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Autumn Events at Woodlands Farm

Today a series of upcoming events at Woodlands Farm have been added to the site calendar, including a full programme of activities for the October half term (25-28 October), Apple Day on 23 October and the Christmas Fair on 27 November:

Sunday 23 October
Apple Day, 11am-4pm, FREE ENTRY.
All are welcome at the Woodlands Farm Trust Apple Day. Come and celebrate National Apple Day with a variety of activities, including crafts, a treasure hunt, archery, face-painting, and pressing apples to make juice. There will be stalls selling local produce, including farm honey and home-made jams and cakes. A great day out for all the family. Entry is free, but donations are welcome – all money raised helps us to care for our animals.

Sunday 27 November
Christmas Fair, 11am-3pm, FREE ENTRY.
All are welcome at the Woodlands Farm Trust Christmas Fair. Sip mulled wine whilst browsing stalls of local produce and crafts for early Christmas present ideas, or relax in our café while the kids enjoy crafts and games. A great festive day out for all the family. Entry is free, but donations are welcome – all money raised helps us to care for our animals.

Education Activities for Half Term, Tues 25-Fri 28 October

Tues 25-Fri 28 October, 9.30am-4.30pm
Can You Spy Da Spider?
Self-guided trail around the farm. Free; drop-in.

Tues 25, Weds 26, Fri 28 October, 9.30am-4.30pm
The Big Draw: Fantastic Animals on the Farm.
Make your own fantastic creatures. Materials supplied. Free; drop-in.

Tues 25 October
Sessions at 10.30am, 12pm, 2pm, 3pm.
Farm Food Day. Try something new, eat something wild, have a go with our apple press and find out what’s edible and what’s not on the farm. Ages 6+. Drop in; £1 per person per session.

Weds 26 October
10.30am-12.30pm; 2pm-4pm.
Wildlife in the Woods. Fungal foray, fun and foraging for ages 6+. Will take place whatever the weather, so be prepared! Free; drop-in.

Thurs 27 October
Rubbish Monster Toddler Group, 10am-12pm. Rubbish Monsters, 2pm-4pm.
Recycling the fun way, making monsters! Free; drop-in.

Fri 28 October
Creepy Crawly Day. 10.30am, 12pm, 2pm.
Bug-themed walks and activities. Free; drop-in.

Fri 28 October
Things That go Bump in the Night. Starts 4.45pm for Talk and 5.45pm for Walk. Ends 7.30pm.
A talk about bats, followed by a bat walk using detectors, and moth trapping. Ages 6+.
Booking essential; £2 per adult, children free.

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Woodlands Farm Summer Holiday Activities

This latest addition to the farm’s activities for young people began last week, and runs throughout the school holidays.

woodlandsfarmsummeractivities

The Woodlands Farm Trust Summer Holiday Activities 2011

Running Tuesday-Friday every week from 26 July-2 September
Drop-in, no booking required.

Tuesdays 1pm-4pm
Woodlands Adventures – an afternoon of fun in our beautiful woods.
Suitable for ages 6-14 (all children must be accompanied). FREE.

Wednesdays 10am-4pm
Wildlife explorers – a search for what else lives here besides the farm animals
Suitable for ages 6-14 (all children must be accompanied). FREE.

Thursdays 10am-12pm
Toddler Club (n.b. this will continue beyond the summer)
Come and meet the animals, try out arts and crafts, play, and meet up with other families. Tea/coffee
and biscuits provided. £2 per adult, children FREE! Suitable for ages 6 and under (all children must
be accompanied).

Fridays 10am-4pm
Farm fun – crafts, gardening and farm tours.
Suitable for all ages (all children must be accompanied). FREE.

Farm Details:

The Woodlands Farm Trust
(registered charity 1051680)
The Woodlands Farm Trust
331 Shooters Hill
Welling, Kent
DA16 3RP
Nearest tube: North Greenwich
Nearest BR: Welling
Buses: 486 & 89
Telephone & Fax: 020 8319 8900
Email: woodlandsft@aol.com
www.thewoodlandsfarmtrust.org

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Woodlands Farm Summer Show This Sunday

Part II of IV in the farm’s annual list of events; the summer show being the biggest, and the one where the large field is opened up and decked out with hay bales.

woodlands farm summer show 2011

This year’s flyer

All are welcome at the Woodlands Farm Trust Summer Show. Come and meet our animals, and enjoy the chance to buy quality local produce at reasonable prices, including home-made preserves, cakes and honey. Relax in our café or enjoy something from the BBQ, get involved in craft activities and games, and enjoy displays of country crafts, falconry and ferrets. Entry is £2.50 adults, £1.50 concessions and £1 children aged 4-16. Children aged 3 and under go FREE. All proceeds go towards caring for our animals. A great family day out!

