Outreach visit to the centre October 2023

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Posted on 7th November 2023 by Ian

Homely Learning visit
by Ian Mackey – ODA Trustee and Outreach officer)

In October 2023 we had a visit to the Offa’s Dyke Centre from Homely Learning. Emma Brown got in touch (a few times because the visit was important part of their curriculum) and we arranged a date and time. What was lovely is that she was determined the visit would be to the centre to enjoy the landscape, ambiance and the displays.

The weather had not been all that good with the recent storm Babet, and the little ones had to come from Ty Mawr, Llangorse tucked into the north of Bannau Brycheiniog (ban-aye bruch-ay-nee-og)– a beautiful landscape, so it was quite a journey and commitment by the school – thank you to them.

Overview

I met the group at the centre – kindly opened by Dave McGlade .

Their visit was on a day after the last of storm Babet so they had had some heavy rainfall though luckily it was well behaved for the day.

It was a small group of pupils accompanied by 3 adults and, apparently, some pupils had levels of learning difficulty but you couldn’t tell as they were polite, cheery, engaged, fun and enthusiastic as well as incredibly intelligently switched on. I had to be careful what I talked about because they had a good understanding of the Welsh – Anglo-Saxon history and would ask great questions as well as answering some tricky ones.

The session started at 10:30 and ended at 2:00pm with a few small comfort breaks and a post-lunch play on the swings …no, not me. Luckily the weather had turned bright and sunny by then and we had taken a wander down to the Dyke section where the wonderful Anglo-Welsh bridge is.

The planned itinerary

Well, it was a good idea at the time and we got a lot done and it was good fun for all of us – but as with so many Outreach visits, some things were adapted on-the-fly because the youngsters were in-the-zone and asked interesting questions.
(a)=activity
10:30: Meet and greet and comfort break
10:45-11:15: Talk about King Offa of the Mercians and his affect (with PowerPoint slides)
11:15-12:15: (a) Visit the dyke monument and the Wales-England ‘bridge’
12:15-12:40: A few more slides and discussing female warrior and Welsh strength in facing them off. Describe the impact of Æheflæd – female warrior who supported her brother who was king.
(Break for lunch around 12:30 for 30 minutes)
13:00-13:50: Design a coin (a). Discuss why coins are designed the way they are
Rehearse and record introductions and what they found out through the day (you can hear the recordings on the website)
13:50-14:00: What are these? (a) A discussion about the real archaeological finds we brought.

The seat of power…

A visit to the Dyke and the Anglo-Celtic border

Phew – they’re on their side of the liminal border

…though this one is not so sure which way to go.

It was a lovely day all round, and as they left the youngsters were full of smiles and waves.

Emma and I even discussed a visit down to Ty Mawr (“the big house”) with a local historian to investigate the archaeology and heritage in their immediate neighbourhood. I’ll keep you updated on that either in the newsletter or the Podcast.

They even got to meet ArchaeoDog (“Hamish”) showing the centre is dog-friendly for friendly-dogs.

For more information on an Outreach visit, contact outreach@offasdyke.org.uk; visit the website https://digitalskills.ittutor.training/oda/ or get in touch with the Offa’s Dyke Association

Tel: 01547 528753
Email: oda@offasdyke.org.uk
Email: outreach@offasdyke.org.uk or odaoutreach@gmail.com
Email: offasdykeyac@gmail.com

Post: Information Officer
Offa’s Dyke Association
West Street
Knighton
Powys. LD7 1EN.

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Walk your doggie – on Offa’s Dyke

Posted on 20th December 2020 by Ian

Searching through things to find citations of Rob Dingle (Powys County Council’s National Trails Officer for Offa’s Dyke), I found this

https://www.yourdog.co.uk/regional-guides/offa-s-dyke-path

And that he had been on the BBC’s Country File

https://www.herefordtimes.com/news/9036787.bbcs-countryfile-visits-offas-dyke-path/

So we will have to take ArchaeoDog (Dougal) and take up the challenge, following the same walk.

Or we could start from the Offa’s Dyke Centre and go from there.
Here’s one of the Outreach visits that helped make the film

Outreach at The Offa’s Dyke Centre – Knighton, Powys

Citations:

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Offa’s Dyke Centre makeover!

