We’re pleased to present GeoFest 2021. As you would expect the programme is more fluid than usual, and events will continue to be added as Government guidance changes. For more details check with the venue. Events are free unless stated, although normal admission charges (if applicable) may apply. Keep checking the calendar on www.geopark.org.uk and our Facebook page for lots more events and latest news.
You can also download the GeoFest Events 2021 events programme.
Throughout GeoFest
Nordic Walking at Severn Valley Country Park
Our Nordic Walking group meets every Wednesday 10am-11am.
If you are interested in joining, please call 01746 781 192 for more details.
Family Fun at Worcester Cathedral
If you are visiting the Cathedral as a family you can download and print these activities to do while you are going round.
Tours of Worcester Cathedral
Turn up for a Socially Distanced Tour
Mon to Sat 11am or 2.30pm, Monday to Saturday. These Historical Tours of the Cathedral start from the Welcome area near the Cathedral entrance.
Tickets will cost £7 per adult (accompanied children free). visits@worcestercathedral.org.uk
Trails at Arley Arboretum
Join us this summer at Arley Arboretum for a lovely day out.
With a choice of a fairy door or wildlife trail you can enjoy the tranquility of the Arboretum whilst the kids follow their clues. Coupled with a maze, play area and lots of nooks and crannies to explore the Arboretum is a kids paradise!
Booking in advance required for all visits
Events
Cherry Fair and 1940s weekend at Bewdley Museum
Sat 24th & Sun 25th July 10am-4pm
Children’s activities including a cherry hunt! 1940s re-enactors, classic, cars, craft stalls, cherries for sale, live entertainment 1-3pm
A free family event with something for everyone!
School Holiday Activities at Bewdley Museum
Tue 27 July to Thu 2 Sept
Different activities each day Tue-Thu to have a go at, including bird feeders, Viking shields and bedroom plaques. £5 per activity per child. Booking essential due to limited spaces.
The Great British Staycation at Severn Valley Railway
Sunshine, the taste of ice cream, the feel of sand between your toes, the sounds of Punch and Judy, donkeys trotting on the beach and steam train adventures – the Great British Staycation returns to the Severn Valley Railway.
From July 17th to September 5th, there’s so much to do for children of all ages, harking back to summer holidays from years gone by.
Alongside your journey, there’ll be a variety of interactive activities throughout the whole summer at The Engine House, including: A HUGE indoor beach every day, a giant deckchair, free Donkey Rides (every Monday starting 2nd August), Free interactive yellow-coat summer stage shows (every Tuesday from July 27th), Free Punch & Judy Shows (every Wednesday), Free Crazy Golf (every Thursday)
Summer Holidays at Dudmaston Hall
Bring the whole family along and seek out places to play and relax. There’s a selection of traditional outdoor games to play at Dudmaston this summer. Challenge friends and family to a game of croquet on the lawn or boules in the orchard.
A selection of games are available to borrow on a first come, first served basis from the gazebo near reception. All of the equipment is free to borrow, we just ask you to keep the games tidy and return them once you’re finished.
Summer Holidays at NT Brockhampton
Throughout the summer holidays families will be able to pick up a ‘Get, set, go’ card with different activities and stickers. All the activities are nature-based meaning the estate is the perfect spot to try something new, there are three cards to collect in total. Another fun self-led thing to do is to download or print a copy of the National Trust’s ‘50 things to do before you’re 11 ¾’ guide to bring along with you. Here there are fifty activities to try as a family outdoors which can be used over and over again.
‘Back to the Charter’ Family Activities at Worcester Cathedral
Selected dates 10:30am – 3pm
Celebrate the 400th anniversary of the City of Worcester Charter and discover your Cathedral’s connections to Worcester’s story with craft, fun and games for families and all ages.
Activities are free, donations are very welcome to help cover the cost of materials.
Family Fun Saturdays in Comer Woods (NT Dudmaston)
Saturdays July – 4 September, 11.30am-2pm
Meet the Active Outdoors team in Heath Meadow for afternoons filled with fun activities for the whole family. Get your pulses racing! Challenge friends and family to a relay race around the meadow, get together for game of footie or try your hand at soft archery.
Storytelling with Gasper the Fox at Worcester Cathedral
Tue 27 July 10:30
Meet Gaspard, a friendly fox with a taste for adventure! Author Zeb Soanes tells the story of the real-life London fox who inspired his books, and reads excerpts accompanied by illustrations and photographs. Part of 3 Choirs Festival.