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Eaglesfield Park Fête

eaglesfield park fête 2011

This Year’s flyer

It’s time for this year’s Fête, fortunately there’s no mention of the met getting their copper chopper out this time, as it was rather intimidating last year…besides, the Shooters Hill skies currently have plenty of flyovers anyway, such as the one by the fighter planes and our regular chinook fly-bys.

The organisers, the local neighbourhood watch group, are putting on this event for the fourth year running, and if it’s anywhere near as good as its predecessors it will be one of the best things on all year!

The fete opens at 1:30pm and closes at 4:30pm in Eaglesfield Park, Shooters Hill SE18. Activities include a birds of prey display, children’s entertainer, face painting, football, mini tennis, raffle and much more.

Borough Commander, Detective Chief Superintendent Richard Wood, will be officially opening the fete at approximately 2:15pm.

Jenny Penn, Principal Co-ordinator, said: “We created this fete to promote the benefits of Neighbourhood Watch and celebrate the amazing community we have in Shooters Hill and it just gets bigger and better each year. This year we have more than 30 stalls and a wide range of entertainment.”

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Not the Plumstead Make Merry

The talented reporters over at the In The Meantime Podcast are spreading the word about a Make Merry related event, which is to replace the cancelled festival with a relatively small pavilion party.

Not to be put off by the admittedly disastrous effects of the cuts on our local gathering (an event that I have previously described as jewel-in-the-crown of Plumstead’s social scene) the organisers are going ahead with a fun day at the Plumstead pavilion two-weeks-today.

See below for the more information:

As you are aware, there is no official Plumstead Make Merry festival this year. This is primarily due to central government cuts in local authority funding, which have meant that Greenwich Council have cut the funding on which the Make Merry has depended on for its infrastructure. So, instead of a festival this year, and to continue our fundraising efforts to ensure that we have a festival in 2012, there will be a ‘NOT THE PLUMSTEAD MAKE MERRY’ event on Saturday 11th June 2011 – the day the festival was due to take place. ??It will take place from 12 noon to 5pm, and will be held in and around the Greenwich Rugby Club Pavilion on Plumstead Common (Old Mill Road, London, SE18). And what’s more, it’s a whole afternoon of fun and entertainment for free! ??Please come along, with a picnic if you’d like to, at 12 noon where we will be joined by the Vicarage Road Tenants Association who are having their ‘Big Lunch’ on the Common. We will have children’s entertainers on-hand to keep the spirits high in this celebration of our community, including ‘Run Fun Starz’ who will be running Sports Day style events, and the ‘West Kent Boys Brigade’ who will have a bouncy castle. ??From 1pm the Plumstead Integration Project will be showing films in the Rugby Club of local interest; some will feature local stories and others are made by local people. ??From 3pm there will be live music and entertainment in the Rugby Club, featuring local acts including ‘Adam Tunji’, ‘Sarcastic Fringehead’, ‘John Morum’ and also ‘Brez’ (from The Outbursts) will be performing an acapella set, with more to be announced soon.??So please, add this to your calendar and come along for an afternoon of fun and entertainment. Please share this information, post the details to your ‘wall’, and tell your friends. We look forward to seeing you there!???

Do you want to take part?

?We are looking for performers to take part in this event. Specifically we are looking for comedians and acoustic music acts.?If you, or anyone you know, may be interested in taking part in the ‘Not The Plumstead Make Merry’ event, please contact the coordinator, Sarah Harper, by email at plumsteadmakemerry@yahoo.co.uk or leave your details on the following pages: ? http://www.plumsteadmakemerry.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/PlumsteadMakeMerry?Please note: Unfortunately we are unable to pay performers.???

Background

?The committee is made up of local people who all volunteer their time and efforts for free, we do not make a profit, and proceeds from our tea tent and stalls are spent on staging, marquees, sound equipment and on providing free activities for children. ??The council did offer us £1k of funding to continue but unfortunately this did not meet the necessary target, and due to the late confirmation of this in our planning schedule we could not confirm that we would have enough stall bookings to raise the rest of the money. As a volunteer committee of local residents, we felt that it would be irresponsible of us to proceed on a ‘hope’ basis that could potentially leave us with outstanding invoices. We are a not-for-profit association and cannot take this risk.?

