Vikings! Half Term Activities
In 991 AD a Viking army in 93 longships landed at Folkestone, before sailing north to what would become the Battle of Maldon! Join us for a week of Viking-themed children's activities for half term.
Find out about Viking life, make a Viking helmet and shield, design a longship or create a Thor’s hammer pendant out of clay.
Craft activities are suitable for 4-11 year old's, younger visitors can also take part but they will need help.
There are two sessions, 11am-12.45pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm, held in the Museum's learning space on the lower ground floor. The workshops are free (modest donation for materials welcome) and no booking is necessary, but we may restrict numbers, if busy, for everyone's comfort and safety.
For further details email museum@folkestone-tc.gov.uk, ask at the Town Hall Information Desk or call 01303 257946 during normal office hours.
Make It! Year of the Tiger
Make It! We're celebrating the Chinese New Year, which this year is the Year of the Tiger!
Join us and make a lantern and a tiger face mask or try your hand at the Chinese art of paper-cutting.
Craft activities are suitable for 4-11 year old's, younger visitors can also take part but they will need help.
There are two sessions, 11am-12.45pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm, held in the Museum's learning space on the lower ground floor. The workshops are free (modest donation for materials welcome) and no booking is necessary, but we may restrict numbers, if busy, for everyone's comfort and safety.
For further details email museum@folkestone-tc.gov.uk, ask at the Town Hall Information Desk or call 01303 257946 during normal office hours.
Make It! Halloween
Time for a fright whether you're a witch or a wizard!
We'll be making trick or treat baskets and mini-monsters all day, warts and all!
Craft activities are suitable for 4-11 yearold's, younger visitors can also take part but they may need a little help.
There are two sessions, 11am-12.45pm and 1.30pm-3.30pm on both Friday 29th and Saturday 30th October, no booking is necessary but we may restrict numbers, if busy, for everyone's comfort and safety.
For further details email museum@folkestone-tc.gov.uk, ask at the Town Hall Information Desk or call 01303 257946 during normal office hours.
Fossil Roadshow
Dinosaur eggs - its no yolk!
Local fossil expert Steve Friedrich will be joining us during half-term with his amazing fossils.
If you've a budding young paleontologist in the house Folkestone Museum is the place to head to on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th October.
No booking is necessary although if it gets uncomfortably busy we may limit numbers so that everyone feels safe.
For further details email museum@folkestone-tc.gov.uk, ask at the Town Hall Information Desk or call 01303 257946 during normal office hours.
Fossil Roadshow
Dinosaur eggs - its no yolk!
Local fossil expert Steve Friedrich will be joining us during half-term with his amazing fossils.
If you've a budding young paleontologist in the house Folkestone Museum is the place to head to on Wednesday 27th and Thursday 28th October.
No booking is necessary although if it gets uncomfortably busy we may limit numbers so that everyone feels safe.
For further details email museum@folkestone-tc.gov.uk, ask at the Town Hall Information Desk or call 01303 257946 during normal office hours.
Art & Artefacts with Catherine Farr ***UPDATE - 17th November Workshop POSTPONED***
Art and Artefacts!
Join Folkestone Museum and professional artist and teacher Catherine Farr for the Museum's new adult art workshops, which run weekly during October and November. This is a chance to take direct inspiration from Folkestone's historic museum collection up close, with special access to artefacts that aren't currently on display. Please see below for an outline of each session, however please note that workshops 2 & 3 must be done together to get maximum enjoyment from both.
Each workshop lasts for two hours, beginning at 4pm; materials will be supplied but participants' are welcome to bring their own if they wish, such as watercolour paint etc. if they have a preferred medium. At the end of the course there will be a display of participants work in the Museum until the New Year.
Booking
Each workshop is £10.00, booking is essential as there are only 15 places per session; please email museum@folkestone-tc.gov.uk or call 01303 257946 to reserve a place, please pay in advance at the Town Hall information desk (open 10.00am-4.00pm, Tuesday to Saturday) to confirm your provisional booking; contactless payment is preferred but not essential.
Participants wishing to book all six workshops will get a discounted price of £55.00, which may be paid in two or more installments.
Workshop Outlines
Week 1 (20th October): Nature Diaries
Using the resources and materials provided, participants create their own nature diaries working directly from observation of Folkestone Museum’s natural history collection.
