here - Nottingham Heritage

Wollaton Hall and Park
Resource Pack
Environmental
Education Activities
for KS2
Nottingham City Museums and Galleries
1
Wollaton Hall and Park
Resource Pack
What you will find in this pack
This pack contains activities suitable for Key Stage 2 that will help
you explore the variety of wildlife in Wollaton Park.
The activities can be supported by
♦
visiting the Natural History Museum within Wollaton Hall
♦
using natural history objects from Access
Artefacts, the Museums Loans Collection
♦
booking a facilitated educational session through the
Museums Learning and Access Team.
Details of our sessions are in the Museums Resources for
Schools Planner. To receive a copy and to be added to our
mailing list please contact the Museums Learning and
Access Team
0115 915 3692
email
[email protected]
Images and content of this pack are the copyright of Nottingham City
Museums and Art Galleries Learning and Access Team and Maggie
Morland.
You are welcome to copy and use the images and content for educational,
non-commercial purposes.
Published 2008 by Nottingham City Council, Department for Community
and Culture, Nottingham City Museums and Galleries
ISBN 0 905634 86 1
2
Contents
Teachers’ Notes
1.
The Learning and Access team at Nottingham City Museums
and Galleries
2.
Who is this resource pack for?
3.
How do I use this resource pack?
4.
How do the activities fit in the curriculum?
5.
How do I organise a teacher-led visit to Wollaton?
6.
What can we do before and after a visit?
7.
How do I book a facilitated education session at Wollaton?
8.
How do I borrow specimens from Access
Artefacts, the Museum Loans Collection?
9.
What websites and books could be useful?
Look for this symbol in the pack
for information on Access
Artefacts
Activities
1.
What’s at Wollaton Hall and Park? (map)
2.
What’s the story of Wollaton Hall and Park?
Reading, using a glossary, exploring, sketching,
3.
How does Wollaton’s story fit a timeline?
Chronology of international, national and local events
4.
Who was Francis Willoughby the naturalist and what
did he do?
Reading, a glossary, re-telling, journeys, mapping
5.
How can I be a naturalist at Wollaton?
Explore, Enjoy, Discover, Observe, Record, Classify, Protect
6.
What habitats are there at Wollaton and what can we
find here?
Habitat study and comparison, food chains and webs, Food Web
Game and story-based activities for younger children
7.
How can I observe and sketch wildlife?
8.
How can I sort wildlife into groups?
Classification; observation and comparison
9.
How can I find out about the trees at Wollaton?
Tree Trail, Tree Measuring, Word Trunks and Poetrees,
Everyone’s Unique, Seeds, Fruits and Nuts, How Old is That Tree?
Bark Textures
10.
How can we all care for the environment?
11.
A glossary of words used in this pack
12.
Useful images of Wollaton Hall and Park
3
Teachers’ Notes
1.
Who can help?
The Learning and Access Team at Nottingham City Museums
and Galleries
We offer a wide range of cross-curricular resources for teachers
and pupils, which provide great learning opportunities both in and
out of the classroom.
A combination of facilitated sessions in museums, classroom
loans boxes and teacher-led visits is an ideal way to build
confidence, knowledge and understanding in pupils of all ages and
abilities.
Facilitated sessions
These are available at all of our museums and heritage sites:
Wollaton Hall and Park, Newstead Abbey, Castle Museum and Art
Gallery, Green’s Windmill and Science Centre and the Museum of
Nottingham Life at Brewhouse Yard.
Facilitated sessions are delivered by experienced museum
educators using handling collections, galleries and historic
buildings to enrich and enhance classroom teaching.
Charges apply.
Further details
0115 915 3692
Teacher-led visits
These are free of charge when booked in advance and are offered
at all the museums and heritage sites except Newstead Abbey.
For teacher-led visits to Wollaton
0115 915 3900
For other sites
0115 915 3692
Access Artefacts
Access Artefacts, the Museums Loans Collection, offers
original objects for you to use in your classroom.
Themed resource boxes contain original and replica objects safely
packaged in sturdy boxes. All of them are suitable for handling and
are accompanied by teachers packs.
We also have a large collection of individual cased objects which
includes natural science specimens, original artefacts and
historical models mounted in Perspex display cases.
A free hour long hands-on training session on learning from objects
is also available for all teaching staff.
Further details
0115 915 1774
4
2. Who is this resource pack for?
This resource pack supports mainly Key Stage 2 Science and
Geography. Many of the activities will also be relevant for
Key Stage 1 and Foundation Stage and are cross-curricular.
The pack contains teachers’ notes, activity outlines, photographs
and background information to help teachers and other group
leaders get the most out of a visit to Wollaton Park.
It also provides pre-visit planning guidelines, curriculum links and
ideas for follow-up work, to help consolidate learning in a range of
styles.
Cross-curricular links are outlined and the pack provides a wealth
of other sources of information, including lists of useful books,
websites and contacts.
3. How do I use this resource pack?
The pack will help you plan independent visits to Wollaton Hall and
Park to study its natural history and heritage, without needing
support from education staff at Wollaton.
Choose from the range of practical, enjoyable activities to create a
programme to suit your curriculum needs. They encourage the use
of notes and sketchbooks, first-hand observation, recording and
classification and can form the basis of many learning
opportunities before, during and after a visit. Any equipment needed
is likely to be familiar to your pupils and readily available in your
school.
Look for the deer symbol for pre-visit and follow-up ideas.
The activities are introduced by the naturalist Sir Francis
Willoughby FRS, the great grandson of Sir Francis Willoughby the
builder of Wollaton Hall and a great pioneer of natural history
observation and recording who, with his friend John Ray, devised
one of the first rational, scientific systems of classifying living
things.
The activities in this resource pack encourage pupils to explore
habitats, variation, adaptation, to question and wonder, to look for
patterns and order in the natural world and develop their own
systems of classification.
Wollaton Hall’s displays contain many fine natural history
collections, including some rare, old and fascinating specimens.
A visit to the galleries can be an effective starting point for activities
in the pack.
The Natural Connections gallery tells the story of Francis
Willoughby the naturalist and his daughter Cassandra who later
sorted and catalogued his collections and papers. Francis
Willoughby collected many specimens on his travels but of course
it is not appropriate for pupils to collect any living material on a
school visit to Wollaton Park and they should only take dead things
from the ground. However, being able to see wildlife at close
quarters in the galleries or on loan from Access Artefacts, the
Museum Loans Collection, can inspire pupils and help them to
understand the environment more fully.
5
Science
Geography
Science
Geography
5. How can I be a naturalist at
Wollaton?
6. What habitats are there at
Wollaton and what can we
find there?
2B- Plants & animals.. 2C-variation 4B-Habitats 6A-Interdependence and adaptation
Science
Art
Science
Citizenship
Geography
Science
English/Literacy
8. How can I observe and sketch
wildlife?
9. How can I sort wildlife into
groups?
10. How can we all care for the
environment?
11. Glossary
6
Vocabulary, use of glossary, alphabetical order
1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10
6- Investigating our local area 8 – Improving the environment
4B- Habitats
Uniqueness. 2B-Mother Nature B-Investigate pattern 6B-sense of place 2C-Variation
Understanding measures, using & applying shape, space & measures
Writing, composition, planning and drafting, vocabulary, rhyme
2B- Plants and animals…2C-Variation 4B-Habitats 5B- Life cycles
1C- What is sculpture? 2B-Mother Nature, designer 3B-Investigating pattern 2C-Variation
Number, calculations, solving numerical problems
Understanding measures, using & applying shape, space and measures
2B- Mother Nature, designer 3B-Investigating pattern 6B-A sense of place
2B- Plants and animals.
2B- Mother Nature, designer 3B-Investigating pattern 6C – A sense of place
PSHE, Art, Science
Maths
English/Literacy
Science
Art, Science
Maths
Maths
Art
7. How can I find out about the
trees at Wollaton?
Everyone’s Unique
Measuring Trees
Poetrees and Word Trunks
Seeds, Fruits and Nuts
Bark Textures
How Old is That Tree?
Calculate the Canopy
Stained Glass Windows
1B- Growing plants 2B-Plants and animals 2C-variation 3B-Helping plants grow well
4B- Habitats 6A-Interdependence & adaptation 6B-Micro-organisms
6- Investigating our local area 8-Improving the environment
1B- Growing plants 2B-Plants and animals 2C-variation 4B-Habitats
6- Investigating our local area
Famous people,18 – What was it like to live here in the past?
Reading, use of a glossary,
History
Literacy
2. What’s the history of
Wollaton Hall and Park?
3. How does Wollaton’s history fit
into a time line?
4. Who was Francis Willoughby
the naturalist, what did he do?
6–
Programmes of Study Units and National Curriculum links
Investigating our local area
Speaking and listening, following directions appropriately
18 – What was it like to live here in the past?
6C – A sense of place. 4C – Journeys 9 (gen) – Visiting a site
18 – What was it like to live here in the past? Chronology; international, national, local
Reading, use of a glossary, alphabetical order
N C Subjects
Geography
English/Literacy
History
Art
History
Literacy
1. What’s at Wollaton Park?
and Tree Trail directions
Activity
4. How do the activities fit in with the curriculum?
5. How do I organise a teacher-led visit?
Planning and preparation
•
Follow your LEA’s policy for educational visits.
