Monday 16 December 2013

Project concludes and app launched

Here is Jennie's final illustration for the project - drawn specifically for the schools pack - it shows the Stanleys and the Marsdens viewing recent repairs to the pale.

The project has now come to a close - have a look at all the materials on www.forestofbowland.com/aleapinthepark  and from there you can download the mobile app we have created, so you can go out into the landscape and walk the line of the pale with audio commentary and images of the area as it has been over the last 600 years: take a leap in the park!

Tuesday 10 December 2013

Open Day!

Our project open day on 1st December was a big success, with over 100 people coming along to find out more about the deer parks. Jennie brought along her illustrations and eveyone loved them!
 

We also attempted to build a section of pale in the wildlife garden behind the church hall which is managed by Chipping in Bloom. First we felled a branch of an old oak tree standing by a brookand then Richard Atton and Tarja cleaved it into 4 quarters - tough work!

 

 
then the uprights and rails were put in place and they made wooden pegs to hold them together



 
Well done you two!
the pale will be finished soon: all 10 foot of it! imagine how hard it would be to build 7 miles.....why not pop along to Chipping and see it?

Thursday 14 November 2013

History Pin

A Leap in the Park is now on History Pin - have a look at our channel and explore some of the other All Our Stories Heritage Lottery Funded projects that are uploading digital records of their projects. Look for our page:


Friday 25 October 2013

The end is in sight

The project is drawing to a close now and we are working hard to get all the research materials and images into digital form so that they can be uploaded to our leapinthepark webpage (which will sit on www.forestofbowland.com) and also to our Leap in the Park app. We hope to launch both of these at our end of project celebration on Sunday December 1st, to be held at St Mary's church hall in Chipping. We will have lots of work on display and in addition Lindsey Wallace from the Harris Museum & Art Gallery will be bringing along the lovley Weld watercolours, plus Jennie Anderson will be returning to Bowland to show us the original deer park reconstruction paintings she has produced for us.
 
 
 
Weld's painting of Gibbon Bridge Farm: now a hotel

Friday 4 October 2013

Apprentice scribes in Tudor times

This week, ten year six pupils from Brabin's Endowed Primary school in Chipping visited Lancashire Archives as part of the education work the Leap in the Park project has been undertaking, led by ex Headteacher Glynis Goldsbrough. Lots of resources to help pupils find out more about the deer parks at Leagram and Radholme, using all parts of the curriculum, are now available to download from our website
The trip was organised by Lancashire Museums Service and the children were visiting Preston to become apprentices to Queen Elizabeth I's royal scribe, Thomas Coldfield. They spent the morning learning their letters, illuminating texts, making seals and finding out a lot about Elizabethan life and the deer parks. They also had chance to go into the Archive store to view some original 400 year old manuscripts actually signed by Good Queen Elizabeth and bearing her seal. We found out how parchment was made ( ugh!) and how the beeswax seal was used to show who the important letter was from, even though many Elizabethan people could not read the text, even if it was in English!
We hope to take another class to the archives soon, so if you are at a primary school in Lancashire studying the Tudors this term, get in touch!





Wednesday 11 September 2013

Our day out.....


Yesterday a group of 10 volunteers visited the Lancashire Archives to look at some of the original documents uncovered during our research into the deer parks of Bowland. We also had a private guided tour of the stacks, where all the 8 miles of precious documents are stored in monitored conditions, and then we had a go at transcribing a court roll from 1674!

Tuesday 3 September 2013

A Grand day out.....


Here we are, enjoying the Bank Holiday sunshine at Chipping Show, and telling lots of people about our work on the Deer Parks