Homefront Heroines is a two year Heritage Lottery Funded project exploring the lives and roles of the women of World War One. Told through digital stories, poetry and craft work, the exhibition is a culmination of the research uncovered.
Join us for an evening with the award winning and bestselling nature-writer, John Lewis-Stempel, as he talks about his new book Still Water: The Deep Life of the Pond.
The Pond. Nothing in the countryside is more humble or more valuable. It’s the moorhen’s reedy home, the frog’s ancient breeding place, the kill zone of the beautiful dragonfly. More than a hundred rare and threatened fauna and flora depend on it. Written in gorgeous prose, Still Water tells the seasonal story of the wild animals and plants that live in and around the pond, from the mayfly larvae in the mud to the patrolling bats in the night sky above. It reflects an era before the water was polluted with chemicals and the land built on for housing, a time when ponds shone everywhere like eyes in the land, sustaining life for all, from fish to carthorse. Still Water is a loving biography of the pond, and an alarm call on behalf of this precious but overlooked habitat. Above all, John Lewis-Stempel takes us on a remarkable journey – deep, deep down into the nature of still water.
Widely regarded as one of the best nature-writers of his generation and twice winner of the Wainwright Prize for Nature Writing we’re delighted to welcome John Lewis-Stempel back to Booka.
Tickets: £5 (redeemable against a signed copy of Still Water). Includes a glass of wine or soft drink on arrival. Tickets available from the bookshop or purchase online (with booking fee).
Come and see Peppa at Llangollen Railway on the 23rd & 24th March 2019. The cheeky little piggy will be appearing at intervals between 10:30am – 3.30pm on both days… don’t’ forget your camera!
Take a train ride to Carrog to see the magic show.
Face painting available at intervals on Platform 1 at Llangollen Station.
colouring sheets available
All the above is included in the ticket price
Join us for a morning with international bestselling children’s author Francesca Simon as we celebrate 25 years of Horrid Henry with the publication of Horrid Henry Up, Up and Away.
Number One for fiendish fun! Horrid Henry is back and naughtier than ever in this brand-new book from Francesca Simon.
Come and see Peppa at Llangollen Railway on the 23rd & 24th March 2019. The cheeky little piggy will be appearing at intervals between 10:30am – 3.30pm on both days… don’t’ forget your camera!
Take a train ride to Carrog to see the magic show.
Face painting available at intervals on Platform 1 at Llangollen Station.
colouring sheets available
All the above is included in the ticket price
A Mothers Day or Easter Treat, For Mum, Aunt, Grandma or a Friend. Wreath and Garland Making along with High Tea at Artisans Lake Vyrnwy. 29th March at 4.30pm and 12th April at 4.30pm. £25 per person. Call Jo on 01691 780416 or Ceri on 01691 870317
On the weekend of March 30th -31st the American Civil War society (ACWS) will be holding this years training event at Whittington Castle in Shropshire come along and see the infantry,cavalry (subject to availability) and Artillery being put through their drill, wander through the authentic living history encampments of the Union and Confederate forces listen for the crackle of muskets as you are taken back to 1861-1865 American Civil War.
Join us for a weekend of living history
Meet the re-enactors in the WW1 Trenches, take a short lesson in the Victorian School, have a go at weaving in the Iron Age Roundhouse and take a tour of the magnificent Welsh Guards Museum in this salute to British History.
Treat your mum or gran to a day out at the beautiful Hawkstone Park Follies over Mothers Day weekend with free admission.
Every mum or gran visiting with at least one paying child will get FREE admission on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st March 2019.
Standard terms and condition of entry apply.
Entrance opens at 10am, last admission at 3pm, park closes 5pm.
3s and Under £0
Child £5.75
Additional adults £8.25
Real Ale Train
6.30pm departure from Llangollen Station
Step on board and soak up the atmosphere whilst enjoying the Real Ales on offer at our well stocked bar.
Double return journey – arrive back approximately 9.30pm.
£18 Advanced ticket price includes a free Llangollen Railway pint glass.
REAL ALE – £3 per pint, Wines and Soft Drink also available
Food will be available to purchase from The Station Cafe + Bar on the evening, along with a BBQ on the platform.
Reserved seating will be provided for parties of eight or more.
It is not advised that children attend this event.