•
Always make a pre-visit to assess facilities, access, teaching
and learning opportunities, resource materials and contacts.
•
When making your booking to arrange dates, discuss details
for the visit such as access, parking, toilets, group size,
timings, activities, clothing, equipment, learning objectives and
lunch arrangements.
•
Always book a teacher-led visit in advance as the number of
independent groups the site can accommodate is limited.
0115 915 3900
•
Consider Health & Safety issues and complete a risk
assessment of your visit. Sites open to the public and schools
should have site risk assessments which will help.
•
Ensure first aid cover for the visit, including the journey.
•
Ensure adequate group sizes, with adult helpers in ratios
suitable to ages of pupils. Supervision of pupils remains the
responsibility of the accompanying adults at all times.
•
Make learning objectives, practical details and expectations
clear to pupils and to adult helpers prior to the visit. A small
notebook/sketchbook for everyone is often useful.
•
Keep an eye on the weather forecast and make activities
flexible enough to cope with the conditions.
During the visit
•
Ensure adequate supervision of all pupils at all times, according
to ages and abilities. Ideally, the teacher should be free to
inspire all groups during the visit, not be tied to one group in
particular.
•
Use a whistle to communicate with widely-spread groups. It is
often difficult to make yourself heard out of doors.
•
Always listen to the advice of staff on site and respond to
changing circumstances or weather with authority and
confidence.
•
Encourage recording of the visit in a variety of ways; sketching,
sound recording, interviews, photography, note-taking and word
banks.
•
Take care of the environment and respect other people, their
activities and work; use paths, protect wildlife, make no
unnecessary noise and leave no litter.
After the visit
•
Follow up the visit with discussion, presentations and displays
of findings, to consolidate learning in a variety of ways.
•
Wollaton Hall and Park asks visiting teachers to complete an
evaluation after a visit. Your comments are valuable in
developing and improving learning experiences.
7
6. What can we do before and after a visit
to Wollaton Hall and Park?
Each activity in this resource pack includes suggestions for previsit learning and follow-up work.
Look for the deer symbol on each activity page for ideas. Most
activities require some prior knowledge and understanding in order
to gain as much value as possible from the visit.
The following activities are particularly suitable for pre-visit work
and will help pupils understand the site and what they can find
there:
Map of Wollaton Hall and Park
History of Wollaton Hall and Park
Timeline
Glossary
The story of Francis Willoughby, the naturalist
Useful skills to develop and practise beforehand could include;
Use of equipment
Collection and care of specimens
Note taking
Geographical and scientific habitat study techniques
Map reading
Sketching and photography
Personal safety and care for the environment
An introduction to the Country Code
Younger children will benefit from developing skills and techniques
in a smaller, more familiar environment before visiting such a large
site as Wollaton, so they are confident and ready to explore more
productively during a visit.
Adult helpers need to know in advance what their roles will be
during the visit and how best to help pupils gain from the
experience. It is important to the overall success of a visit to
Wollaton that all supervising adults are fully briefed beforehand
about the following;
The learning objectives for the day
Site map and areas to be used
Planned activities/equipment
Expected standards of pupil behaviour.
This could be in the form of a short meeting at the start of the day
or a booklet given to all accompanying adults.
After the visit
Follow up your visit with discussion, presentations and displays of
findings, to consolidate learning in a variety of ways.
Review the visit and activities and make any necessary changes
to improve the experience for next time.
The Museums Learning and Access team ask you to complete an
evaluation after a visit to help in developing and improving learning
experiences. Please contact the team
email
0115 915 3693
[email protected]
8
7. How do I book a facilitated education
session at Wollaton?
The Learning and Access Team at Nottingham City Museums and
Galleries offers a wide range of cross-curricular resources for
teachers and pupils which provide great learning opportunities.
Facilitated sessions are delivered by experienced museum
educators using handling collections, galleries and historic
buildings to enrich and enhance classroom teaching. Half-day
sessions take place from 10.30 to 12.00 or 1.00 to 2.30. Two
sessions can be combined to make a full day of activities for one
or two classes. Full day interactive role play sessions take place
from 10.30 to 2.30.
For a copy of our Resources for Schools planner containing
details of education sessions at all the Nottingham City Museums
and Galleries, please contact the Learning and Access office.
email
0115 915 3692
[email protected]
8. How do I borrow specimens from
Access Artefacts, the Museums Loan
Collection?
Taxidermy, the art and science of preserving and mounting
specimens, is still a very important part of natural history studies. It
is far easier to observe or sketch the colours of birds’ feathers, the
shapes of different beaks, eyes or feet, if the bird or animal is not
moving or flying.
Unlike collectors in the past who killed many specimens in order to
have them mounted, today only animals killed in accidents or that
have died naturally are preserved in this way. We now understand
that it’s important to let animals live and we are able to record all
about them in photographs, film and sound recordings.
You can use Access Artefacts, the Museum Loans Collection, to
support activities in this resource pack. Each activity in the pack is
linked to specific loan collection boxes. Themed resource boxes of
habitats, birds, animals and insects that can be found in Wollaton
Park can be loaned and studied more closely in school.
The Access Artefacts symbol on each activity page shows which
resource boxes are relevant to each activity in the pack.
For further information about this service, contact the Learning and
Access Officer (Artefact Loans)
0115 915 1774
9
9. Which websites and books
will be useful?
www.wollatonhall.org.uk
Information for visitors
Books for teachers and older or more able
pupils
www.ncmg.org.uk
Nottingham City Museums and Galleries
website, information about events, resources
and sessions for schools
Wollaton Hall and the Willoughby Family
www.nottinghamcity.gov.uk
Information about leisure and cultural events at
Wollaton
Wollaton Hall, Family House and Natural History
Museum
Pamela Marshall
Nottingham Civic Society 1999
ISBN 1 902443 05 5
Elizabeth May
Nottinghamshire Heritage Series 2001
ISBN 0 946404 02 X
www.nctx.co.uk
Information about buses and routes that serve
Wollaton Hall
Trees of Britain and Europe
www.triptimes.co.uk
For users of public transport in Greater
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Gives the
best connections while minimising the journey
time and walking distance.
Humphries, Press and Sutton
Hamlyn 2004
ISBN 07537 0957 0
www.wildlifetrust.org.uk/nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust; other sites to
visit and educational opportunities
Julie Aigner Clark & Nadeem Zaidi
pub. Scholastic.
Books for younger children
Baby Einstein, Animal Expedition
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Can You See?
Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Can You See?
Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Can You Hear?
www.wildaboutbritain.co.uk
Lots of information on British wildlife and the
environment
all three by Bill Martin Jnr. and Eric Carle
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Books for pupils
Michael Rosen & Helen Oxenbury
Wollaton Park Nature Trail
The Very Hungry Caterpillar / The Very Busy
Spider
Dr Sheila Wright
Nottingham Natural History Museum
City of Nottingham 1999
Eric Carle
Duckie Dives In
Nature’s Connections - an Exploration of Natural
History
Richard Waring & Guy Parker-Rees
Aaaarrgghh, Spider!
Nicola McGirr
National History Museum 2000
ISBN 0 565 09144 1
Lydia Monks
Animal Connexions
Miles Kelly Publishing 2001
ISBN 1 84236 022 1
The Tudors at Wollaton
Nottingham City Museums and Art Gallery 2000
10
1. What’s at Wollaton Hall and Park?
11
2. What’s the Story of Wollaton Hall and Park?
Wollaton Hall stands on a sandstone hill,
three miles west of Nottingham city centre, in
five hundred acres (1,235 hectares) of deer
park and gardens.
Let me tell you about
Wollaton and my family
It was built by one of Nottinghamshire’s great
landowners, my great-grandfather, Sir Francis
Willoughby. He was the descendant of a rich 13th century merchant called
Ralph Bugge. He was also a cousin of Lady Jane Grey who became
famous for being Queen of England for only nine days in 1553.
Our family used to live in the manor house
at Willoughby-on-the-Wolds, 15 miles (25
km) from Nottingham. Then, in 1450,
they moved to the manor house in
Wollaton village. My great-grandfather,
with his brother and sister, had to move away when they were
very young, eventually settling at Middleton Hall in Warwickshire.
That is where I was born and where I lived for most of my life.
Old Wollaton Hall may have resembled this
Tudor country house
In 1575 Queen
Elizabeth was invited to
visit Middleton Hall, but
for some reason she
turned down the
invitation. Perhaps she
thought it was not grand Sir Francis Willoughby, builder
of Wollaton Hall
enough for her. Is this
why my greatgrandfather decided to build a splendid new Hall at
Wollaton?
When Sir Francis built Wollaton Hall at the end of the 16th century our family were very
wealthy, partly because we owned a lot of land (estates) in the Midlands, London and the
West Country. We also owned successful coal mines near Nottingham (at Cossall, Wollaton,
Bilborough and Strelley.) We even had the first railway in the country, as our coal trucks ran on
wooden rails to take the coal away from the mines.
The First Sir Francis Willoughby builds
Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall was designed by Robert
Smythson, who was the first person to have the
title of architect. He had previously been the
master mason on the building of the great
house at Longleat in Wiltshire. And after
building Wollaton Hall he went on to design
Hardwick Hall, not far away in Derbyshire, and
some other big houses.
