Tree Life: A Guided Creative Walk

Event Information

A guided, all-age walkshop around Castle Bromwich Historic Parkland. Surrounded by busy main roads, the parkland is a haven of acid grassland. The walk will focus on two areas: one around Black Pines and one around an Oak tree. We will provide information about each tree and its unique habitat, some folklore, and then give an opportunity to respond creatively. All creative materials will be provided or collected on the walk.

Contributors

Oliver Pickering

Oliver Pickering is the Outdoors & Nature Engagement Manager at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens Trust. He heads up the forest school and various other education and training programmes. Oliver has co-led several walkshops with Soobie for the Urban Tree Festival in recent years.
Soobie Whitfield is a local resident and a freelance applied theatre facilitator with a particular interest in linking communities to their local environment through the creative arts. She leads outdoor guided 'walkshops' and recently was Community Artist in Residence in Castle Bromwich, running the 'Our Green and Common Land' project. Soobie has been supporting and leading Urban Tree Festival events since 2020.

Castle Bromwich Historic Gardens

10 acres of a unique survival of 350 year old early 18th century formal garden design. The walled garden, once part of the Earl of Bradford’s estate, rescued, nurtured and owned by an independent Charitable Trust. A further 30 acres of the former estate’s historic Parkland, now a Local Nature Reserve, encircles the formal garden. Keeping largely to a period-relevant style with plant species and heritage fruit from 1680-1760 it’s like visiting the Baroque countryside in the middle of a 21st century city.

@castlebromwichhallgardens

Location of event

Location: Castle Bromwich Historic Parkland, Hall Road, Birmingham B36 9BT

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Transport Info:
Buses X12 / X13 from City Centre or from Chelmsley Wood or Solihull Station stop at Southfield Avenue. The gardens are a short walk from there along Hall Road. We will meet in the field off the main Car Park. There will be a sign. If unsure, ask at the garden kiosk.