Advanced tickets – £18 per person with a FREE Llangollen Railway Pint Glass
Tickets purchased on the evening – £20 per person
Due to the terms of our premise licence – Passengers are NOT permitted to bring their own alcohol on board the Real Ale Train. Any alcohol brought will be removed from the customer for the duration of the event, the railway reserves the right to refuse admittance if the request is not complied with. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
**UPDATE: Bookings now only available for late afternoon or evening**
Come and celebrate Mothering Sunday at
The Station Grill on Sunday the 31st of March 2019.
To book a table contact us on 01691 828478
We look forward to seeing you.
Treat mum to a scrumptious Mother’s Day three course meal and The Orangery Restaurant.
£14.95 per person – includes a free gift for mum!
Booking essential, please call 01691 661234 ext 213 or email: bookings@derwen.ac.uk
Cream Tea in the Garden Cafe
£3.95 per person
To book please call 01691 661234 ext 226 or email: bookings@derwen.ac.uk
Treats at the Garden Centre
Pop in to the Garden Centre to pick up some gifts and treats for Mother’s Day – including beautiful bespoke hampers.
The annual Derwen Sponsored Walk is also taking place on 31st March this year. For further information please visit the event page.
Treat your Mother and enjoy a relaxing 3 course lunch carefully prepared by our team of chef’s in our Paddock Suite… It is also being served in Wilson’s Bar & Restaurant…
An afternoon tea menu is also available.
Treat your mum or gran to a day out at the beautiful Hawkstone Park Follies over Mothers Day weekend with free admission.
Every mum or gran visiting with at least one paying child will get FREE admission on Saturday 30th and Sunday 31st March 2019.
Standard terms and condition of entry apply.
Entrance opens at 10am, last admission at 3pm, park closes 5pm.
3s and Under £0
Child £5.75
Additional adults £8.25
We are happy to announce that here at the Centre on Mothering Sunday we have Elizabeth Edward Photography Ltd joining us with a pop-up photography studio, to capture those special Mother’s Day memories with pictures printed for you to take home! The photo sessions will be based within the artisan workshops between 10-4pm on Sunday 31st March Elizabeth Edward will be discounting pictures whilst here, take home a printed and mounted 6X8 photo for £5 or 3 pictures for £10. Availability is limited, booking is not required. Each session is limited to groups of no more than 4. If you would like further information, contact Elizabeth Edwards Photography direct on their Facebook page.
Be our guest this Mother’s Day! We are inviting mums to enjoy a day out on Mothering Sunday when accompanied by another full-paying visitor. This free entry offer includes Blists Hill Victorian Town, Coalport China Museum, Jackfield Tile Museum, Coalbrookdale Museum of Iron, Museum of The Gorge and Enginuity.
At Blists Hill, where life over 100 years ago is recreated by costumed characters, you can treat mum to a delicious Victorian High Tea in the Club Room. Tuck into assorted finger sandwiches and enjoy a selection of delicious cakes, including lemon drizzle, fruit loaf and ginger parkin, along with your choice from the selection of Twining’s teas or Fairtrade coffee. Pre-booking is essential at 01952 435948 and an additional charge applies.
Enjoy a morning in the Shropshire countryside learning about a free superfood that grows on our doorstep. Take part in the Wild Garlic Walk and pick your own to use, looking out for wildlife along the way!
Head back to the Centre in time for lunch. Centre Manager, Grant Wilson will be doing a Wild Garlic Pesto making demo in the afternoon. Pesto will be available to try and buy on the day too.
FREE ENTRY.
Sponsored walk in aid of funding for Derwen College.
Why not treat the special women in your life on Mothers Day
Take a return trip through the beautiful Dee Valley
Enjoy an afternoon tea with a selection of finger sandwiches, assorted sweet treats, (with tea or coffee)
and a glass of bubbly.
Adults £32.00 each Children £17.00 each
Bold, colourful acrylic paintings with a quirky twist. Lots of information to read.
Prints, cards, placemats and coasters as well for sale.
Be inspired and entertained. A trip to Venice gave me part of the title of this exhibition and so what better companion than our mammoths in Shropshire.
Film starts at 7.30 with refreshments and a licensed bar available from 6.30pm. Seasoned musician Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper) discovers — and falls in love with — struggling artist Ally (Lady Gaga). She has just about given up on her dream to make it big as a singer until Jackson coaxes her into the spotlight. But even as Ally’s career takes off, the personal side of their relationship is breaking down, as Jackson fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons. £5 per adult, £3 per child, £15 per family, booking advised.
