What is Woodland Skills Centre?
– 50 acre site in the middle of the Clwydian Range AONB
– stunning views across the Wheeler Valley
– woodlands, wildflower meadow, ponds, arboretum, vineyard, woodland walks, heritage orchard, apiary, allotments, polytunnels, herb gardens, tree nursery, 4 Forest School sites
– outstanding timber-frame, carbon-negative Centre buildings, extensive workshops
– not-for-profit, community-owned Social Enterprise company
– winner of Royal Forestry Society gold medal and first prize for community woodlands – 2015
– winner Living Woods best community woodland – 2017
– winner Woodlands Awards best Woodland Courses 2018
– winner of Royal Welsh Agricultural Society gold medal and first prize for Welsh community woodlands – 2019
– Green Flag award – 2019
What does Woodland Skills Centre do?
Traditional Crafts
We run :
– a wide range of courses in woodland and countryside crafts – around 60 different courses a year
– courses in countryside management
– a suite of Bushcraft courses
– courses in art and craft
– courses in horticulture
– about 40 days a year of courses, workshops and demonstrations at shows and festivals all over the country.
Children and Families
-Visits from schools from Nursery to A level.
-Home Education groups.
-Holiday Club in the Woods.
-Birthday parties in the Woods.
-Family days, Weekends and Weeks with free camping.
-Day visits and overnight camps for Guides, Scouts, Brownies, Cubs, Rainbows and Beavers and other Youth Groups.
Social Prescribing – Health and Wellbeing programmes
We run programmes at the Centre for organisations working with children and adults with a wide range of difficulties including :
-Special Schools
-Social Services Community Support
-Adults with learning difficulties
-People with autism
-MIND
-Adults with dementia
-Pupil inclusion, Alternative Provision, TRAC
-Private residential care homes
-Long-term unemployed
-Adults with drug and alcohol problems
Opportunities for volunteering
We are always willing to take new groups and welcome discussions about what we can offer.
All our staff have enhanced DBS, relevant professional qualifications, first aid certificates, full insurance and a range of skills and experience.
We also run sessions in Mindfulness in the Woods
Training courses
-OCN level 3 course in Social Prescribing.
-OCN level 3 course in Mindfulness.
-First Aid courses.
-OCN level 1 and 2 courses in a wide range of woodland crafts.
We also host training courses for a range of organisations including North Wales Wildlife Trust, Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Trust, Focus on Forestry First and Plantlife.
Local and National Projects
– We hold a collection of heritage fruit trees for the North Wales Wildlife Trust.
– We are involved in a regional campaign for restoring wildflower verges, receiving locally collected seed and growing the plants.
– We have been awarded “Bee Friendly” status by the Welsh Government.
– We are a regional training hub for the National Botanic Garden of Wales.
– We support various projects on behalf of Coed Lleol / Actif Woods Wales in Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham.
We run Live Music, Poetry and Drama events in the Woods
