An Introduction

This Website provides you with maps, plans and background information about the Benacre Estate as well as details of the actual schools’ day.

Please read these pages carefully, they will give you the opportunity to prepare the children for the visit. The day is extremely full and varied and any preparation will help the children assimilate their experiences rather than being overwhelmed by them.

This Website will also assist you in any follow up work in the classroom.

Benacre is an estate with great history, but it also runs as a modern business that must combine managing the land and conserving the environment with making a profit. It is only by making a profit that the maintenance of the Estate and its community can occur.

The Estate has many enterprises and facets, most of which are given a brief description in the section on the estate found on pages 10, 11 and 12.

We have chosen two sites:

Site A: Wood Farm Educational Centre

Site B: Coast and Woodlands

These sites should give a taste of what happens on the Estate today and how it has changed over the years. We will endeavour to follow these main themes which are the inter-linked needs for stewardship and management of the countryside:

• The Countryside is a vibrant, breathing environment where skilled people work and make their livelihood. All of what you see today has come about through careful management and hard work over hundreds of years.

• An Understanding of Stewardship. Whether it is in the Hall or on the Farm the attitude of the owners is the same - maintaining and improving it for future generations. Many people depend on the estate for their livelihood and many more enjoy some aspect of it every year.

• Old and New. The Estate endeavours to keep the best of the past while making use of modern technology. The estate, in common with the rest of the countryside, has to be run as a business.

• Facing Reality. Trees are a crop which must be harvested. Crops require irrigation. Pests such as crows and rabbits must be controlled. Coastal erosion must be managed.

ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DAY

On arrival at the Coastal Activity Site (as indicated on the map in this handbook), please keep your pupils on the coach and ask an adult member of your party to report to the Estate staff.

You will receive a timetable and a groupings list appropriate to the number of sites to be visited and the total number of children. You will be given your Group ID number at the Teachers Meeting held on 4 May at 4.15pm.

Each group will visit both sites over the day and lunch will be at a designated point and will be included in your timetable.

There are a lot of activities to complete during the day and the timetable will need to be adhered to as closely as possible.

Toilets will be available at the Wood Farm Barn and Coastal Activity Centres.

Please be prepared to take responsibility for litter and use the bins provided or return it to school.

You should be aware that many of the activities being carried out on the Estate can be dangerous and that the Estate has made adequate provision for the health and safety of its employees and visitors. However, with the concentration of children attending the Open Day, it is important that they are made aware of the need to obey safety signs and barriers and listen carefully to the safety information and instructions given in relation to activities being demonstrated, or those that they are involved with.

We suggest that you might like to bring a camera and take photographs of your day in the countryside.