Weeks 2 & 3 (27th October & 3rd November): Collagraph Printing
Weeks 2 & 3 explore printing using the collagraph technique. In Week 2, participants make their collagraph image based on an object in Folkestone Museum’s natural history collection. Participants learn how to make a collagraph image, building up layers of card to create a detailed image. In Week 3, participants learn how to make coloured prints and rubbings from their collagraph print.
Week 4 (10th November): Watercolour Painting
Participants explore watercolour painting based on the Museum's art collection. Techniques to be explored include applying washes and adding detail using other media (e.g. coloured pencils).
Week 5 (17th November): Using Pastels ***UPDATE - POSTPONED DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES***
Participants explore and develop their pastel technique (either oil or chalk), learning how to create shading, layering and highlighting to produce a 3D effect, utilising an object from Folkestone Museum’s natural history collection.
Week 6 (24th November): 3D Art: Working with Clay
Using the Roman tiles in Folkestone Museum for inspiration, participants create their own clay tile using air-dry clay using a maritime or natural history theme, learning new decorative techniques and tips on how to paint and decorate clay to create different effects.
Home Schooling Resources Taster
We'd like to introduce parents of home-schooled children to the resources that Folkestone Museum can provide and to gauge interest in the Museum hosting a monthly home-schooling day.
11.00 Meet the Folkestone Museum team and tea & coffee
11.20 Presentation introducing Folkestone Museum’s collection, education programme, Learn with Objects website and 'Toolbox Loan Boxes'
11.40 Using loans boxes at home: hands-on exploration of a 'Toolbox Loans Box' and tips/hints on how to use a loans box effectively
12.00 Break and tea & coffee
12.20 Mini-lesson; parents play ‘History Detective’ using real & replica artefacts
12.45 Questions and sign-up
13.00 Close
To register your interest please email Alison Moore, Outreach & Audience Development Officer, at Folkestone Museum alison.moore@folkestone-tc.gov.uk
Eanswythe and the Anglo-Saxons
Folkestone Museum and St Mary’s & St Eanswythe’s Church jointly present ‘Eanswythe and the Anglo-Saxons’ on the 11th & 12th September.
This weekend, which we hope to become an annual event, is a celebration of Folkestone’s Anglo-Saxon (410-1066AD) heritage, including its patron Saint St Eanswythe. The event is timed to coincide with St Eanswythe’s feast day, which falls on the 12th September every year. St Eanswythe is one of England’s earliest indigenous saints, a member of the Kentish Royal Dynasty, who helped introduce Christianity into the country by welcoming the Augustinian mission in the 5th Century. Eanswythe herself, born some forty years later was to figure in the establishment of Folkestone’ Anglo-Saxon minster and her remains, exceptionally, have stayed in the church dedicated to her, surviving Henry VIII’s Reformation and the break from the Roman Catholic Church in the 1530s.
Saturday 12th September
This is the focus for the historical aspects of the event, which will take place in both the Museum and St Mary’s & St Eanswythe’s Church. The locations and times are as follows (subject to availability):
11.00 (Church) Welcome by Father John Walker
From 11.00 (Museum) Anglo-Saxon storytelling and craft activities
11.15 (Church) Coffee and cake
11.30 (Church) Father John Walker – ‘St Eanswythe’s meditation practices’
12.15 (Church) Craft stalls
Re-enactment by local groups taking place through the day in and around the Museum and Church
15.00 (Museum) Dr Andrew Richardson - ‘St Eanswythe and Kentish Royal Burials’*
19:00 (Church) Lunatraktors (click to follow link) ‘broken folk’ concert**
*This is a pay to enter lecture with tickets a £5.00 per person, please go to the Folkestone Museum Billetto webpage (click to follow link)
**The Lunatrakors concert is free but donations will be gratefully accepted
Sunday 12th September – St Eanswythe’s Day
A solemn Eucharist for St Eanswythe Day followed by coffee, wine and cake, given by Father John Walker in St Mary’s & St Eanswythe’s Church at 10.30am
This webpage will be kept up-to-date with any changes to the programme. For any other details please enquire at Folkestone Town Hall, St Mary’s & St Eanswythe’s Church or call 01303 257946.