So, there we go, spread the word, hope to see you down there.

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Free Bowling

The local bowls club are celebrating the opening of the 2011 bowling season at the end of April with a series of free bowling events:

woolwichandplumsteadbc_1922

The bowls club in 1922.

Woolwich and Plumstead B.C. are holding a series of free sessions to attract new members to the club and build awareness in the sport of Lawn Bowls.

These sessions will be held at the club on Foxcroft Road SE18 3DB on

Saturday 30th April 10.30am – 12.30pm
Sunday 1st May 10.30am – 12.30pm
Wednesday 4th May 6.00pm – 8.00pm
Saturday 7th May 10.30am – 12.30pm
Sunday 8th May 10.30am – 12.30pm
Wednesday 11th May 6.00pm – 8.00pm

ALL AGES WELCOME
(Under 16s to be supervised by an adult please)

Bring Family, Friends and a pair of soft-soled shoes.

Bowls will be available for you to use and there will be Members on hand to show you the basics and to answer any of your questions about the game or the club.

Refreshments will be available.

I often used to wonder why the sign over the gate used to describe the place as a bowls and tennis club … well, there were tennis courts squeezed in there at one point, and it even had fruit trees at one point. It’s interesting that the bowling green survived the reduction in size of the club; perhaps the tennis players moved over to where the current lawn tennis club is on Eaglesfield road?

plan-1970

1970

plan-1933

1933

plan-1905

1905

As can be seen, I’ve been given some nice old plans of the club grounds, in fact I’m currently going through an archive of old photos, and bit by bit uploading them to flickr.com/photos/eshootershill

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Upcoming Events at Woodlands Farm

The farm is currently at the height of Lambing Season, with 42 lambs born as of midday today! April is quite an exciting time for Woodlands with lots of other things going on, and we did do a post on this a while back…but to briefly recap: there’s (a) Easter Holiday family activities on Tuesdays-Fridays; (b) The Lambing Day on Saturday the 23rd; and (c) another “Things that go bump in the night” event on Tuesday the 26th.

In addition, various summer (and indeed autumn and winter) activities at have just been announced:

Upcoming Events at Woodlands Farm this Summer and beyond

Summer Cafe
We have a café run by volunteers in the Education Centre, weekends only, 12pm-4pm, from 30 April to 30 September (closed 9 July). Hot and cold drinks, snacks and second-hand books for sale.

Sunday 1 May
Bluebell Walk. Meet at Oxleas Woods Café at 2.15pm for a walk led jointly by the London Wildlife Trust and the Woodlands Farm Trust. No need to book. FREE, but donations welcome.

Saturday 7 May
Spring Bird Walk around the farm. Meet in lower farmyard for a 10am start. Duration 2-3hours. Will be cancelled if there is heavy rain. No need to book. FREE, but donations welcome.

Saturday 21 May
Barn Dance with live music by Skinner’s Rats, £10 per ticket (adults only; no discounts). Includes a ploughman’s supper; please bring your own drink and glasses. Tickets must be bought and paid for in advance; please contact the Farm Office during office hours on 020 8319 8900 or woodlandsft@aol.com

Saturday 28 May
Stag Beetle family activity day with the Education Team. Learn about and meet real stag beetles! Drop-in activities from 10.30am-3.30pm, no need to book. Mostly free; there may be small charges for some activities to cover materials.

Sunday 10th July, Summer Show, 11am-4.30pm.
All are welcome at the Woodlands Farm Trust Summer Show. Come and meet our animals, and enjoy the chance to buy quality local produce at reasonable prices, including home-made preserves, cakes and honey. Relax in our café or enjoy something from the BBQ, get involved in craft activities and games, and enjoy displays of country crafts, falconry and ferrets. Entry is £2.50 adults, £1.50 concessions and £1 children aged 4-16. Children aged 3 and under go FREE. All proceeds go towards caring for our animals. A great family day out!

Saturday 16 July
Barn Dance with live music by Skinner’s Rats, £10 per ticket (adults only; no discounts). Includes a ploughman’s supper; please bring your own drink and glasses. Tickets must be bought and paid for in advance; please contact the Farm Office during office hours on 020 8319 8900 or woodlandsft@aol.com

Sunday 23 October
Apple Day, 11am-4pm, FREE. Ties in with National Apple Day.

