitle, nr Longnor, SK17 0PR (on the road between Longnor and Sheen)
Cost: free!

Leek Playday

Leek: Brough Park and wild times!

Wednesday 7th August

National Playday

A flurry of fossils and creativity at Leek Play Day! Lots of interest the trilobites, ammonites, belemnites and brachiopods from those who came to play. Stories were shared, tales of visits to Dorset and Whitby, where fossils had been spotted on the beaches.

Our very own coral sea, the ancient local landscape, has many treasures to offer to those who go seeking. 

One visitor told us of an ammonite in the stone near Waterhouses, another mentioned an ammonite in the nearby mobile museum bus! Lots of drawing, cutting and sticking resulted in creatures from the carboniferous and seascapes featuring the coral reef teeming with life. 

Report by Sarah Males: artist on the spot!

(Nearly 350 people visited the Ancient Landscapes stall!)

Wandering through Winnat's!

Tuesday 6th August

Winnat's Pass Walk

A report on our adventurous adventurers!

Hunting for Fossils!

A small band of explorers set off from Castleton Visitor Centre on a mission to find fossils in our ancient landscape. 

Winnat's Pass is a spectacular limestone gorge, full of caves and scree, providing the ideal location for rock and fossil hunting. As we walked up to the Pass, Jenny Gerrans from the National Trust pointed out Mam Tor, the mother mountain with a face of shivering shale overlaying the limestone. The remains of a bronze and early iron age hill fort can be seen in the landscape around the Tor and we thought this would be a good place to see right across the valley.

We soon reached the first of many little caves in the Pass. Little but big enough for us to get inside and some of us could even stand up! Very exciting, although rather dark. We found pieces of fossil in the stones around the cave entrance, then started to investigate the scree. 

One of our party found an age worn pound coin, not quite old enough to be a real fossil. 

Report by Sarah Males, artist, cave grubber and appreciator of fossils

Monsters from the limestone!

Images from a lovely day in Buxton Museum and Art Gallery

Drawing, very loosely, from the animals of the ancient seas that gave us the limestone of the Peaks, we were making animal puppets

work began with drawings

this eurypterid will emerge from the page later

detail!

NEXT EVENTS AT END OF THIS BLOG

improvising

Annie, one of our artists, hard at work

a good way of involving everyone

next stage for that eurypterid

a spectacular Dunklosteus!

taking a trilobite for a walk

trilobite family

there were several large trilobites

a sort of cuttlefish eating a jellyfish

the eurypterid leaves!

Join us on one of the next Ancient Landscape events!

Winnat's Pass Walk

Date: Tuesday 6th August 2013

Meeting point: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, Castleton, Hope Valley S33 8WP

Times: 2 - 4pm

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: - car parking charges may apply

What's happening?

With National Trust Rangers, we will explore the geology of this dramatic gorge, meeting the millstone grit that eventually covered the limestone of the White Peak. A Stone and Water artist will help the group explore creatively: composing instant poems, making up wild stories about the cliffs and caves of the Pass.

This walk will last 2 hours, has some steep slopes and will not remain on paved surfaces. Strong footwear essential and clothing to suit the weather

Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Date: Wednesday 7th  August 2013

Venue: Brough Park, Leek (beside the Leek Leisure Centre)

Times: 11 - 3

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll be making personal finger-puppet trilobites and pet ammonites and models of ancient seasides…

The Tide Stays In!

In tropical heat to-day, some 40 people called into the Green Man Gallery for some determined "Knitting of a new landscape"

It was great! There were needles knitting, crochets hooking and alarming needle-felt barbs avoiding people's fingers. Seaweed was knotted and jellyfish ribboned and wobbled. A lot of the new creations were placed in the window display by their makers

And the Gallery has asked for our Ancient Landscape to stay in the window for another week!

branching coral

seaweed might be knitted....

seaweed could also be knotted...

...but sooner or later, it always gets someone!

a sea slug takes shape

a half-grown sea slug

the adult slug sets off on adventures

crochetted and fossilised ammonites 

contributions from our friends at Silverdale Library

Summer events for families!

Ancient Underwater Adventures 

This Summer

We have some exciting activities coming up over the holiday period...summaries follow and then more detail further down the page. Have a read! Get excited! Come and join us in our investigation of the ancient landscapes of the Peaks!

Event summaries: details follow

All events are free (car parking charges may apply in some places). Family events suitable for children from 4 years and over

1. Tuesday 30th July: Life in ancient seas, at the Moorland Discovery centre, National Trust Longshaw nr Hathersage

- make your own prehistoric rockpool model! Sessions 11 - 1 and 2 - 4, no booking needed

2. Thursday 1st August: Monsters from the Limestone, Buxton Museum and Art Gallery: SK17 6DA, making large puppet fossil animals from the depths of the ancient Peak District seas!, 10-30 -12.30, 1.30 - 3.30

3. Tuesday 6th August: Winnat's Pass Walk: exploring the millstone grits of the Dark Peak. Meet: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, S33 8WP, at 2pm. Walk 2 - 4pm, some steep sl

we found this image on-line,
apologies to anyone
who feels robbed by that!

opes and off paved footpaths

4. Wednesday 7th August: Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Brough Park, Leek, 11 - 3: meet the Ancient Landscape team and make your own finger-puppet fossils or ancient seascape

Events in detail

1. Life in ancient seas

Date: Tuesday 30th July 2013

Venue: Moorland Discovery Centre, National Trust Longshaw, nr Hathersage

Times: 11 - 1 and 2 - 4

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed)- car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll look at fossils to understand the animals of the times, draw those animals and the corals and seaweeds they lived in. Then visitors can make their own model rockpool as a piece of ancient seaside to take home

2. Monsters from the Limestone

Date: Thursday 1st August 2013

Venue: Buxton Museum and Art Gallery, terrace Rd, Buxton SK17 6DA

Times: 10.30 - 12.30 and 1.30 - 3.30

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Exploring life in the Carboniferous Seas that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll look at fossils to understand the animals of those times, and build our own limestone creatures as puppets and masks - make a pet trilobite, wear a giant brachiopod, or have a tame crinoid or nautiloid to ripple home with you….

Basic activity is straightforward with lots of options for people to experiment with

3. Winnat's Pass Walk

Date: Tuesday 6th August 2013

Meeting point: Castleton Visitor Centre Car Park, Castleton, Hope Valley S33 8WP

Times: 2 - 4pm

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

With National Trust Rangers, we will explore the geology of this dramatic gorge, meeting the millstone grit that eventually covered the limestone of the White Peak. A Stone and Water will help the group explore creatively: drawing rocks and shapes, composing instant poems, making up wild stories about the cliffs and caves of the Pass.

This walk will last 2 hours, has some steep slopes and will not remain on paved surfaces. Strong footwear essential and clothing to suit the weather

4. Life in Ancient Seas at Leek PlayDay

Date: Wednesday 7th  August 2013

Venue: Brough Park, Leek (beside the Leek Leisure Centre)

Times: 11 - 3

Booking: no booking needed just drop by and join in

Cost: free: materials provided (donations welcomed) - car parking charges may apply

Organisers and more information: this is part of the Ancient Landscapes project organised by Stone and Water (http://ancientlandscapes.blogspot.co.uk/).

What's happening?

Come and paddle in a prehistoric sea! Explore life in the Carboniferous Seas of 300 million years ago that eventually gave us the limestone, shale and gritstones of the Peak District. We'll be making personal finger-puppet trilobites and pet ammonites and models of ancient seasides…