10am-2pm All dishes will be suitable for vegans and vegetarians. This inspiring cookery workshop will teach you how to create exciting and nutritious dishes with confidence using seasonal herbs and fresh Spring produce. We will learn about combining flavours, colours and textures so that your cooking is delicious to eat, beautiful to behold and packed full of all those vitamins that nature offers as we move away from those long winter months.
Not just for vegetarians and vegans, this hands-on day is aimed at anyone who wants to understand more about using herbs and vegetables in their cooking.
You don’t need to have a veg patch as some of the best greens can be foraged for free! As always, bring plenty of containers as you will take home all you make in the day.
£35 per person, booking essential.
Run as a charity fund-raising event by local charity,
Grow Cook Learn, the Shropshire Way 80K is a mass participation challenge hike taking in some of the finest parts of the Shropshire Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. New to 2019 are three more routes joining the mighty 80K, the 40K Mammathon, Tusker’s 10K and a 5K Fun Run. Booking essential, for more information, contact the Centre on 01588676060 / info@shropshirehillsdiscoverycentre.co.uk. £40 for the 80K route, £25 for the 42K route, £17 for the Tusker 10K and £5 for the 3.5K Fun Run.
This will include a 3.5k walk, a 10K run and a 42k marathon as well as the mighty 80K!
This event will run Saturday 6th – Sunday 7th April 2019, entries are now open.
Join writer and journalist Kate Spicer as she talks about her life-affirming tragicomic memoir Lost Dog, a tender true story of one woman and her dog, both lost and rescued by love.
Kate Spicer is a middle-aged woman trying to steer some order into a life that is going off the rails. When she adopts a lurcher called Wolfy, the shabby rescue dog saves her from herself. But when the dog disappears, it is up to Kate to hit the streets of London and find him. Will she save him, as he has saved her – or will she lose everything? Trying to find her dog tests her relationship, and her sanity, to its limits – and gets her thinking about her life, and why things have turned out as they have for her.
Lost Dog is a book like no other about both the myth of modern womanhood, and the enduring mystery of the relationship between human and canine. Come and hear Kate and Wolfie’s heartwarming story and meet Wolfie too!
Tickets: £5 (redeemable against a signed copy of Lost Dog). Includes a glass of wine or soft drink on arrival. Tickets available from the bookshop or purchase online (with booking fee).
Join Erin Kelly, the bestselling author of He Said She Said, as she returns to Booka to talk about her gripping new suspense novel Stone Mothers.
You can’t keep the secret.
You can’t tell the truth.
You can’t escape the past…
Marianne grew up in the shadow of the old asylum, a place that still haunts her dreams. She was seventeen when she fled the town, her family, her boyfriend Jesse and the body they buried.
Now, forced to return, she can feel the past closing around her. And Jesse, who never forgave her for leaving, is finally threatening to expose the truth.
Marianne will do anything to protect the life she’s built; the husband and daughter who must never know.
Even if it means turning to her worst enemy…
But Marianne may not know the whole story – and she isn’t the only one with secrets they’d kill to keep.
In Stone Mothers, Erin Kelly has written another cleverly crafted and thrillingly addictive novel full of unexpected twists and turns. Following the success of He Said She Said we’re delighted to welcome her back to Oswestry!
Tickets: £5 (redeemable against a signed copy of Stone Mothers). Includes a glass of wine or soft drink on arrival. Tickets available from the bookshop or purchase online (with booking fee).
A Mothers Day or Easter Treat, For Mum, Aunt, Grandma or a Friend. Wreath and Garland Making along with High Tea at Artisans Lake Vyrnwy. 29th March at 4.30pm and 12th April at 4.30pm. £25 per person. Call Jo on 01691 780416 or Ceri on 01691 870317
Time Bandits, Renaissance and traditional music from various countries with modern and period instruments
From the wilds of South Shropshire in the eighteenth century to the loneliness of a modern ’empty-nest’ mother, the experiences of women reverberate through the ages. Women from the LADS theatre group bring you laughter and tears, poetry and song in this exquisite two-part evocation of womanhood – Out Of The Land, by Polly Bolton and Gill McEvoy, and Fridge Magnet Syndrome, by Michael Corbidge.
Directed by Pam Johnson.
Diddlebury Village Hall, April 13th
Llangollen Railway are having a 1940’s weekend
9.30am – 4pm Do you want to become more confident with your chainsaw at home but don’t require a qualification? Covering maintenance of your chainsaw (including sharpening), operator safety, safety clothing and risk assessment, find out how to start and operate your saw safely and learn cross cutting techniques for pre-cut timber. For just £75 for the whole day, this course promises to send you home with confidence to use your chainsaw safely. You will need your own chainsaw and chainsaw safety clothing; helmet, gloves, trousers and chainsaw footwear – ALL ESSENTIAL
Go along to Coalport China Museum, near Ironbridge during the Easter school holidays from 13 to 28 April and join floral-themed ceramic family activities.
