Being interactive outdoors and in nature has huge benefits on both our physical and mental wellbeing.
Designed to be both a pony trek area and a wild(ish) place for energetic youngsters and stressed adults wanting to connect with the outdoors, our Gallivanters Grove is a bit of a forest school, as well as a bush-craft and do-your-own-thing area.
Plus it's a place to complete Pony Club country, animal, camping, carpentry, den-building, survival and fire badges.
Gallivanters day camp offers children the opportunity to organise themselves - with some discreet supervision!
School and everyday living in West London is usually highly regulated for children, allowing them little space or opportunity to create their own schedules, decide their own actions or choose their own forms of creativity. Independence and resilience and team work can be delayed (impeded/ blocked) Gallivanters Teepee Village is a day camp, formed around fire pit and sitting logs, that allows children to shape their own little community and, together, decide on living tasks. They will be foraging for their own food, making some additional shelters from wood, laying fires, cooking, and deciding their own teams and tasks by themselves.
Gallivanters is a large grove, a safe walled site, shared with Ealing Riding School and its facilities and car park. A teepee day village is set up for spring and summer.
The Wild Tree House Stay & Play
Thursdays 10:30 - 12:00
Up to 2 children of 2 to 8 years old per booking.
Price: £10
Forest School stay & play for 2-8 years old. Each week at Gallivanters Meadow a child's mind will be filled with nature arts & crafts, bugs, discovery, foraging, team-work games, horse care & campfire cooking.
Gentleness, fitness, competence, social skills and mental health benefits are the emphasis.
The Dotty Club
Fridays & Saturdays 9:30 - 11:00
All welcome from 7 to 2 year old.
Price: £10 per family (up to 2 children)
£5 add-on available for more than 2 children
Our lovely Shetland pony Dotty welcomes children and adults to stay and play in our Gallivanters Meadow. You get to meet our small ponies, and hear about their lives and groom & care for them under expert supervision for about half an hour. Then you can stay & play in our Gallivanter Meadow with nanny/ parent responsibility for play on our treehouses, mud kitchen and horsebox house. This is an excellent pre-ride meet the pony experience for 2- 7 year olds.
Gallivanters Meadow Camp (3 days)
10:00 - 16:00
All welcome from 14 to 4½ year old.
Price: £195 per child
Tuesdays-Thursdays (during school holidays)
Getting dirty and being free in the outdoors is every child's right and duty!
Children are taught now about ecosystems and bio-diversity but these ideas can stay largely in the classroom.
In our Gallivanters Grove we join all the ideas together and see how all parts of the eco-system work together, with a little bit of theory and a lot of practice. Expect soil study, beetle safaris, looking after ponies, planting and teamwork, wood whittling, tree climbing, fire making, bushcraft.
Children become wild, resilient and independent!
Three days of freedom enjoying everything the Riding Yard and Gallivanter Meadow has to offer. The walled site allows children a great sense of freedom with discreet supervision.
- Living in Teepee Village – planning and creating your own community settlement for the week.
- Learning self–sustaining living – fire-making, foraging, cooking water-drawing, and calico cotton robe making and laundry.
- Animal care - look after our ponies and riding if desired. You will also come across dogs, goats and chickens in our meadow which we keep as companions for our horses.
- Vintage horse-box painting and complete fitting out as a seasonal shelter for all.
- Bushcraft – wood whittling, fire-making, cooking on fire, bramble picking & jam making, log walking, bridge-making, tug-of-war, compass orienteering and survival & first aid skills.
Book here for 3 to 5 September
Book here for 22 to 24 October
Book here for 29 to 31 October
Born to Be Wild! Day Camp
10:00 - 16:00
All welcome from 14 to 4½ year old.
Price: £75 per child
Golden Barn Wood Whack
Wednesdays 16:30 - 18:00
Price: £32 per child
Suitable for children from 6 up, boys and girls, who like to make things, want to do practical things with their hands, and be in a country outside environment. The opposite of screen time. Creative immersion, manual skills outdoors.
Gallivanters has a lot of wood (the owner is also a country tree surgeon) and when we started Gallivanters, we included wood whittling as part of the activities. So many wanted to spend longer there, and to come back to do it again! We have now developed and expanded what youngsters can do with wood and around wood.
Children should bring old gloves. We will supply the rest (knives, boards, saws, hammers, nails, screwdrivers, weaving hurdles, pliers, chisels and drills) and provide safety session on all tools.
Coaches are DBS carpenters and joiners who work with outdoor material.
Tree – hugging. Physical tree-climbing and a bit of arboreal theory. Plus how to live in trees.
Log-splitting demo from the experts. How to swing an axe. What different woods are good for – function and form. And how trees work.
Stage 1 - Starting with wood whittling. Entry Level. Advanced level.
Stage 2 - Elementary furniture –making and object creation Log seats and tables. Sailing boats
How to make a fire – the right wood, in the right order. With marshmallows!
Fridays 10:00 - 13:00 (during school holidays)
Price: £39 per child
