In 2015 we developed a small area at the back of our Tudor garden in order to plant some old varieties of apple tree, which you can read about here. Nine years later and the trees are looking good and have become established enough to produce quite a few apples this year. As it’s Halloween, perhaps we might try the traditional game of apple-bobbing!
Thanks to all our volunteers who maintain our lovely garden.
The Weaver’s House held ‘Rub-a-Bug in the Garden’ as part of Wildlife Gathering, a celebration of Coventry’s parks and green spaces which happened in May 2022. This special event which ran over a weekend was aimed at encouraging younger visitors to come along and enjoy a colouring activity, whilst the flourishing garden was open for anyone to take pleasure in. Visitors could also take a look inside the house.
The Bugs Bees and Butterflies carved rubbing panels and sheets were created by Ann Phillips and Peterson Cobbett.
We had various young visitors take part, and as well as completing some rub-a-bug pages they enjoyed exploring the plants and flowers and finding out a little about the medieval era.
Here are some of their creations. Thanks to everyone who came along to the event!
Last summer The Weaver’s House volunteers welcomed presenters Hugh Dennis and Christine Carr, a food historian, plus a film crew for The Great British Dig.
Pottage (a type of thick soup) was made using a variety of ingredients including some sorrel from the garden. During the filming, Christine revealed a fact about the medieval traditions of fish eating which took place every Friday. Apparently, this included anything which lived in or on the water so extending the scope of ‘fish’ to include ducks and even otters! The programme will be shown in the springtime – so stay tuned!
You can come and see the garden for yourself at our 2022 Open Days at the house which begin on Saturday 9 April. Our Open Days run throughout the spring and summer seasons and include Heritage Open Days in September.
We’re so pleased that our first Open Day of 2021 went well, and are delighted that we are also able to open up for further days, including the fantastic Heritage Open Days in Coventry.
The Weaver’s House will next be open on Saturday 21st August 2021. This will be free to visit and will feature the ‘rub a bug’ brass rubbing type activity for children which was very popular last time we included it. There will also be some Medieval games to try.
The house will then reopen for Heritage Open Days on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th September, 2021.
For all of these, the opening times will be 10am until 4pm. All are free entry.
The lower part of The Weaver’s House will be open to visit in small groups, and the garden will be open, and still looking lovely at this time of the year.
Please be aware the small ‘solar’ working room which contains the loom will not be open, and we are not opening the tea room this year. Masks are recommended for the indoor areas as these are small spaces.
Please check back here or with us on social media for up to date details as things may change as has been the case during recent times. For full details please see our Open Day and FAQ page here.
Whilst we have been closed, we have made some improvements in our garden area including a brick block paved area and installing some more woven fence panels.
We reused old bricks to fit in with the rest of the garden, and we also needed quite a lot of sand and gravel!
The volunteer work was led by John Homer and we are grateful for him for donating his time and expertise to the project. Although weather wasn’t the greatest we did have a few moments of sun. Throughout, our volunteers worked really hard to get the area completed and we are hoping the weather will repay us with sunshine when we are ready for Open Days!
We’re so pleased to have been able to give these old bricks a new lease of life and to have an additional area in the garden for displays.
It wasn’t all just bricks and blocks, we also spent some time tending to the garden which needed a little post-winter care, as all gardens do. It’s a wonderful place to spend some time, and always hard to believe that it is so close to the city centre.
We have regular gardening days for volunteers and welcome new recruits. It doesn’t need to be a regular commitment – if you would like to find out more about working in our garden, or you have other skills you would like to volunteer, please see our Volunteering page. Come and join the history of this amazing little house.
We’re very much missing welcoming visitors into our little medieval house and garden. Usually this time of year we have held the first, springtime themed Open Day of the year. Looking back through the years, we have often been blessed with sunshine. We’re hoping to reopen later this year but here’s a little look back at some springtime Open Days past.
You may also be interested in our Easter crafts at home blogs:
Using natural dyes to decorate eggs for Easter.
Happy Easter.