12
Wollaton Hall
Wollaton Hall took eight years to build and it was finished in
1588, the same year that the Spanish Armada were defeated
and young William Shakespeare put on his first play in
London.
It is built mostly of brick, although you cannot see this is as it
is encased in stone quarried in Ancaster in Lincolnshire. It
cost around £8,000 to build at the time, which was a great
fortune at that time. To give you some idea of what money
was worth then, very skilled craftsmen such as were
employed to build the Hall might have earned £17 a year. So,
in your money that means that the Hall cost something like
£15 million.
Wollaton Hall was one of the first great homes in England built to look spectacular, rather than
to be mainly a strong, fortified defence against attack. It was built on a hill, not to make it more
difficult to attack, but to give the family and their guests splendid views over the deer park and
the surrounding countryside. And more importantly for Sir Francis Willoughby, all his
neighbours could see his magnificent new hall from miles around.
It was a really modern building at the time, a symmetrical
square shape, with corner towers around a great central hall.
This was a very unusual design then; great-grandfather
wanted his house to stand out from the rest. It included
shapes, patterns and decorations borrowed from many
different building styles that had been used all around
Europe. Sir Francis was probably inspired by drawings he
had seen in his collection of architectural books, especially
those of Dutch, Italian, French and Medieval designs. He
asked his architect Robert Smythson to copy them for his
new, grand Hall.
The kitchens, pantries and servants’ rooms were built partly
underground, around the rock ‘core’ of the Hall, so that they
did not spoil the look of the building. The Hall even had its own underground system of drains
and sewers, taking waste away from the kitchens and garderobes (toilets) down invisible,
vertical chutes inside the walls. The sewers are tall
enough for a man to stand in and had to be cleaned
out regularly, I understand. These old-fashioned
garderobes could be very smelly and in my day the
use of chamber pots was much preferred.
Yet, despite the fortune he spent building Wollaton
Hall, my great-grandfather hardly ever lived here,
perhaps because it was very expensive to run and
he had spent most of his money on building it. He
still lived in Wollaton Old Hall and the new house
was used only on special occasions.
13
Smythson’s original plan, with square formal
gardens on all four sides of the Hall
Changes to the Hall and Park
Work on the grounds and gardens continued for many years after the Hall was completed.
During the building of the terrace, stone was taken from the
nearby ruins of Lenton Priory to strengthen the ground
underneath. A book of household costs from 1591 records
payments made to Richard Gamble for ‘stonne-getting’ from
Lenton and for transporting it to the new house. It was normal to
re-use stone in this way, especially where it was not on show in
the new house.
The parkland around the Hall once covered almost 800 acres
(about 330 hectares) and was originally used for hunting deer.
I myself planted the two avenues of great oak trees on the north
side of the Hall, and although I never actually lived at Wollaton I
enjoyed pleasant visits there while studying the natural sciences
in the county.
While I was growing up, the Hall was empty for many years as a
fire in 1642 had damaged the interior. It was not until 1687 that
two of my children, Francis and his sister Cassandra, moved
back into the Hall and began work to restore the house and
Cassandra Willoughby
enlarge the formal gardens. After the tragic death of Francis at
the young age of twenty years, his younger brother Thomas moved here. Cassandra wrote a
very entertaining history of the first four generations of the Willoughby family from old
documents that she found in the Hall. She also catalogued my collections and together she
and Thomas supervised the works on the house and grounds.
Francis Willoughby’s specimen cabinet and a drawer of seeds
Over the centuries, I’ve watched as Wollaton Hall and its surroundings have altered. Each of
my descendants needed different things from a house and fashions changed.
I do not know exactly when the underground passages
were built. They were cut into the rock under the Hall
and include a water cistern which never runs dry. It is
now called the Admiral’s Bath as it was said that one of
my descendants, who was an Admiral in the Navy,
bathed in it every morning.
The Courtyard Buildings
The courtyard buildings were built in the middle of
the 18th century. They provided more accommodation
for servants, stabling for many horses, coach houses, a
riding school, the laundry, a bakehouse and a
brewhouse.
14
The boathouse by the lake, disguised to look like a bridge,
was built when the ornamental lake was made, between
1774 and 1785.
At the same time the ha-ha was built around the gardens to
keep out the animals in the park without obstructing the views
across the park and the lake.
The stone trough with the lion’s head fountain near the
courtyard buildings and the Doric temple in the formal
gardens, were all made around 1800. The gazebo was
probably built to support a cistern that supplied water to the
fountain.
The ornamental lake
The nearby ice house was built around 1826 to store large
blocks of ice cut from the frozen lake in winter. Here the ice
often lasted until the summer and was taken up to the Hall
and used to keep food fresh in the kitchens. Today the ice
house is a hibernaculum for bats.
In the early 19th century, the 6th Lord Middleton made many
changes inside Wollaton Hall. He wanted to make it more
modern, comfortable and secure. The entrance was made
more grand and many of the rooms furnished in the latest
styles. He also needed more rooms for sleeping quarters for
his many servants, so a new servants hall was built, too.
The architect for all these changes was Jeffry Wyatt. He later
changed his name to Wyatville as he thought it sounded more
grand. He also remodelled Windsor Castle for King George IV
and as a reward was knighted and so became Sir Jeffry
Wyatville.
The boathouse
The ha-ha or sunken fence
Wyatville also designed the Camellia House in the gardens of
Wollaton Hall. This remarkable building, built in 1823, is the
earliest prefabricated, cast iron glasshouse in the world.
The Camellia House
My family used Wollaton less and less during Victorian times, as
they preferred living in their residence at Birdsall in Yorkshire. In
1924, because of huge tax bills and death duties, the Hall and
the park were sold to Nottingham Corporation for £200,000. The
deer and armoury weapons were given to the City as a gift. In
1925, Nottingham Corporation sold some of the land for new
housing.
Today Wollaton Hall still houses the Natural History Museum where you can learn about the
natural world around Nottingham and many places in the rest of the world. In the Courtyard
buildings you can explore the Industrial Museum and see exhibitions in the Yard Gallery.
Biological and geological records for Nottingham and the whole of Nottinghamshire are kept
at Wollaton, with many organisations and volunteers continuing the work I began all those
years ago. It is very satisfying to see the Hall repaired and well used. Of course, it is not as
peaceful as it was in my day, but it is good that so many people now enjoy my discoveries in
the Natural History Galleries, explore the Park’s natural beauty and learn about nature and
wildlife. Who knows, maybe one day, one of them may become a famous naturalist like me?
15
Activities
1. Read the story of Wollaton and look up in the Glossary any
words you do not know. If you cannot find the words there, look
them up in a dictionary and add to the Glossary, or make
another of your own.
2. Look carefully at the outside of Wollaton Hall. It is covered in
shapes, patterns and designs in the stonework and windows.
See if you can find and sketch:
Ancient Greek style Doric, Ionic and Corinthian capitals
on pilasters
Italian style ‘gondola rings’ with lions’ heads on the bases
of pilasters
‘Medieval Gothic’ style windows and French style ‘
pepper-pot’ tourelles on the top of the central Prospect
Room
Dutch style gables on the roofs of the corner towers
Statues, faces, animals, patterns and shapes decorating
the Hall
3.
Follow the map of Wollaton Park and find all the buildings
or structures highlighted in bold in this story of the estate.
Take photographs and make sketches as you walk
around.
4.
Put them on your time line to show the history of
Wollaton Hall.
16
3. How does Wollaton’s history fit into a time line?
1536-1540
Dissolution (closing) of the Monasteries by Henry VIII
1546
Birth of Sir Francis Willoughby, builder of Wollaton Hall
1547
Death of Henry VIII. Edward VI becomes King
1553
Death of Edward VI. Mary becomes Queen
1558
Elizabeth becomes Queen
1564
Birth of William Shakespeare and Galileo
1588
Completion of building of Wollaton Hall
Defeat of the Spanish Armada, William Shakespeare’s first play in London
1596
Death of Sir Francis Willoughby (builder of Wollaton Hall)
1603
Death of Queen Elizabeth
Queen Anne of Denmark (wife of King James) and Prince Henry stay
at Wollaton on their way from Scotland to London for the
coronation of King James.
1604
The Duke of York, (the future King Charles) visits Wollaton Hall
1620
The Mayflower leaves Plymouth with many Nottinghamshire Pilgrims on
board, bound for a new life in America.
1635
Birth of Francis Willoughby (the Naturalist) at Middleton Hall in
Warwickshire
1642
A fire damages some rooms in Wollaton Hall
Civil War starts when King Charles raises the Royal Standard at
Nottingham Castle on 22 August
1643
Death of Sir Percival Willoughby. Wollaton Hall is left empty, the
interior derelict. In the Civil War a small garrison is billeted at
Wollaton for a short time.
1646
King Charles surrenders, ending the Civil War
1649
Quaker movement founded by a Nottingham shoemaker’s apprentice
George Fox.
