What: A beautiful and peaceful shelter and meeting place for a local woodland kindergarten school and other community and education events.

Where: On the edge of ancient woodland in the Edmondsham estate in Dorset where there was previously a derelict game-keeper’s hut.

Materials: Chestnut pole frame, cedar shingled roof, larch cladding, oak windows and doors.

Budget:  £12,000

People: A team of 150 volunteers ranging between the ages of 0 and 85 – including experienced carpenters and complete beginners – from as near as the local village and as far as Australia.

How the children helped:  Shingling the roof, de-barking the timber, raising the timber frames, digging the foundations, chiseling joints, hammering cladding, tending the fire, preparing lunch.   Read an ethnographic account published in Other Education and an article published in Reforesting  Scotland, October 2013 about the children’s experiences of the woodland building site.

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