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…

Life in ancient rockpools

a finger-crinoid nestles in an Ancient Landscape

We've just had a lovely day at Castleton Visitor Centre in the Hope Valley in Derbyshire. After snow a couple of weeks ago closed the centre, and the roads, and dramatic Winnatt's Pass, and froze our first "ancient rockpools" day out, today really counted as the start of public workshops for this project

our practice pool to get people started

86 people joined us during the day to look at fossils and models of ancient animals, and to stroke, prod, squeeze and generally explore our Ancient Landscape. Then most people made for themselves either a fossil fingerpuppet or an ancient rockpool from these far-off Carboniferous days (or both). Given what we were finding in our imagined rockpools, it's probably just as well we humans weren't around then!

hand-jelly...

...and fingerfish

We did make some practical discoveries, however, including "the easy way to draw a trilobite" - details will follow in another blog. And we met Toby with his lovely fossil blog - why not take a look? Fossilfriends

But mostly, we made things....

so cold outside, it wasn't safe to take gloves off indoors!

Next event is Saturday 6th April - Miller's Dale

Life in Ancient Seas - public events

on display in Castleton Visitor Centre

Life in Ancient Seas

public events at Castleton Visitor Centre

Sunday 24th March, Thursday 4th April

from a time before the dinosaurs,

meet the world that gave us the limestone of the Peaks

Times: 2 sessions: 11 - 1 and 2 - 4pm

No booking needed - just drop-by and join in

Events are free (donations welcomed) and materials are provided

Where: Castleton Visitor Centre, S33 8WN (Hope Valley, Derbyshire)

Working around the Ancient Landscapes exhibition in the Visitor Centre, we'll look at fossils from our Peak District limestones and draw and make the animals that produced the fossils. Visitors will also be able to make their own little piece of ancient life with a prehistoric rockpool or add creatures to the landscape in the Visitor Centre

Other events through the summer will be posted on this blog and on our Facebook group Ancient Landscapes ad well as in mainstream press 

Visit an Ancient Landscape!

Ancient Landscapes exhibition

2nd March - 14th April 2013

at Castleton Visitor Centre

10.30 - 4.30

from a time before the dinosaurs,

meet the world that gave us 

the limestone of the Peaks

made in crochet, knitting, drawing, painting and models

Including work by groups from Project eARTh and Borderland Voices and public events exploring the Carboniferous world of 290 million years ago when the limestone shales and gritstones of the Peak district were first formed.

public events on Sunday 24th March and Thursday 4th April

Castleton Visitor Centre, Buxton Road, Castleton, Hope Valley, S33 8WN