£7, under 5s FREE. Book via www.3choirs.org
Family Fun (Online): Ichthyosaur Jigsaw
Wed 28th July 11am & 1pm
Geologist and artist Darrell Wakelam will lead an engaging online artistic workshop for families to create their own Ichthyosaur fossil from recycled objects. Hosted by the Lapworth Museum of Geology.
Book your place to get zoom link
Fabulous Fossils at Severn Valley Country Park
Wed 28th July 11am-12pm
Cast your own fossil using clay and plaster. Mix up some dough using coffee and coffee grounds to make some fun fossils to hide in your garden! Take home a fossil colouring pack which includes a piece of quartz and plaster fossil which is ready to paint.
£3. Book in advance 01746 781192
Crafted in Time: Clay Tile Workshop at Lapworth Museum of Geology
Online
Thu 29th July 6:30pm-7:30pm
Artist Rachel Akers will lead an engaging online workshop in which you will create a beautiful clay tile inspired by the Lapworth Museum.
Free – booking required
The FURTHER Adventures of Dr Dolittle – Outdoor Theatre at Hartlebury Castle
Fri 30th July 7:30pm
Illyria are delving back into Hugh Lofting’s amazing stories to bring you a brand-new musical adaptation of the Doctor’s FURTHER adventures with Jip the Dog, Dab Dab the Duck, Gub Gub the Pig, Polynesia the Parrot.
Get Tickets £10.54 – £50.59
Pond Dipping at Severn Valley Country Park
Fri 30th July 11am-12pm & Fri 27th Aug 11am-12pm
Join us for a pond dip from our dipping platform at Elfin Pool. See if you can catch a slippery fish, a massive diving beetle or a dancing pond skater! There is so much to discover!
£3. Book in advance on 01746 781192
Archaeology Quest at The Hive
Fri 30 July 10am-1pm
Join Worcs Archive & Archaeology Service and have a go at six archaeology challenges. Family activity. You can then go out and look for clues to the history of the site around the outside of The Hive.
Places limited and need to be booked in advance. See www.explorethepast.co.uk/events
Bat walk at Hartlebury Castle
Sat 31st July 8pm
Encounter our night-time flying friends as you enjoy a pleasant evening stroll in the beautiful grounds of Hartlebury Castle to learn about bats! Visitors will be introduced to habitats where bats can be found.
Get Tickets £5.50
Summer Fun at Hartlebury Castle
August
Each week, Tuesday to Thursday, there will be fun hands on craft activities. Week one is Gypsy caravans, followed by nature, creating dinosaurs and crafty pirates. Usual admission applies, with £2 per activity.
Family Fun (Online) – Life in the Ice Age: A Mammoth Adventure with Lapworth Museum
Wed 4th August 11am & 1pm
Travel back in time for a 40 min session with cresswell crags Museum
Book in advance to get zoom link
Mini Beast Makes at Severn Valley Country Park
Wed 4th Aug 11am-12pm
Using natural items found around the park make an array of mini beasts and woodland creatures. Turn a pine cone into a bumblebee! Transform a rock into a ladybird! Shape some clay and sticks into a prickly hedgehog! Colour and decorate a fox mask! Take home some colouring sheets to carry on the fun!
£3. Book in advance on 01746 781192
The Tombs Are Alive at Worcester Cathedral
4th August onwards
“The Tombs are Alive” our new digital trail is available from 4 August, drop in and bring historical figures back to life as you explore the Cathedral with your smartphone. Journey round some of the tombs and memorials of the Cathedral and find out more about who they were as you meet the characters.
As well as this, fun paper family trails are also available each day to enrich your visit
Orienteering @ Severn Valley Country Park
Fri 6th Aug 11am-12pm
Have a go at navigating our permanent orienteering course. Our ranger will help you with your map reading skills before you set off to find all the points marked on your map! There is so much to discover!
£3. Book in advance on 01746 781192
Rock and Fossil Roadshow at Severn Valley Country Park
Sat 7th and 8th August
Come and meet geologists, who’ll bring their displays, rocks and fossils
Free
Vintage Transport Extravaganza at Severn Valley Railway
Sat 7th and Sun 8th Aug
The Great Gatsby – Open Air Theatre at Bewdley Museum
Sun 8th August 5:30-8:30pm
Get your glad rags on, work up your best Charleston, and get your cocktail glass at the ready.
£14 & £9 (children). Tickets are available to book online or by calling 0845 607 7819
Family Fun (online) – Crafts and Colouring with Lapworth Museum
Wed 11th August 10am-5pm
Check out the Facebook page where they’ll be uploading fun craft ideas and colouring sheets on the day.