King Charles is executed; ‘Commonwealth’ government installed
1660
Charles II is restored as King
1662
The Royal Society is founded, Francis Willoughby the naturalist is a
founding member
1665
The Great Plague kills 68,000 people in London and spreads across the
country
1666
Isaac Newton discovers the law of gravity. Great fire of London
1672
Death of Francis Willoughby FRS, the naturalist, at the age of 37
years
1687
Francis and his sister Cassandra, (the children of Francis the
naturalist) move back to live in Wollaton Hall
1703
Death of Samuel Pepys
17
1742-3
The courtyard buildings are built at Wollaton
1752
Great Britain adopts the Gregorian calendar
1768
Captain Cook visits Botany Bay, Australia
1774-1785
A stream is dammed in Wollaton Park to make the lake and the
boathouse and the ha-ha by the lake are built
1789
The French Revolution starts
1800
The ice house, stone trough with lion’s head fountain and the Doric
temple are all built around this time
1801 -1830
Wollaton Hall is made more secure and the interior altered to make it
more comfortable and modern by architect Sir Jeffry Wyatville.
1818
The first steamship crosses the Atlantic
1820
Birth of Florence Nightingale
1823
The Camellia House is built in cast iron and glass.
1825
The first passenger railway runs between Stockton and Darlington
1831
Nottingham Castle is burned and Wollaton unsuccessfully attacked
in the parliamentary reform riots
1834
Abolition of slavery in the British Empire
1837
Death of William IV, Victoria becomes Queen
1840
Introduction of the penny post
1901
Death of Queen Victoria
1910
Death of Florence Nightingale
1914-1918
World War I
1924
Nottingham Corporation buys Wollaton Hall and park from the 11th
Lord Middleton
1926
Museum of Natural History and the park open to visitors
1939-1945
World War II - Wollaton Park is used as a garrison for American
troops and a prisoner of war camp for German and Italian prisoners
2006/7
Extensive repairs and refurbishment begin. New displays are put in
some of the galleries, there are new educational facilities and the
Tudor kitchens are restored
Activities
1.
Add other events you know about to this time line. They could be events
that happened in your school, village, town, city or country, or somewhere
else in the world.
2.
Use your sketches and photographs of Wollaton Hall and Park to illustrate
the time line and make a exhibition of it in your school.
18
4. Who was Francis Willoughby the naturalist and
what did he do?
I was born in 1635 at Middleton Hall in
Warwickshire, the only son of Sir Francis
Let me tell you about my
and Lady Cassandra Willoughby. I had a
life and what I did
very privileged childhood as my family were
very wealthy landowners and we had many
servants to do everything for us.
My interest in the natural world began at a very early
age as I explored the woods, fields, rivers and lakes of our estates
at Middleton and Wollaton. The creatures and plants I discovered there
were my companions and friends. I observed their busy activities and
wondered about their lives. I often collected specimens of the
creatures I found and enjoyed studying the natural sciences at school
in Sutton Coldfield, where my education began. I always worked hard
at my lessons.
In 1653 I went up to Trinity College, Cambridge, where I studied the
Liberal Arts, including Architecture, Classical Literature, Mathematics and Botany. One of the
lecturers there was John Ray, a famous botanist, and we became great friends. We had so
much in common, although I was always more interested in zoology than just in plants, which
were his passion.
I gained my Bachelor of Arts degree in 1655 and three years later, I was awarded a Master of
Arts. Some of my friends thought I worked far too hard and made myself ill, but I always
enjoyed studying as there is so much to find out about in the world around us. I wanted to
understand everything and travel to find out more.
I worked with John Ray for a while, helping with his research, especially with his work on rare
British plants. I knew the flora of Warwickshire and Nottinghamshire well and we worked well
together. I was very fortunate that in 1660 I was able to accompany him on his tour of the North
of England and the Isle of Man. We discovered so many plants previously unknown to us, for
example the large field garlic that grew at Settle in Yorkshire. We collected specimens and
pressed them to dry and preserve them for future study. This was to be the first of many such
trips we made together to further our knowledge. We also journeyed to Wales and the North
Midland Counties in 1662. We discovered the columbine in Flintshire and Denbigh, various
rushes near Harlech, many types of fish at Tenby, oystercatchers on the Isle of Bardsey. On
Prestholm (Puffin Island) the bird life was fascinating, especially the puffins, cormorants and
razorbills.
One thing occurred to us as we travelled and recorded the plants and animals that we
encountered; there was no general system for organising plants and animals into groups in
order to record them scientifically and we could find few documents to help us with our
studies.
We decided to create such a system ourselves, so
that it might, as John Ray explained, “…reduce the
several tribes [many groups] of things to a method,
and to give accurate descriptions of the several
species from a strict view of them.”
19
I decided to study the animals, fish and insects while
John did the same for the plants. We grouped things
together according to what they actually looked like and
what they had in common.
In 1662 I became one of the founding members of The
Royal Society, a group of people resolute and focused on
pushing forward scientific knowledge of our world, its
processes and all that lives in it.
During 1663 and 1664 we travelled, with two of John’s
students, on the continent of Europe; to the Low
Countries, Germany (along the Danube and Rhine),
Switzerland, Italy and France. I also went to Spain where
I was able to study the many types of whale, that most
mythical creature, some of which are stranded on
Spanish shores near Bayonne and San Sebastian each
winter.
We explored amazing places and at Strasbourg and
Nuremberg bought beautiful engravings of some of the
fish and birds living there. Samuel Pepys himself also
provided over 60 engravings for us. In Vienna market I
discovered an enormous fish, the like of which I had
never seen before. In Padua, Italy, I studied anatomy, noting the differences between animal
and human structures and learning about the techniques of dissection. We made detailed
notes, sketches and observations of everything we saw and gathered collections of stuffed
birds, fishes, fossils and seeds.
Title page of Francis Willoughby’s
Historia Piscium (Natural History of
Fishes)
Tragically, all our written notes were lost on our return to
England, making our task of recording our discoveries much
more difficult and less complete. So I began work on my
‘Ornithologia’ (birds) and ‘Historia Piscium’ (fish) devoting all
my days to my books, with a brief walk before lunch.
In 1665, my dear father died and I was heir to the estates.
John Ray and I were so busy with our research, I had little
time for household concerns and my relatives often blamed
my poor health on this devotion to study. I must have
contracted some disease during my foreign travels, as I have
often had attacks of fever. It wasn’t until my brother-in-law
spoke to me about the need for an heir to the Willoughby line
that I thought it best to marry. Happily I did not have to suffer
any of the ‘suitable’ ladies he suggested to me, as I found my
dear Emma and married her in 1667. We have three children
- two boys, Francis and Thomas, and a girl, Cassandra, who
was named after her grandmother.
I fear I will not survive this latest illness, having had the fever
Members of the crow family from
for almost a month now. It is so frustrating to me not to be
Ornithologia
able to complete my work, but John Ray has promised to
publish our discoveries and be a tutor to my sons. I know he will not fail me. It is so important
to encourage and help others in exploring and learning about the natural world.
20
Activities
1.
Read this story about Francis Willoughby the naturalist and look up in the
Glossary any words you do not know.
If you cannot find the words there, look them up in a dictionary and add to the
Glossary, or make another of your own.
2.
Draw the story of Francis’ life (like a comic strip) and include it in your school
exhibition about Wollaton Hall and Park.
3.
Using an atlas, find the places mentioned in Francis’ story and draw a map to
show where he travelled. Think about how he made those journeys, what
forms of transport he may have used and draw them on your map.
21
5. How can I be a naturalist like Francis Willoughby?
To be a naturalist like me you
will need to use some special,
delicate, scientific equipment
to discover and explore the
natural world
Here’s the list of equipment you will
need
Eyes – to see and record light,
shape, colour, pattern and texture
Ears – to hear and record sounds,
volume, pitch and rhythm
Noses – to smell chemicals in the air; scents and pongs, too.
Skin – sensitive to touch, temperature and textures
Brain – this is the most important of all. It is used to understand and
store the information gathered from all the others
Activities
1. Use all your special equipment to be a naturalist at Wollaton.
Explore
There are many interesting habitats to explore at Wollaton Park, such as woods, grassland,
lake, reed beds, marsh, ponds, gardens and buildings. These are all home to lots of different
plants and creatures. Explore as many as you can during your visit.
Discover
Take your time to find what is growing and living in different places in each habitat. Use
binoculars, hand lenses, pond nets and viewers to find as much as you can. The closer you
get, the more you’ll see.
Observe
Sit quietly, move slowly, walk carefully and watch what is going on. You can learn a lot about
how birds and animals live by watching what they do. Look closely for details, use
identification books or charts, ask questions and share what you see with others to help you
understand what you have found.
Record
If you cannot find out what something is called, describe it and give it a name you have made
up yourself. Make notes, do sketches, take photographs and make sound recordings to help
you remember as much as possible about the things you find and to identify them later.
Classify
Put everything you find into groups, maybe according to where it was found, the type of plant
or creature it is, its size, colours, behaviour, or choose your own classifications, explaining
why you used them.
Protect
Treat habitats and everything you find there with care. They are all living things and have their
place in the world. After you have recorded them, make sure you put back any creatures as
quickly as possible, exactly where you found them. Collect only dead things from the ground
and leave flowers and trees for wildlife and other people to enjoy.
Enjoy
Above all, enjoy being outdoors and finding out about the world around you. Make sure you
don not disturb other visitors, so they can also enjoy their day at Wollaton Park.