Young artists can decorate a money box, fridge magnet or paper plate with spring flowers such as daffodils, tulips and bluebells using quick drying paint. The daily sessions take place from 11am – 1pm and again between from 1.30pm – 3.30pm. Afterwards explore the museum’s many galleries.
The ceramic painting activities carry a charge of between £1 and £4 per item plus entry while the paper activities are included in your admission fee. You can take your finished items home with you on the day.
One of the 10 Ironbridge Gorge Museums, Coalport China Museum is open from 10am until 4pm. A great value Annual Passport Ticket allowing multiple visits into all 10 museums can be bought at the entrance or online in advance saving 5%; individual entry tickets are also available at each museum. Activities will vary from day-to-day and some additional costs will apply.
Join Vicky as she reads from her nature books
Become a Romano-Britain living in the vicinity of the fourth largest city. Make a groma and see if you can set out a straight Roman road. Try a snack and try eating it lying on a ‘couch’. Plan a banquet and do your maths homework with roman numeral on a tablet. Test your knowledge of what foods were introduced here by the Romans. See if you are worthy of being a citizen – can you properly fold a toga?
Monday 15th – Friday 19th and Monday 22nd – Friday 26th 1pm-2.30pm
£4 per accompanied 4-11 year old, booking advised.
Bake a Libum – the sweet cheesecake sometimes offered to household spirits. Cook an egg dish – the most popular of all Roman appetizer ingredients and pottage their main food. Finish with a date and nut sweet.
£7.50 per accompanied 4-11 year old, booking essential.
Join us for an evening in the company of Costa award winning author Jess Kidd as she talks about her enchanting Victorian detective novel Things in Jars.
London, 1863. Bridie Devine, the finest female detective of her age, is taking on her toughest case yet. Reeling from her last job and with her reputation in tatters, a remarkable puzzle has come her way. Christabel Berwick has been kidnapped. But Christabel is no ordinary child. She is not supposed to exist. As Bridie fights to recover the stolen child she enters a world of fanatical anatomists, crooked surgeons and mercenary showmen. Anomalies are in fashion, curiosities are the thing, and fortunes are won and lost in the name of entertainment. The public love a spectacle and Christabel may well prove the most remarkable spectacle London has ever seen.
We were big fans of Jess Kidd’s debut novel ‘Himself’ and her follow up ‘The Hoarder’. Now we can’t wait to welcome Jess to Booka and introduce us to the fearless Bridie Devine!
Tickets: £5 (redeemable against a signed copy of Things in Jars). Includes a glass of wine / soft drink on arrival. Tickets available from the bookshop, or purchase online (with booking fee).
Who’s ready to experience the glorious magic of the Easter, with a visit to the Easter Bunny!
Walk through the enchanted wood, hunting for golden eggs to exchange for chocolatey treats in the Easter bunnies burrow. Not only that, but the Easter bunny will have a special golden ticket for you to claim a fabulous stack of Easter pancakes to enjoy in the Café.
£6.50 per child.
Dates:
Wednesday 17th: 10am – 2pm
Thursday 18th: 10am – 2pm
Friday 19th: 10am – 2pm
Wednesday 24th: 10am – 2pm
Thursday 25th: 10am – 2pm
Friday 26th: 10am – 2pm
If you are arriving in more than one vehicle please contact us to notify.
Childrens rides, free prizes, story telling, entertainment, competitions, family fun
Plant Hunters’ Fairs: plant fairs that are different and special Come rain or shine our fairs are the place to find great value, top quality, traditionally grown plants for every type of garden. Nurseries coming on Good Friday 2019: Bridge Farm Plants from Derbyshire: interesting and unusual perennials ChickenStreet from Shropshire: grasses and herbaceous perennials for naturalistic plantings Hall Farm Nursery from Shropshire: Wide range of perennials and herbs. RHS Gold medallists including Chelsea Gold Jurassicplants Nurseries from Denbighshire
Spend Good Friday with the team at the Discovery Centre trying your hand at fun, seasonal crafts; from 3-D eggs to sheep with fluffy paint, yellow fork painted chicks to paper rabbits disappearing down their hole, and various flowers galore as we enjoy the Spring. Just £4 per child aged 3 and above.