Animal Art at Severn Valley Country Park
Wed 11th Aug 11am-12pm
Using paper plates, coffee filters and other household items make some exotic wildlife! Use colourful paper to make paper chain slippery snakes! Transform a coffee filter into an ocean loving jellyfish! Turn a paper plate into a wise old owl! Take home some colouring sheets to carry on the fun!
£3. Book in advance on 01746 781192
Mini Den Building at Severn Valley Country Park
Fri 13 Aug 11am-12pm
Join us for a mini den building session in the woods. Collect sticks, twigs, leaves and moss and build a shelter for our toy duck, Dave. Will your shelter keep Dave dry when our ranger pours water over it! There is so much to discover!
£3. Book in advance on 01746 781192
She Stoops to Conquer – Outdoor Theatre at Severn Valley Country Park
Fri 13 Aug
An 18th century farce for all the family!
£15, £14, & £7. For more information or to book your ticket, please visit
Experience a Civil War Pike Drill at Worcester Cathedral
Mon 16 , Wed 18, Fri 20 Aug 11am and 1pm
Learn the moves of a Civil War Pike Solider with our drill. Weather dependent. Age restrictions apply. Numbers strictly limited.
Lovely Leaves at Severn Valley Country Park
Wed 18 Aug 11am-12pm
You’ll be surprised what you make out of leaves! Transform them into insects and other woodland creatures, Make a mobile to hang in the garden! Turn them into paint brushes and see if you can paint a picture of the park! Make them into a nature crown to wear in the summer holidays!
£3. Book in advance on 01746 781192
Family Fun (online) – Lapworth Family Quiz
Wed 18th August 11am-12pm
Get a team together at home or online for the first Lapworth Museum Family Quiz! From dinosaurs to volcanoes there will be something for everyone to enjoy and have a go at answering in this week’s family event!
Register to get your zoom link.
Insect Safari at Lapworth Museum
Wed 25th August 11:30 onwards (performances last 45 mins)
Storytellers weave a magical spell as they take you out on safari from their amazing bug hotel leading you into a fantastical world of creatures that creep, crawl, fly, flutter and buzz. Incredible stories and facts from across the world burst into life in this stunning touring show with original music, an ingenious set and featuring a host of incredible puppets.
Performances take place on University of Birmingham campus. Book your place in advance.
Treasure Island – Outdoor Theatre at Hartlebury Castle
Sun 29th Aug 7:30pm
Come along for swashbuckling fun in this classic exciting adventure. From the moment young Jim Hawkins stumbles upon a treasure map at the Admiral Benbow Inn he finds himself embroiled in the murky underworld of pirates.
Get Tickets £10 – £18
Swashbuckling Fun! At Hartlebury Castle
Mon 30th August
Put on your best pirate costume and join us for swashbuckling fun sessions between 11.30am and 2.30pm. Can you win the competition for the best dressed pirate? Follow the pirate trail around the museum and take part in crafts (no extra charge)!
Join Captain Sharkbreath and his First Mate Ruby Cutlass to learn how to talk like a pirate, all about cannon drills and hear some pirate tales in our Swashbuckle Sessions.
Rock, Fossil & Geology Displays and Trails throughout GeoFest
Museum Geology Trail – Bewdley Museum
Rock and Fossil Displays – Bewdley Museum
Dinosaur Hunt – Bewdley Museum
Country Park Geology Trail download from Severn Valley Country Park website
History trail download from Severn Valley Country Park website
July and August – Rock and Fossil Hunt (booking required) – Severn Valley Country Park
Train Ride Geology Trail (purchase of train ticket required) – Severn Valley Railway
Rock and Fossil Displays – Malvern Hills GeoCentre
All about the Geopark Way – Malvern Hills GeoCentre
Geopark Geology and Landscape Trails leaflets for sale – Malvern Hills GeoCentre
Stable Yard Geology Trail – National Trust, Dudmaston (entry charge)
Dinosaur Detective Trail – Cob House Country Park
Building Stones Geology Trail – Hartlebury Castle (entry charge)
Forest Geology Trail – Forestry England at Wyre Forest
Building Stones Trail – Worcester Cathedral (purchase at Cathedral shop)
Exhibitions
Anthony Twentyman: Art Meets Nature at NT Dudmaston
Ongoing
‘Art meets nature’, features paintings and sculptures by Anthony Twentyman and highlights his role as one of Dudmaston’s closest artistic influencers. As well as Twentyman’s works from our own collection, the exhibition features some of Twentyman’s paintings, kindly loaned to us by Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Entry to the Galleries is by timed ticket. Collect your tickets when you arrive. Please note, pre-booked tickets to the property do not automatically guarantee you entry to the Galleries.