22
2. Visit the Natural History Galleries in
Wollaton Hall, especially the Bird Gallery.
The dioramas around the walls contain
British birds and were made in the 1920s
and 1930s. They show many of the birds
you can see at Wollaton, in 3-D models of
their habitats.
Look closely at their size, beaks, feet,
feathers, their eggs and nests and what
they eat.
You can also see the heads of deer on
Diorama of a Song Thrush in its habitat
the walls above. Make notes and
sketches to help you remember details.
Look out for these birds and animals when you are exploring in the Park.
3. Visit the Natural Connections gallery on the first floor of Wollaton Hall and find out more
about Francis Willoughby the naturalist. Watch the video story of Cassandra, his daughter.
4. Make a diorama like the ones you have seen in the Galleries. Use a box with a
window at one end and make a model habitat to show what you discovered at
Wollaton. Make sure you include the plants, animals, invertebrates, water, soil,
stones, buildings, etc. You could put a light inside, so it is easier to see into your
diorama.
5. Borrow themed boxes from Access Artefacts, the Museum Loans
Collection so that you can study the birds and animals in your habitat
more closely. Make detailed sketches and notes to help you remember
their similarities and differences.
Natural History specimen on loan from Access Artefacts
23
6. What habitats are there at Wollaton and what lives there?
You will find many different
habitats at Wollaton, including
woodlands and avenues,
grasslands, wetlands (lake,
reed beds, marsh and ponds),
buildings and ornamental
gardens.
Each habitat has its own
community of plants and animals
that live there because they need
those special conditions to live.
Habitats are also linked in many
ways and some plants and animals
live in more than one. Explore as
many as you can on your visit and search
for natural connections, just as I did.
The Wollaton Park Nature Trail booklet, available at the Hall, has an
excellent map and guided route to show you round the habitats that can
be found here.
You will need some of this equipment
Notebooks and pencils
sketchbooks
lidded collecting and magnifying pots
cameras hand lenses
pooters
white collecting trays
clinometers
identification charts and keys
tree measurers
books
thermometers (soil and air)
light and moisture meters
pH level indicator paper
small bottles of water
measuring tapes
hoops or quadrats (square hoops)
compasses
What to do
Before you start, predict and discuss what you think you may find in each habitat.
Decide on the boundaries of the study area and which equipment is needed for each activity.
Remind everyone that this is a precious environment and nothing is to be harmed
or destroyed. Work and walk carefully.
Make notes to describe what the habitat is like before you start looking more
closely.
Work in small groups to investigate different aspects of each habitat. Each group could
explore one of the sections below.
Record discoveries in as many ways as possible.
Groups can compare and present their findings at the end of the activity or after
the visit back in school. How are plants/animals different or similar in each
habitat?
Create a food chain or food web for the habitat, based on what you have found
out about it and the things that live in it.
24
A simple food chain for the lake could be:
sun
green plant
tadpole
fish
heron
A food web in the park is more complex
Badger
Kestrel
Hedgehog
Fox
Shrew
Small birds
Earthworms
Woodlice
Rabbits
Mice
Beetles
Slugs
Grass &
leaves
Dead grass &
leaves
Food webs show the interdependence of plants and animals.
Can you add arrows to the lines of the food web to show which way the energy
(i.e. food) flows?
Think about what would happen if one part of the food web was affected by human activities,
pollution or climate change. Can you see the effects of any of these problems in the habitat
you studied?
What would happen if the grass was killed off?
What would be the effect of reducing the rabbit population?
How can we all help to look after habitats in the future?
Activities
In your chosen habitat, split up into small groups and investigate:
Light levels in the open and in shade, on the ground and at 1 metre above ground. Take
readings in a number of places and calculate averages.
Soil structure, colour, size of particles, organic matter, moisture levels in the open and at the
base of plants, test the pH level in various places and calculate averages.
Temperature at ground level in the soil and at 1 metre above the ground. Take
measurements in the open and under shade and calculate averages.
Plants growing in the area, use quadrats or hoops to look for different varieties in a small
area and measure the heights of plants and trees (use tree measurers described in this pack,
or clinometers), the circumference of tree trunks, look for flowers, seeds, fruits, mosses, algae
and lichens.
25
Fungi (mushrooms and toadstools) may be found at some times of the year. Remember
that many fungi are poisonous, so do not touch them at all. Wash your hands before
eating anything afterwards and do not put your fingers in your eyes or mouth while studying
them.
Use charts and keys to help you identify what you find. Group the plants, lichens and fungi
according to things you observe about them.
Animal and bird tracks and signs, prints, droppings, any sightings of birds or mammals,
amphibians or reptiles. Use charts and keys to help you identify your findings. Group the
animals and birds you find, observing their differences and similarities.
Minibeasts on the ground, in the grass, under logs and stones, on plants or flying in the air.
Use charts and keys to help you identify them and classify into groups according to what you
have observed about them, their similarities and differences.
Activities
1.
Discover more about food webs and the interdependence of the living things found in
the habitats.
How are the habitats similar or different?
How have plants and animals adapted to each habitat?
What natural connections have you found?
2.
Visit the Natural History Galleries at Wollaton Hall especially the Bird Gallery and ‘Our
World of Wildlife’ in the Courtyard buildings. The dioramas show animals, plants, insects
and birds in their habitats.
Make a diorama of the habitat you have explored. Use a box with a window
at one end and make a model habitat to show what you discovered at Wollaton.
Make sure you include the plants, animals, invertebrates, water, soil, stones,
buildings, etc. You could put a light inside, so it is easier to see into your diorama.
.
3.
4.
Each group could make a presentation or display about the habitat, including
drawings, photographs, charts and keys, calculations and comparisons.
Borrow some specimens from Access Artefacts, the Museum Loans
Collection, so that you can get close to some of the life forms you discovered,
sketch them, make notes and find out more.
26
5. Play the Food Web Game.
You will need:
A yellow football, balls of string or wool, card badges for everyone in the group, a flat
area of ground, notebook and pencil.
What to do first
Make a card badge with a drawing of a plant or animal found in one habitat. Write on it where
it gets its energy from and what in turn feeds on it. Make sure everyone in your group
chooses something different.
Food Chains
Start by making a simple food ‘chain’, in this example a woodland. One person stands in the
centre of the open space holding the yellow football to represent the sun. The ball of string or
wool represents the flow of energy from the sun. The sun holds the end of the string and
passes the ball of string to the plant, the plant holds on to the string and passes the ball to
one of the animals that feed on plants (herbivore), e.g. a caterpillar who holds on to the string
and passes the ball to the predator (carnivore), e.g. the blue tit, who in turn passes it to the
top predator e.g. the sparrowhawk. The food chain is complete, with producers and
consumers all ultimately getting their energy from the sun.
sun
plant
caterpillar
blue tit
sparrowhawk
Food Webs
When a number of different food chains have been discussed and worked out in this way, a
food ‘web’ can be made, trying to link all the plants/animals of the habitat together. The sun
may need to hold on to more than one ball of wool or string for this. It will become obvious that
the web of life is complicated and plants and animals are interdependent in many different
ways. Make notes of all the chains and webs produced during the game.
Sustainable Habitats
When a web has been completed, imagine that one life form dies, due to some disease,
human activity or the effects of climate change on the habitat.
Pull the life form gently out of the web. All the plants and animals that depend for their energy
on it will feel a tug on the string and will also have to ‘die’.
Try removing different life forms to see the effects.
Finally, remove all the plants or insects to see the catastrophic effects this has on the whole
ecosystem. Discuss what this game teaches us about the implications for life in the habitat,
sustainability, climate change and what we can all do to help habitats survive.
27
7. How can I observe and sketch wildlife?
Birds and animals are frightened by loud noises
and will soon fly, swim or run away if you run
To observe wildlife you
around making lots of noise. Sit by a tree, on
need to walk slowly and
a bench or lie on your front on the grass, you
quietly, looking all around
will see much more of the life around you and
you
some of it may come very close to you.
Take your time and watch how the creature moves, what it is
doing, where it goes, what and how it eats and listen to any sounds it
makes. The more you look, the easier it will be to sketch. Make quick
notes to remind you later, take photographs and record sounds if you can.
Birds, insects and animals all start life as an egg, and this is the best
shape to begin with when you sketch them. Add another circle for the
head and then start sketching in the other parts of the creature you are
watching, its legs, tail, wings etc. Take a few crayons and record the
main colours you can see. You will need to work
quickly, as most living things will not stand
still for long.
Keep your sketch simple and clear,
you can make a more detailed drawing
later, using photographs or specimens
from the Loans Collection.
Trees and other plants grow upwards
from the ground, and this is the easiest
way to sketch them. Start at the roots,
notice how the stem or trunk grows,
bends and splits, where the leaves
start and what shape the plant
makes.
Make quick sketches of:
Fruits, seeds or nuts (or draw round
them)
Leaves; (or draw round them), the shapes, patterns
of veins, number of leaves on a stem, how they are
arranged, their texture, colour and whether they
have any hairs on them.
Flowers; the number of flowers on a stem, count
the petals, sepals, shapes of the anthers, stamen
and pistil.
Record the colours with crayons.