Sunday 27 November
Christmas Fair, 11am-3pm, FREE.

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Things that go bump in the night

Woodlands farm are having a series of night-time events starting tonight (see the calendar), including some observations of bats and moths. I know one of the Shooters Hill photographers will be there, so it’ll be interesting to see if any photos of the local nocturnals come out.

In other news, the website has been selected by the Guardian’s Dave Hill for inclusion in the top london blogs, which is encouraging…although possibly as a result of this the website has gone down (again) due to over-demand. The site has never had the capacity to handle more than a few visitors due to the principles of incurring no costs whilst remaining independent of hosted blogs; the downside of this is that the site has relied on the crankiest, wobbliest web hosting imaginable, although it has been a wonderful thing to publish web code for free. However, the need to move the site onto a steadier server has been pressing for some time, and the issue has finally come to a head.

Unfortunately, the principle of null costs takes priority over independence and the site will be moving to wordpress.com. This will mean the loss of most of the php/css/javascript tricks that this site plays with (for example the css hill/sky, the chop-o-gram, browser detection etc). Even worse than losing the technology, the change will result in the loss of the name, which has been in continuous use since 2006, which is a shame, and brings to an end the five year running time of one of south east london’s longest running local websites.

Anyway, the new home will be eshootershill.wordpress.com, and the current site is being phased into that one, with the final touches being made on the last day of June, it should be fairly seamless, at least I hope it is, if nothing else, people that read this via the email/rss subscriptions won’t need to change anything.

The e-shootershill.co.uk domain will stay on for forwarding purposes, and as the source of the calendar and javascript – and also in the hope of reinstating it one day if I manage to get a proper server, and then move the whole site back to free code, just to confuse things even more…

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Mad Hatters Tea Party

The local phoenix trader for Shooters Hill has asked if the following up-and-coming event could be added to the events list, so here it is with compliments[1. All local publicity on this site is `with compliments’, although participating organisations are encouraged to support the area by supporting severndroog castle]:

Christ Church School are having a Mad Hatters Tea Party on Saturday 26th March from 11:30am – 2pm in the hall beside the church (and the school playground if the weather permits).

There will be a Thai Spa present offering mini massages, Phoenix cards, a jewellery stall for children to make their own items and hopefully a flower stall too, as well as face painting, tombolas and games plus hot drinks and cakes (donations welcome!). There will also be a Mad Hatters Hunt for children and a Mad Hatters Parade for the best home made bonnet.

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Edge of the City – Plumstead Film Festival

In a twist of serendipity, just as one Plumstead festival dies, another springs to life[1. the festival has another website too], thanks to the PiP.

The theme of the Festival, The Edge of the City, was chosen to evoke not only the idea of a geographical location, but a psychological state of mind. Our Festival has recognised the possibility of marginalisation of certain members of society who do not always have a voice, because of their ethnicity, age, disability, perceived social background, sexuality or income. These issues will be articulated in the selected films and discussed with filmmakers and their guests.

The festival will be a fantastic opportunity for the local community to interact with filmmakers, both amateur and professional and to enjoy a free cultural event in the local area. We have also developed this event to bring together members of the community. We will be inviting members of arts groups and institutions, local authorities, representatives of schools and community groups, and members of the press to attend and participate in our activities. We hope the network that is formed at this event will blossom into relationships that will benefit the local community and its representatives.

19th March 2011 – 2pm to 7.30pm: At St Patrick’s School Hall, Griffin Road, Greenwich, London SE18 7QG. This day is open to the public and is committed to screening documentaries and drama films other than those entered into the Festival competition. There will be a special screening of the film ‘Covered’ at 15.30 – documentary discussing the meaning of the scarf for women from different cultures. There will also be an opportunity to watch and be involved in a film editing process of a short drama Love in SE18.

20th March – 12pm to 7.00pm: At Tramshed Youth Theatre, 51 – 53 Woolwich New Road, London SE18 6ES. We will start at 12pm with screenings of shortlisted films, moving on to the awards ceremony at 2.30pm. At 4pm this year’s best films will be screened followed by Q&A’s with their directors. There will also be a special screening of the film ‘LOVE in SE18’ at the end of the day. The bar will be open throughout this event which will conclude with a networking party.