Activity Delivery

How the activity plan was delivered

Flamstead Heritage: the activities

how the activity plan was delivered

School Sessions

St Leonard’s offers and welcomes organised visits from schools for a general tour of the church.

Some of the visits include a graffiti workshop, which uses the natural enthusiasm of the children for graffiti to inspire them to learn more about the church.

Storytelling Competition

Flamstead 500 was our storytelling competition for children and young people, similar to the familiar BBC 500 words contest.
It ran over the summer of 2023. The theme is St Leonard’s heritage and history.
There were some great prizes for the winning entries. The two winners were interviewed on Three Counties Radio.

Young Person's Puppet Theatre

Performances of “The Spirit of St Leonard’s” took place in early 2022. The puppets were made, staged, operated and narrated by the children of Flamstead Village School.

The story is set in St Leonard’s over the course of nine centuries – and in the dream of a little girl.

Community Archaeology Project

Leonard’s churchyard using a variety of specialist “Geophysics” equipment.
The professional and volunteer archaeologists invited the Flamstead community to get involved.
Two talks about the techniques and local sites were given.

Art & Craft Competition

The craft competition for children and young people took place at the Flamstead Village Show in September 2023. The task was to design and create the best “heritage mouse”.
It was in four categories, with Flamstead the theme for the two younger age groups and heritage for the two older ones.
There was help to get started. The results were widely admired.

Trestle Theatre

Following the success of the Puppet Theatre, there was a further drama activity.
After a series of workshops from Trestle Theatre, St Albans, the pupils of St Luke’s School, Redbourn performed the play to a highly appreciative audience in March 2024.
The story was developed by the performers and was based on a Hertfordshire legend: the “Wicked Lady” of Markyate.

Online Learning Resources

These in-depth illustrated resources (including slides, session plans & audio stories) are designed for self-study across the age range, or to support the social history, geography and religious education curriculum in schools.
They were developed early in the project by Shackleton Education, and have been evaluated for a school setting, with positive results.

Work Experience

Flamstead Heritage is hosting three students on work experience programmes.
Two have developed historical material for the Interpretation Plan.
The other worked as part of the team at the Arts Festival to get it ready and make it run smoothly.
Many other volunteers have contributed their time and skills.

Lectures by Experts

Following the success of the first series in 2018, a second series of “expert lectures” was arranged in association with the Flamstead Society.
They all attracted large, appreciative audiences, drawn from all over the region. Some were recorded so that they could be made available online at a later date.

Digital Archives

There is much material of historical and heritage interest about St Leonard’s and Flamstead stored in various collections, but which is not readily available.
Flamstead Heritage is curating, digitising and uploading many of these items so they can be widely shared. You can see some of these from our Archives page on the website and others on Herts Memories, a community photo archive.

Capturing Living Memories

The idea is to capture the memories of the older Flamstead residents or past residents as audio recordings. Memory-jogging slide shows and videos with afternoon tea and music facilitate the recordings. A Candy and Andy book launch took place in March 2024, reviving memories of Flamstead in the 1960s, attracting some of the then children to return to their home village.

Storytelling Evenings

Redbourn Players ran a show with a dramatic reconstruction of the history of St Leonard’s and Flamstead.
It drew on their recent successful performances at St Mary’s, Redbourn, with its history as the theme.
Shakespeare and Dickens events have also been hosted, attracting large audiences.

Activities at Scarecrow Festivals 2022-3

Flamstead’s famous Scarecrow Festival attracts thousands of visitors each year.

In 2022 Flamstead Heritage showed an amazing scarecrow tableau featuring “Bruvver Banksy”, a mediaeval wall painter, created by Pam & Hartley Dean.

At the 2023 event there was support for children carrying out research for the Flamstead500 storytelling competition.

Arts & Heritage Festival 2024

The Flamstead Arts Festival took place from 6th to 9th June 2024, the concluding major activity for the project.

Throughout the four days there was an art exhibition in the church featuring well-known local artists. On the Friday for schools only, and on the Saturday for the general public, there was a heritage crafts fair showcasing many traditional skills, including those needed for St Leonard’s recent restoration works.

A special church service on the Sunday commemorated the 800th anniversary of St Leonard’s as a parish church, followed in the churchyard by a BBQ, a quarter peal on the bells, and music by a Ukulele Band.

On Thursday evening there was an opening reception, with Annie Brewster, High Sheriff of Hertfordshire. On Friday and Saturday evening there were headline acts: a revue featuring Carole Boyd of the Archers and a concert by Ben Earle of the Shires, who broke off from a national tour to play in his local village.

Together, the varied events were enjoyed by many hundreds of people, who engaged with the arts and with our local heritage in a whole range of different ways.

Community Meals and Events

Community meals and other events often take place in St Leonard’s, organised by Flamstead Heritage and by other groups.
Events have included the PCC’s Plough Supper, the Friends of St Leonard’s Village Supper, the live screening of King Charles III’s coronation and regular events such as coffee mornings.

Inter-cultural Links

Visits to and from a local mosque have taken place.
A sell-out Persian food evening was hosted by the Three Blackbirds in November 2023.

Churchyard Management & Ecology Activities

Flamstead Heritage worked with the PCC (Parochial Church Council) to plan some specific ecological activities to fit in with its broader objectives.

These have included wildlife surveys, rewilding part of the churchyard, and the provision of bat boxes.

Hard Hat Tours

Guided tours of the building works, including at roof level, took place in 2021.

They were very much valued by all those who attended, providing a close-up inspection of the works and the chance to appreciate the craftsmanship involved.

Craft Community Activities

The mediaeval mice proved to be so popular, even becoming a viral hit on social media, that a further generation was created.

This new generation continues to delight all age groups, providing a gentle introduction to some heritage themes.

They just seem to move themselves around when no-one is looking.

Graffiti Survey & Interpretation

Matthew Champion, an internationally regarded expert on the subject, surveyed the mediaeval graffiti at St Leonard’s using specialist tools and techniques.

He has judged St Leonard’s graffiti to be of national importance, with a wide variety of the different graffiti types.

Location Visits for Film Students

Over 20 students from Luton Sixth Form College visited St Leonard’s in December 2023.

They attended a master-class provided by local outside-broadcast professionals, and shot their own videos, using St Leonard’s as a location, putting into practice the techniques they had just learnt.