28
8. How can I sort wildlife into groups?
(classification)
When I was exploring the world with my
friend, John Ray, we found it almost
impossible to find out about the life-forms we
observed, as there was no system of grouping
things together. We often had to read through a
whole book to find out anything at all about an animal
or plant we’d seen. We decided that an organised system of classification
was essential to naturalists, so that it was simpler for everyone to learn
about wildlife habitats and the life-forms found there.
If you sort wildlife into groups
it helps you understand more
about your discoveries
You will need
Computer (or paper, ruler and pencil)
notes from your visit
books about wildlife.
A Table of Woodland Minibeasts found at Wollaton
Type of
minibeast
no legs
more hard can fly eats
eats lives on lives lives on lives in
than 6 outer
plant other plants under
the
trees
legs case
material minithe ground
beasts
ground
☺ ☺ ☺ ☺ ☺
☺
ladybird
earthworm
6
legs
☺
☺
centipede
☺ ☺
woodlouse
☺ ☺
snail
☺
slug
☺
ground
beetle
☺
aphid
☺
☺
☺
☺
☺ ☺
☺ ☺ ☺
☺
☺
☺
☺
☺ ☺
☺
☺ ☺
☺ ☺
☺
☺
☺
spider
☺
☺
☺
☺
☺ ☺
☺
☺
wasp
bee
☺
☺
☺ ☺
millipede
☺
☺ ☺
☺
☺
What to do
☺
☺
☺
☺
wood ant
☺
☺ ☺
☺
butterfly
☺
☺ ☺
☺ ☺
29
☺
1. Here’s an easy
way to start. First
make a list of your
discoveries and put
a smiley in the
columns you
observe they fit
into. You can then
easily sort them
into many groups.
In this table, for
example, you could
decide to group
together all the
minibeasts that can
fly, or all those that
live on plants, (or
even those that fly
and live on plants.)
Make up as many
different groups as
you can from this
table.
Make a table on paper or on the computer to include all the wildlife discoveries you’ve made
in one of the habitats at Wollaton. Talk about the columns you have chosen and why you
chose them.
Sort everything into groups using your table. How many groups can you make?
2. Another way of sorting wildlife into groups is by using a decision tree.
Start by deciding on one thing that splits your discoveries into just two
groups. For example, those that can fly and those that cannot fly.
Then split them into those with hard outer cases and those with soft
bodies. . .
Then split them again into those that eat plants (herbivores) and those that eat other
minibeasts (carnivores)
Carry on splitting up the groups until each box contains only one minibeast.
Sometimes you may not know what your minibeast eats, or what it may eventually turn into.
For example, a caterpillar might be in a different group from a moth or butterfly even though
it will eventually become one of these. Do not worry about this, just decide how you will
group your minibeasts according to what you observe.
On the next page is an example of the type of simple key that you could construct.
30
Herbivores
woodlouse
snail
millipede
Herbivores
earthworm
slug aphid
Carnivores
spider
Soft bodies
earthworm slug
spider aphid
Herbivores
butterfly
bee
Carnivores
wasp
Soft bodies
butterfly wasp bee
Hard outer cases
ladybird
Fliers
ladybird butterfly wasp bee
Example: You think that your minibeast cannot fly. Follow the arrow
to Non-fliers. If its body is hard on the outside; follow the arrow to
Hard outer cases. Finally, you think it might eat plant material; follow
the arrow to Herbivores. Your minibeast might be a woodlouse, a
snail or a millipede
Continue in this way until you have only one minibeast in each group
Carnivores
centipede
ant
beetle
Hard outer cases
centipede woodlouse
ant snail millipede
beetle
Non fliers
earthworm centipede woodlouse
ant snail millipede slug aphid
ground beetle spider
earthworm centipede woodlouse ant snail
millipede slug spider beetle ladybird
butterfly wasp bee aphid
My Minibeast Discoveries at Wollaton
Example: You think that your minibeast can fly. Follow the arrow to Fliers. If
you think its body is soft; follow the arrow to Soft bodies. Finally, you think
it might eat plant material; follow the arrow to Herbivores. Your minibeast
might be a butterfly or a bee
31
9. What can I find out about the trees at Wollaton?
There are many old,
wonderful and special trees
at Wollaton. I myself planted
avenues of oaks to create
shaded walks and views
across the parkland.
Some of the trees are specimens,
which were brought from foreign
lands many years ago. Most people
had never seen trees like these
before.
The woodlands at Wollaton provided many
types of wood for the Hall; ash for tool handles and
firewood, oak for buildings and furniture and even holly to decorate
the Hall at Christmas time. Sweet chestnuts and hazel gave us nuts and
for fruit we had cherries and apples.
Go on a Tree Trail
Suggestions for activities that you could do on the Tree Trail are
highlighted in bold. You will find the instructions for the activities
and any equipment needed on the pages following the Trail route
directions.
Record what you see with sketches, notes and
photographs.
Names of the species of trees you may see are in
bold italics.
The Tree Trail is about a one hour walk and could
take a half or a whole day, depending on how many
activities are completed. The additional route round
the lake (see point 16), may take another half day,
with activities.
The Tree Trail route (see points 1 to 17) is mostly on
good roads and paths and is suitable for pupils of
any age or those with special needs. (At points 5
and 6, the small, grassy path may be unsuitable. The
Wellingtonia tree can be reached by continuing
along the road and turning left down the avenue instead.)
The additional route round the lake (see point 18), is also accessible.
Compass directions in the Tree Trail notes
and the map will help you find your way
around.
The photographs included in the Tree Trail
will help identify Wollaton’s wonderful trees,
but you will also need a selection of tree
identification books and charts.
Remember to care for the trees, don’t
damage them or take anything off them,
except what you find lying dead on the
ground.
32
3
Deer park
Courtyard Studio, shop,
cafe, Yard Gallery, toilets,
Industrial Museum
d
ar
ty gs
r
u in
Co uild
B
1
rk
pa
r
Ca
33
3
4
telephone
box
18
Lion
head
Ice house
2
Avenue
To the lake and
boathouse
Camellia House
17
Gazebo
on
at
l
l
o ll
W Ha
Gate
16
15
Ga
9 te
5
10
8
Pond
11
12
Cedar Lawn
6
14
13
Ha-ha
Wellingtonia
7
Doric Temple
North
Tree Trail Directions
1.
Start in the main car park below the Hall
The car park is surrounded by large trees, oak, copper beech, sycamore and sweet
chestnut. See if you can identify any of them. You could play Everyone’s Unique or Stained
Glass Windows here.
Look across (west) to the trees in the parkland. Notice how their lower branches end in a flat,
straight line called a ‘browse line’. What do you think has caused this?
2. Go south east towards the Hall and look back from the junction
near the red telephone box
You are now looking down one of the lovely avenues at Wollaton. They were
planted to give wonderful views as visitors drove or rode up to the Hall, and
superb views down from the windows. Francis Willoughby the naturalist,
planted two of the avenues of oaks on this northern side of the Park.
3. Walk past the end of the Courtyard Buildings (south west)
towards the large gate by the staff car park
By the gate on your right you will find a plane tree. In autumn its
unusual seeds on long stalks look like pompoms.
4.
Retrace your steps to the junction and go straight across (north
east), on the road to the Hall
Look down the hill across the parkland. This is a good place to do any of the
Tree Measuring activities in this pack as you can see plenty of large trees.
See how many you can identify from their shape, bark, leaves, flowers or fruit,
depending on the time of year you visit.
5.
From point 4 carry on up the path that leads to the Hall until you reach a
junction, go left here, (north east)
The row of eight deciduous lime trees on your left are wonderful trees for Word Trunks and
Poetrees.
6.
Walk north eastwards, downhill on the small path
between the 6th and 7th lime trees, by a small bench
You will see a group of coniferous
cedar trees and another bench.
Compare the two types of trees,
deciduous and coniferous - how are
they different and how are they
similar?
34
7.
Go down the hill (north) through the line of beech trees
and cross the next avenue to a very large tree standing
on its own.
This Wellingtonia tree, sometimes called the sierra redwood or
giant sequoia, was planted here as a specimen tree where the
whole tree could easily be seen. The tallest trees in the world,
redwoods are not a native British tree but come from North
America. They can live for up to 1,500 years although this one is
only a youngster. It has very unusual, soft bark, where small birds
such as treecreepers often roost in small hollows. See if you can
spot where one has spent the night; they sometimes leave
droppings under the hollows.
8.
Go back to the avenue and turn left (south east). Then retrace your steps,
going right (south west), up the small path by the cedars, back to the lime
trees. Bear right (west) and walk up the road towards the front of the Hall.
How many other types of trees you can identify on your way? You could do Seeds Fruits and
Nuts, How Old is That Tree? or Bark Textures.
9.
Go though the garden gate in the railings on the
left of the Hall, between two large evergreen trees.
Make sure you close the gate behind you. Why is this
important? As you walk through the gate, look carefully at the
evergreen holm oak trees on either side. The leaves of
these trees are thick and hard with few stomata (pores) to
reduce transpiration so they can they survive in the dry, hot
conditions in their native lands around the Mediterranean.
10. Turn left (north east), walk along the path under the trees.
Rhododendron bushes are originally from North America and China. Many unusual types of
trees and plants were brought to Britain to decorate the gardens of large country houses.
