Heartwood Family - 'Jack in the Green' May Time Gathering 2026

Come and join our Heartwood Family for a simple, fun day at Heartwood with families and folks of all ages! Anyone can belong to the Heartwood Family. We are open to everyone who wants to be part of it.

This time there will be some 'Jack in the Green' Frolics to welcome in the summer!

This month - weather willing - we are hoping to treat the Peace Marquee to a good waterproofing, a rejig and some decoration! Keep your eye out for the Woodland Spirits of the Greening this month too - they often bring gifts, but you must be willing to be 'greened' first!

ABOUT THE 'HEARTWOOD FAMILY' EVENTS:
We have decided to trial combining our Family Fun days this year with our Working Parties - offering people the opportunity to come and help to keep Heartwood the lovely place that it is, and improving it where we can. As well as the Outdoors being so good for us (we all know that now right?!) it also feels so good to volunteer and in fact its has been shown that volunteering really helps improve mental health. The sense of community and connection and belonging we cultivate by giving up some of our time to help others, works to chase away the loneliness that so many of us experience, lightening our moods and broadening our horizons. What's not to love?!

As always there will be gentle fun to be had, group games and challenges, some self led crafts, camp fires, a delicious sharing table and hot drinks, and most importantly the opportunity to connect with other people and the land around you. All we ask in return is for some help to keep Heartwood beautiful!

We might be doing anything from clearance work, building new structures, putting stuff up, taking stuff down, planting, tidying or treating the shed, wood collection, chopping and splitting logs, setting up a mobile woodland library - there's always something needs doing and an idea to make real! Whern there's lots of us working together, just one hour can work miracles!

We also just enjoy the opportunity to sit around the camp fire for a couple of hours with like minded folk and watch the children free play in the ways they like to play best.

All children must be accompanied by an adult.

As always we offer you the opportunity to make a donation to Go Wild With Us UK CIC, (absolutely no obligation) which will help us towards the development of Heartwood, taking us towards our target of having our own covered yoga deck, green gym and yurt with a woodburner! You can do this by selecting an extra 'donation ticket' at the checkout and choosing what you'd like to give.

Do come dressed up in as much Green (old clothes though) as you can! Remember your layers - this is the UK after all, even if we are on the cusp of summer! Bring a picnic and if you'd like to you can bring something simple to cook on the fire like a tin of hotdogs or beans. We have a toasting rack which you can toast cheese sandwiches, bread, hot cross buns or anything else 'toastable'!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

If you have been before, you'll know about our chilled out, go with the flow approach! There will be self led activities on offer throughout the day, but no set schedule. We'll let the day unfold as it will. Once we've settled in and got the fire on, we will probably start with the work stuff for the first couple of hours. Then we stop for lunch and have some fun in the afternoon.

When you arrive, head for the big metal gate at the start of the car park but the cabins, which leads into the woods and for your first challenge, you can follow the Heartwood signs to find us! (You can find us at Heartwood which is at the top of the wood - if you're not up for the challenge, you can ask for directions at reception - they can provide you with a map of the site.)

Just a little reminder about what to bring / expect.

Clothing for cold and wet weather - hoping as always for a dry, sunny day, but you never know!

A picnic! You are welcome to bring something small to share with other families for the sharing table, but there is no obligation to do so at all, as everyone will have their own packed lunches. There will hot drinks provided. If you want to, you can also bring a tin of beans, hotdogs or similar - we don't have saucepans for everyone to use, so please stick to something tinned that we can put in the embers of the fire (make sure it has a ring-pull or bring a tin opener!) or you can bring a cheese sandwich, crumpet / hot cross bun or similar that we can put in our little toasting rack and you can toast over the fire!

A mug for hot drinks.

A camping chair is useful if you have one. There is some log seating. Alternatively you could bring a picnic blanket but make sure it has a waterproof back, as the ground will be damp.

Come dressed in as much green as you can - its your choice but we love to see people's efforts!

As we mentioned there will also be a sharing table, so do feel free to bring something small to add to the table, like a sharing bag of crisps, a cake, some fruit...If things are homemade, it would be great if you could list the ingredients and please, nothing with nuts as so many folks have allergies these days. Thanks :)

We look forward to Going Wild with you!

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Go Wild With Us UK