Posted on 15th December 2020 by Ian

The Covid-19 pandemic has been a real struggle for all of us, not least the Offa’s Dyke Centre staff and committee members because just as membership was rising and we had more Outreach and other events planned, it struck and we had to close down.

The old, familiar Offa’s Dyke centre display

The good news is that the executive committee membership has increased, the number of trustees has increased and thanks to a successful funding bid, we are re-opening on St. David’s day 2021 with a facelift on the inside!

With the incredible artist Dan Llewelyn Hall putting on an art exhibition, the O f f a ‘s D y k e YAC and Outreach contacts supplying some creative works and the whole exhibition area being refurbished with new lights and multi-media installed, the centre will be a far more attractive space.

The Anglo-Welsh bridge (very popular with our Outreach visitors)

The committee has met several times now in person (we have had lots of meetings online), so it was good to see that other committee members were safe and well.
Here you see a couple of us discussing the new layout for the display space.
I’d love to tell you more now but I don’t want to spoil the surprise!

An empty centre — An empty Offa’s Dyke Centre during the refurbishment

Wilderness Expertise visiting Offa’s Dyke

Posted on 4th October 2020 by Ian

We have a great visit planned next year where folks from http://wilderness-expertise.co.uk will be traversing part of Offa’s Dyke with their #developingpotential mantra and we will be doing at least some of the journey with them (The Offa’s Dyke Outreach youngsters walking group).

Planned for the summer of 2021, the group will be met and accompanied by the Outreach officer on a 4/5 day trek along the dyke talking of the archaeology, heritage, personal histories of those living along the dyke over time as well as the impact on the Welsh and the Mercians as ‘borders’ become ever more relevant nowadays.

A wiggle in Offa’s Dyke

Posted on 16th September 2020 by Ian

“There’s a disruption in the force …” or is it “a wiggle in Offa’s Dyke“?

We visited a section of Offa’s Dyke in Herefordshire where we are going to invite schools in the area and the YAC to maybe help out clear part of the Dyke as well as measure it, draw it, photograph it and clean it!

This is a link to our click to see the walking trip from the Kington Golf Club (thank you for a lovely lunch snack at the cafe too folks) to the section of the Dyke that wiggles.

The path of Offa’s Dyke with Kington just about central

An aerial view of the Dyke clearly visible in the landscape. You can see the ‘wiggle’ so why there? Was it a mistake by the builders?
Note the path leaves the Dyke to toddle off down to Knighton.

Did the builders make a mistake?

This seems highly unlikely as the Saxons were very good at building dykes – they had done it for a long time and lets face it the whole of Offa’s Dyke is 170km or so so surely they would not make a silly mistake like this?

At this point, Offa’s Dyke is almost at the top of the hill. Is that a clue?
Note the Offa’s Dyke Path turns off to go to Kington …well it is a lovely place to visit isn’t it.

Click on the images below to see more of what we saw there. There is a lot of bracken and gorse so bring gloves but in the meantime …what do you think about the kink?

Citations:

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Offa’s Dyke Association Outreach

Posted on 11th April 2017 by Ian

Offa’s Dyke Association – heritage and archaeological outreach

Welcome to this Offa’s Dyke Association WordPress site dedicated to our archaeology, history and heritage Outreach.

Generically this site is dedicated to our Outreach for schools, clubs and groups, etc. however we also carry out outreach to local groups and clubs as well as local communities if necessary with resources and talks including oral histories, local photography and “History Pins”, stories, anecdotes, history, heritage and guidance on how folks can monitor and protect Offa’s Dyke and Wat’s Dyke all of which feeds into projects in and around the Offa’s Dyke Association and Centre.
These include the Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory (with the incredible Prof. Howard Williams), CoSMM (Community Stewardship of Mercian Monuments thanks to the Offa’s Dyke YAC leaders) and liaising strongly with local community groups, Universities, and our colleagues in Offa’s Dyke Association North and Offa’s Dyke Association South.

With this, we are also co-founders of the Offa’s Dyke YAC (Young Archaeologists Club) which meets (aside from Covid-19) at the Offa’s Dyke Centre, Powys, Knighton, once a month.
For more information please just contact us …