The flowers are very beautiful, but unfortunately the large,
dense leaves cut out most of the light, so nothing else can
grow there. Notice how bare the ground is underneath. We
now know that introducing non-native species like this can
be very bad for the environment, as they can take over the
habitat from our native plants and provide less food for
wildlife.
As you walk, look carefully on
your right, among the rhododendrons, for a small ginkgo or
maidenhair tree by the path. This type of tree - with its
distinctive shaped leaves - may well have been eaten by
dinosaurs. It is a very ancient species, having survived
unchanged for 200 million years. They were first brought to
England in 1758.
35
11.
Carry on along this path until you come to a large open area under two huge
oak trees on your right
This is another good place to do Word Trunks and Poetrees, How Old is That Tree? or
Everyone’s Unique.
12. Continue along the path as before, until you reach the Low Water Garden by a
fork in the path.
Climate change may mean our weather is warmer and drier in the summer. This area
contains plants that come from countries where there is not as much rain as there is in Britain.
It may be better in the future to have these kinds of plants in our gardens, so we do not waste
precious water. On the other side of the path is a huge beech tree, another good tree for
Word Trunks and Poetrees, or How Old is That Tree?
13. Turn left (south east) at the fork and reach the Sensory Garden.
If you have time, you could walk round this special garden, using your senses to enjoy the
plants there.
14. Continue along the path until you reach the small
Doric Temple on your left. Turn right (west), on to the
Cedar Lawn.
This area contains many beautiful specimen cedar trees. Have
a close look at the leaves and cones on a low branch. You may
be able to find the scales of old cones lying in the grass.
This is another good place to do Word Trunks and Poetrees
or Bark Textures.
In the centre of the lawn is a huge tree stump. This is all that is
left of an enormous cedar tree that blew down in the gales of
January 2007. You could do the activity How Old is That Tree?
to find out how old the tree was when it fell.
Smell the tree stump; cedar wood is very fragrant and is also a
natural moth repellent.
15. Walk westwards from the tree stump towards the Camellia House, past two
yew trees.
Every part of a yew tree is poisonous. It is an evergreen, slowgrowing tree with many uses. Longbows were once made from its
flexible, strong branches.
As you walk towards the Camellia House you will find other types of
trees. Compare them and try to identify as many as you can. Seeds
Fruits and Nuts is an activity you could
do here.
The Camellia House was the very first
prefabricated cast-iron greenhouse in the
world. Why do you think camellias have
to be kept in this greenhouse?
36
16. Stand with your back to the centre door of the
Camellia House and walk straight ahead (south
west) through the gate into the park.
Ahead of you is another avenue of lime trees and a view
across the lake.
17. If you want to end your Tree Trail here, turn right (northwest) and walk along
the top of the slope with the ha-ha on your right, towards the Courtyard
Stables.
The ha-ha was built to stop deer and other animals getting into
the garden but without spoiling the view from the Hall with a
fence.
A group of horse chestnut, beech and lime trees shade
benches and are a good picnic spot at the bottom of the hill by
the Courtyard Stables where there are toilets, exhibitions, shop
and cafe.
18.
If you want to continue your Tree Trail through
the woods around the lake, follow the path south
west down the avenue and keep the lake on your
right to return back to the Hall.
You will see many types of tree on your walk, including willow,
lime, hawthorn, oak, beech, yew, sycamore,
rhododendron and horse chestnut.
Any of the Tree Trail activities could be done along this longer
route.
37
Tree Trail Activities
Everyone’s Unique
You will need
A collection of various fallen leaves, everyone should collect one leaf.
A large plastic hoop. (Do this activity inside on a windy day)
What to do
Stand in a circle. Look very carefully at your leaf, its shape, size, patterns, colour, texture. Look
all around it and really get to know every square millimetre of it. When you’re sure you would
recognise it as easily as an old friend, put it on the ground inside the hoop.
When all the leaves are inside the hoop, the leader mixes them up and spreads them out
again so they can all be seen clearly. Look carefully and see if you can see your leaf. When
you are sure, take it in turns to pick out your leaf from the hoop. Make really sure it is yours
before you go back to the circle.
Even though all the leaves were together, you should recognise yours. That’s because all
leaves are totally different and unique, just like people. We are all unique and very special in
different ways.
This activity can be done with young children by passing the leaves around the circle, one at a
time, on a signal. The game stops when your leaf comes back to you after being handed all
round the circle.
38
Tree Measuring (Height)
There are many ways of measuring the height of trees without chopping them down. Most
ways will give an approximate height and are not completely accurate. Why do you think that
is?
You will need
Large measuring tapes (20m or 30m), metre rulers, pencils, notebooks, tree measurers (see
Activity 3), clinometers.
What to do
Choose a suitable tree to measure. You need to be able to see the whole tree from its roots to
the top, a tree standing alone is best. Work in pairs or small groups. Can you estimate its
height first?
Method 1
Walk away from the tree and bend forwards to look at it through your legs. Stop when you can
see the top of the tree through your legs. Your partner should now measure the distance from
where you are standing to the tree. This is the approximate height of the tree.
measure
Method 2
Ask your partner stand at the base of the tree. Hold your pencil at arm’s length and close one
eye. Move backwards or forwards until the pencil looks as though it is the same height as the
tree. (i.e. one end of the pencil matches the bottom of the tree and the other end the topmost
twig.
Still holding it at arm’s length, turn the pencil through 90 degrees so that it is horizontal, with
one end appearing to ‘touch’ the bottom of the tree. Tell your partner to walk away from the
tree until they look as though they are standing at the end of the pencil. This distance is the
height of your tree.
turn pencil
measure
39
Method 3
Use a clinometer to measure the angle between your position and the top of the tree. Line up
the sight on your clinometer with the top of the tree and move nearer or further away from the
tree until the angle shown is 45 degrees. Your partner should measure the distance from you
to the tree (A) and your height (B). Add these two numbers together and this will give you the
approximate height of the tree.
You can make your own clinometer very simply by fixing a length of string to the centre of the
straight edge of a protractor and putting a small weight on the end of the string. Fix a plastic
straw along the straight edge of the protractor and cut it to fit. Look through the straw to ‘sight’
the top of the tree.
B
A
40
Method 4
1 cm
Make a Tree Measurer
Use a Tree Measurer to find the height
of your tree. Make this in school before
your visit.
You will need a piece of card (A4),
scissors, pencil, ruler, sticky-backed
plastic (or a laminator)
Draw a long slit window, 20cms long and 1cm wide,
in the centre of the card as shown. Cut it out carefully
and write the markings on one side of the slit,
measuring up from the base of the window as
follows;
Half way up, (10 cm)
write 2
2
One quarter way up, (5cm) write 4
One fifth up, (4cm)
write 5
One eighth up, (2.5cm)
write 8
One tenth up, (2cm)
write 10
One twentieth up, (1cm)
write 20
One fortieth up, (0.5cm)
write 40
4
Cover with sticky-backed plastic or laminate it..
Stand a metre stick against the trunk of the tree, at
its base.
Hold the measurer at arm’s length and look at the
tree through the slit window. Move backwards or
forwards until the whole tree just fits inside the
window. Look at where the top of the metre stick
reaches in the window and read off the number. This
is the number of metres high your tree measures. If
the metre stick measures in between the numbers,
estimate the height to the nearest metre.
41
5
8
10
20
40
Tree Measurer
20 cm
Measure the Spread of the Canopy
You will need
Long rope, reel type tape measures (20-30 metres), notebooks, pencils, small plastic mirrors,
a large tree with enough space around it for everyone to stand in a circle
What to do
Stand facing the tree in a circle. Hold your mirror horizontally by your chin, so you can see the
canopy of the tree above, and also the ground below. Turn around with your back to the tree
and walk carefully until you reach the edge of the tree’s canopy. Stand still and check that you
are directly underneath the end of the branches. When everyone is still, lay the rope on the
ground by everyone’s feet.
Measure the diameter of the shape and its circumference. Is it a circle? How will you find out?
You could draw the shape to scale on squared paper back in school and
calculate its area.
On a sunny day you could measure the amount of shade cast by the tree. Lay a rope around
the shadow shape and measure as you did for the canopy.
Draw it to scale on squared paper and calculate the area shaded by the tree. You could try
this at different times during the day, or at different times of the year. How does the shape and
size of the shadow change? Can it give you an accurate measure of the spread of the
canopy?
diameter
circu mfe rence
42
How Old is That Tree?
You will need
Notebooks, pencils, long tape measures, metre rulers, cameras
What to do
Some of the trees at Wollaton are very old. Can you guess how old some of them are?
As trees get older, they not only get taller, but also wider round the trunk. Here’s an easy way
to work out the approximate age of any large tree standing alone in its own space. Why do
you think this doesn’t work for trees in a wood or forest?
Measure the circumference of the trunk about one metre above the ground. Then do the
following calculation to find out its approximate age;
Circumference in cms divided by 2.5 = age in years
Example 1: A tree with a circumference of 2m 50cm
250
÷ 2.5 = 100 years old
Example 2: A tree with a circumference of 4m 30cm
430
÷ 2.5 = 172 years old
Try it for yourself and find the oldest tree you can as you walk round the Tree Trail.