Macdonald Sisters at Bewdley Museum, Wyre Forest Gallery
17th May to 15th August 11am-4pm
This exhibition explores the lives of four extraordinary women, including the mothers of author Rudyard Kipling and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, and the wives of artists Edward Burne-Jones and Edward Poynter. who found their place at the heart of Victorian artistic and intellectual life and will include works of art on loan from Tate and the V&A.
Entrance fee: £4 (free for under 16s and Friends of Bewdley Museum)
Round the Year from Stonewall Hill: A Journey in Time and Space at Hereford Museum
3rd June – 21st August
An exhibition of paintings by Mary Rennell and Richard Gilbert and photographs by Brian Griffiths, celebrating the panorama of the Marches from Stonewall Hill near Presteigne.
Alfred Watkins at Hereford Museum
19th June – 11th September
Alfred Watkins – Victorian antiquarian, photographer, and local business entrepreneur, known for his invention of the photographic exposure meter, interest in bee keeping, and his theory of Ley lines.
The Leaves of the Trees – Exhibition at Worcester Cathedral
5 -31 Aug 10am-4:30pm
Worcester Cathedral will host The Leaves of the Trees, an installation of 5,000 steel ‘Hope’ leaves, as a reflective memorial to the effects of the pandemic. The installation is designed to honour those who have lost their lives, but also to allow everyone to take a moment to contemplate what we have been through and to think about loved ones.
The leaves will be laid out on the Cathedral floor, creating a beautiful impression of autumn leaves fallen from the trees.
GeoFest is sponsored by
Out and About in GeoFest at Geopark Visitor centres
Our partner venues are well worth visiting throughout the summer. Latest details are below, but this may change in response to Government guidelines. For general enquiries please email amhg@outlook.com
Bewdley Museum, Load Street, Bewdley, DY12 2AE www.bewdleymuseum.co.uk
Open 10am-4:30pm
Free
Cob House Country Park, Wichenford, Worcester WR6 6YD www.cobhouse.org
Under new ownership
The Mayfly Cafe – Open 8am to 4pm everyday.
Fishing – Open EVERY day for pleasure fishing 8am to 4pm (7:30am on weekends)
The Park grounds and Animals – Open
Hartlebury Castle Preservation Trust, Hartlebury, Worcestershire, DY11 7XZ
Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun & Bank Holidays 11am-5pm
Hartlebury Castle, Worcestershire County Museum and Old Moat Coppice nature trail.
Admission charges apply https://hartleburycastle.com/
Hereford Museum & Art Gallery, Broad Street, Hereford HR4 9AU www.herefordshire.gov.uk/museums
Tue-Fri 10-4 & Sat 10-12:30
Free
Land of Living Dinosaurs at West Midlands Safari Park, Bewdley, Worcs, DY12 1LF www.wmsp.co.uk
Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, B15 2TT www.birmingham.ac.uk/facilities/lapworth-museum/index.aspx
Tue-Fri 10am-4pm, Sat 12-5pm, Booking required
Malvern Hills GeoCentre, Walwyn Rd, Upper Colwall, Malvern WR13 6PL www.geocentre.co.uk
The Centre is currently open Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 10am-4pm.
Cafe H2O: Mon, Tue, Thur & Fri 10am – 3pm
National Trust
- Croome, near High Green, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR8 9DW nationaltrust.org.uk/croome
- Dudmaston, Quatt, nr Bridgnorth, Shropshire, WV15 5QN nationaltrust.org.uk/Dudmaston
- Brockhampton Estate, near Bromyard, Herefordshire, WR6 5TB nationaltrust.org.uk/brockhampton-estate
National Trust properties are open, although some facilities may still be closed.
Severn Valley Country Park, Alveley, Bridgnorth WV15 6NG www.shropshiresgreatoutdoors.co.uk/site/severn-valley-country-park
The park, and play areas are open but the visitor centre remains closed
The refreshment kiosk is now open 10am-4pm. The bird hides are also now open.
At Alveley, the toilets are open daily, 10am-4pm, the toilets at Highley will remain closed
Severn Valley Railway www.svr.co.uk
The Engine House is open and trains are running
Worcester Cathedral, Worcester WR1 2LA www.worcestercathedral.co.uk
Mon – Sat 10am – 5pm & Sun 1-3pm for visitors
Worcestershire Archive & Archaeology Service, The Hive, Worcester, WR1 3PD www.explorethepast.co.uk
Archives Tues-Fri 10:30am-3:30pm
HER Desk Tue & Thu 10:30-1:30
Self Service – Hive opening Hours
Wyre Forest Centre, DY14 9XQ www.forestryengland.uk/wyre-forest
Car park, toilets, walking & cycling trails, care and bike hire open.
8am-9pm