Measure the tree stump in the centre of the Cedar Lawn, to find out approximately how old the
tree was when it was cut down in the year 2007.
Why do veteran trees need protection and how do you think they are cared for? Why do they
sometimes need to be cut down?
43
Word Trunks and Poetrees
You will need
Pencils, notebooks, tape recorder
Word Trunks
Choose an interesting tree and stand underneath it in small groups, every group looking at a
different part of the tree.
•
lie or crouch on the ground and look very closely at the roots
•
stand next to the trunk with your arms around the tree
•
look at the bark
•
look at one leaf, bud or fruit
•
look at one small twig
•
look along one large, long branch
•
look right up the trunk towards the top of the tree
•
lie down, looking upwards at the sky through the branches.
•
stand far enough away from the tree to see the whole of it
Take time to explore the shapes, textures, colours, and sounds of the tree, then start calling
out any words or phrases you think of to describe what you are seeing.
Make sure you also say how you feel about the tree. One person in each group, should be the
scribe writing everything down, or maybe you could make recordings of what everyone says.
Gather together under the tree and listen to the words other groups have written or recorded.
When you get back to school, draw a tree shape on a large piece of paper, cut it out and write
all the words and descriptions on it, to make your word trunk.
Poetrees
Use the words in your word trunk to write poetry – ‘Poetrees’. They don’t need to
rhyme, but should say something about how you feel about the trees at Wollaton.
Write them in the shape of trees you’ve seen at Wollaton.
44
Seeds, Fruits and Nuts
You will need
Notebooks, pencils and a collection of seeds, fruits and nuts. Make sure you know which tree
each belongs to. (Remember only to collect those that have fallen to the ground, do not pick
them from trees. Why is this important?)
Always be very careful, as many seeds and berries can be poisonous, (especially yew).
What to do
Look closely at the seeds and try to sort them into groups. Think of reasons for grouping them
like that. Could you group them in different ways?
Seeds are the trees’ ways of reproducing themselves and they all need to be carried away
from the tree in order to grow. Why is that? Work out how each kind of seed is transported, by
air, on water or on land, by animals.
Does it fly or drift, float or hitch a ride? Try it out. How will it become planted to grow into a new
tree?
Look at the outer case and shape of the seed, fruit or nut. Why do you think it is like that?
You could take some examples of each sort back to school and try to grow them
into trees. What will they need to grow strongly?
45
Stained Glass Windows
You will need
Window shapes cut out in folded card, fallen
leaves, double-sided tape or glue sticks
What to do
Cut out window shapes in folded card
before you visit Wollaton or use the
shapes of the windows in Wollaton
Hall as your inspiration. Make sure
you cut holes through both sides of the
card.
Put an interesting leaf in between the folded card and hold it up to the light with your back to
the sun.
Never look directly at the sun as it can damage your eyes.
Look at the lines, patterns, colours and shapes in the leaf. Try this with a few leaves until you
have decided which is the most interesting.
Stick the leaf between the folded card.
Stand in a large circle and pass the windows round until everyone has looked through them
all.
Back in school you could use them as inspiration for artwork of all kinds. For
example, make large versions of them with tissue paper, fabrics or coloured
cellophane to display in a window.
46
Bark Textures
You will need
Large sheets of paper, wax crayons, pencils
What to do
What is bark and why is it so important to trees?
Different species of tree have very different kinds of
bark\. Look around as you walk through the
parkland, touch and examine the bark of different
trees and see how it varies.
Spread a large piece of paper over the bark of the tree and, using the side of a wax crayon,
rub over the paper, keeping it very still, to show the texture and patterns of the bark
underneath. Make sure you get no crayon on the tree. Why is this important?
Write the name of the species of tree on the paper and compare the patterns with other
people in your group. How are the textures different?
Use the textures back in school to make a tree collage, or the patterns could be
the inspiration for a painting or a design for printing.
47
10. How can we care for the environment at Wollaton?
Hundreds of people visit Wollaton Hall and Park every day. It is important that everyone treats
the environment there with respect, so that habitats, plants, animals, buildings and other
people are not harmed or disturbed. If we are not careful, we could ruin Wollaton for
everything that lives there and for everyone who visits.
You will need
Map of Wollaton Hall and Park, notebooks, pencils, cameras.
What to do
You can see in this photograph how
people have trampled and worn
away the soil around the tree roots
by the lake. What effect do you think
this has on the trees?
How would you improve this area if
you were looking after Wollaton
Park?
As you walk around Wollaton Hall
and Park, think about what you either
like or don’t like about different
places there. Take photographs of
‘good’ and ‘bad’ places. Do most of
your group agree, or is the group
split? Someone should make notes of what’s discussed. What reasons do people give for
their feelings?
How would you change the area to make it better?
Draw a ‘smiley’ on the map to show how you felt about that part of Wollaton.
At the end of your visit, discuss how you all felt about Wollaton and any ideas you have about
how parts of it could be improved.
Follow the Wollaton Code during your visit:
·
Protect all trees, plants, wildlife and habitats from harm
·
Close gates after you go though them
·
Leave no litter; use the bins or better still, take it home
·
Talk quietly - listen a lot
·
Walk carefully and watch what’s around you
·
Leave things as you found them
·
Take nothing but your time, photographs and happy memories
·
Leave nothing but footprints and a good impression
After your visit
Draw a large map of Wollaton Hall and Park including all the ‘smileys’. Each group could
present their ideas about a small area and describe how they would improve it.
48
11. Glossary of words used in this resource pack
Word
Definition
acre
measurement of land (4,840 square yards or 0.4 hectares)
anatomy
study of the structure of bodies of animals and plants
anther
the very end part of a flower’s stamen, containing pollen
armoury
store of weapons
baron
a landowning member of the aristocracy
billeted
soldiers accommodated in a private house
biology
the study of animals and plants, natural science
boathouse
small building for storing boats
botany
the study of plants
calyx
group of sepals protecting a flower bud
camellia
An exotic flowering shrub
canopy
the spread of branches and leaves at the top of a tree or in a forest
capital
top part of a column
catalogue
to put things in an order, to list or organise, a list so made
chute
a channel or pipe, particularly one that something drops down
cistern
water tank
coach house
building for carriages or coaches
column
a pillar supporting all or part of a building
complex
group of buildings
Corinthian
Greek style of decoration of a capital, usually with leaves and plants
crustacean
Group of animals that includes crabs, shrimps, water fleas
death duties
taxes paid when someone dies
diorama
model of a three-dimensional scene usually viewed through a window
dissection
cutting up a plant or animal to find out about its parts and structure
Doric
simple, plain, Greek style of a capital, with no decoration
estate
a large area of land owned by an individual, family or company
flora
the plant life of a region, habitat or age
gable
pointed side of the top of a building or roof
gallery
building or room with paintings or displays of objects
garderobe
an old name for a toilet e.g. in a castle or old house
garrison
a camp or fortified building for soldiers
gazebo
a kind of summerhouse, often on a small hill
geology
the study of the earth, rocks, minerals, soils and their physical processes
gondola
a boat used in Venice, Italy
ha-ha
a ditch and wall built to keep animals out without spoiling the view
49
hectare
metric measurement of land (10,000 square metres or 2.5 acres)
heir
person who inherits property or money when someone dies
hibernaculum a cave or building where bats roost and hibernate
ice house
building, partly underground, to store ice blocks cut from frozen lakes
invertebrate
animal without a backbone e.g. worm, insect, crustacean
Ionic
Greek style of decoration of a capital, with spirals like ram’s horns
merchant
a person who sells something, a trader
naturalist
someone who studies the natural world
pantry
a cupboard or room used as a food store, usually kept cool
pilaster
like a column, but flat against a wall, not free-standing
pistil
the female parts of a flower
priory
a monastery or nunnery led by a Prior or Prioress
quarters
rooms in a house where servants live
transpiration
loss of water from plants through their leaves
residence
a place to live, a house
resolute
determined and dedicated to doing something
sepals
the protective layers around a flower bud
species
group of plants - or animals - that are very similar to each other
stable
building where horses are kept
stamen
male parts of a flower including the anthers
tax
money paid by people to the government
temple
a place of worship or sanctuary – or a building made to look like one
terrace
flat veranda, patio or area with a balcony
tutor
a private teacher
tourelle
small round tower jutting out from a building
trough
long water container for animals to drink from
veteran
an old survivor e.g. of a war
volunteer
someone who offers to do work for no pay
zoology
the study of animals
50
11. Images of Wollaton Hall and Park
North west avenue
Avenue towards Wollaton Road
51
Bare roots beside the lake
Beech tree
52
Boathouse by the lake
Browse line and fallow deer
53
Cedar lawn
Cedar tree stump
54
Whitebeam tree
Deer footprints in mud by the lake
55
Fallow deer
Ha-ha and bridge by the lake
56
Reed beds
Silver birch bark
57
Wellingtonia tree
Holm oaks by the Hall
58
Thompson’s Wood in spring
Daffodils in the spring
59
Ice House
Lion’s head fountain and trough
60
Seeds on a Plane tree
Seeds of the Sweet Chestnut tree
61
Sycamore tree
Telephone box
62
Camellia House
Inside the Camellia House
63
Doric temple
64
Gazebo and water tower
The view from the Hall
65