Heritage Activities 2022-2024
REVISIT Flamstead Heritage’s wide range of community ACTIVITIES, which took place mainly between 2022 and 2024, with a few from earlier.
Activities in this list have been divided into three categories, but the differences between them are not that great.
For further details, please click on the links below, contact us, or follow us on social media.
| FORMAL LEARNING |
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School Sessions |
 St Leonard’s offers and welcomes organised visits from schools for a general tour of the church. A series of graffiti workshops ran as part of this activity. It is hoped that more will run in the future. |
| AGES: 5 – 18 |
| DATES: ongoing |
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Storytelling Competition |
| Flamstead 500 was our storytelling competition for children and young people, similar to the familiar BBC 500 words contest. It ran over the summer of 2023. The theme is St Leonard’s heritage and history. There were some great prizes for the winning entries. The two winners were interviewed on Three Counties Radio. Support for entrants’ research could be found online (our Educational Resources) and was available in person at the 2023 Scarecrow Festival. |
| AGES: two age groups: 7-10 and 11-16 |
| DATES: Now closed. Prize giving was on Sunday 3rd December 2023. |
| WINNING ENTRIES: Download the winning entries – in the age group 7-10 by Benji Ford here and in the age group 11-16 category by Kasper Le Bas here. Congratulations to them both. |
| MORE: Flamstead500 storytelling competition (competition details) |
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Young Person’s Puppet Theatre: The Spirit of St Leonard’s |
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A video of the play is available on the YPPT YouTube channel. The story is set in St Leonard’s over the course of nine centuries – and in the dream of a little girl. |
| AGES: 11 and under |
| DATES: completed March 2022 |
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Community Archaeology Project |
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Now we await the results. |
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AGES: all |
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DATES: Saturday 1st July 2023 (on-site); tbd (results) |
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Art & Craft Competition |
| The craft competition for children and young people took place at the Flamstead Village Show in September 2023: to design and create the best “heritage mouse”. It was in four categories, with Flamstead the theme for the two younger age groups and heritage for the two older ones. There was help to get started. |
| AGES: under 5’s, 5-7’s, 8-10’s; 11-15’s. |
| DATES: September 2023 |
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Trestle Theatre |
| Following the success of the Puppet Theatre, there was a further drama activity. Following a series of workshops from Trestle Theatre, St Albans, the pupils of St Luke’s School, Redbourn performed the play to a highly appreciative audience in March 2024.The story was developed by the performers and was based on a Hertfordshire legend: the “Wicked Lady” of Markyate. |
| AGES: performers: 13-16; audience: all ages |
| DATES: January to March 2024 |
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Online Learning Resources |
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They were developed early on in the project by Shackleton Education, are have been evaluated for a school setting, with positive results. They are also available now for use by individuals and helped with the research for Flamstead500 storytelling. |
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AGES: Early Years to Key Stage 3, adults |
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DATES: live now; available for use |
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MORE: St Leonard’s Educational Resource (the educational materials for viewing or downloading) |
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Work Experience |
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Flamstead Heritage hosted four students on work experience programmes.
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AGES: late teenage or above
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DATES: completed
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Lectures by Experts |
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Following the success of the first series in 2018, a second series of “expert lectures” was arranged in association with the Flamstead Society. They all attracted large, appreciative audiences, drawn from all over the region and beyond. 12 Oct 2023, The Medieval Graffiti in St Leonard’s Church, Flamstead. Matt Champion. – more… This last lecture was part of the Flamstead Arts Festival. Alongside the lecture at the Festival was a Heritage Crafts Fair, which featured many of the skills required for church conservation and restoration. |
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AGES: adults, older children |
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DATES: October 2023 to June 2024 |
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MORE: Events Calendar (details of each talk and other Flamstead Heritage events) |
Performances took place in March 2022 and was much enjoyed – both by those from Flamstead Village School who took part, and by the large, appreciative audiences.
Herts Geophysical Survey, a local community archaeology group surveyed St Leonard’s churchyard using a variety of specialist “Geophysics” equipment. The professional and volunteer archaeologists invited the Flamstead community to get involved. In addition, two talks about the techniques and local sites were given in the church attracting a fascinated audience of about 30 people.
These in-depth illustrated resources (including slides, session plans & audio stories) are designed for self-study across the age range, or to support the social history, geography and religious education curriculum in schools.
| COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT |
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Digital Archives |
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If you have any suitable materials you would like to contribute, please contact us. |
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AGES: all, but mainly adults |
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DATES: ongoing |
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Capture Living Memories |
 Memories of the older Flamstead residents or past residents were captured as audio recordings. Memory-jogging slide shows and videos accompanied by afternoon tea and music took place to facilitate the recordings. The first took place in June 2023, with a wonderful response from those attending.
The recordings were subsequently made and will be published soon on the New Materials page of this website. A Candy and Andy book launch took place in March 2024, which revived memories of Flamstead in the 1960s. Several ex-residents returned for the occasion. |
| AGES: all, but mainly older adults |
| DATES: 2023 to 2024 |
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Storytelling Evening |
 Redbourn Players ran a show with a dramatic reconstruction of the history of St Leonard’s and Flamstead. It drew on their recent successful performances at St Mary’s, Redbourn, with its history as the theme – and was very much appreciated by the audience. |
| AGES: all, but mainly adults |
| DATES: 15 & 16 September 2023 |
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Heritage Activities at Scarecrow Festivals 2022-3 |
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At the 2023 event there was a display in the new exhibition area, and support for on-site research by children entering the Flamstead500 storytelling competition. |
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AGES: all |
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DATES: 18 – 20 August 2023 |
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Arts & Heritage Festival 2024 |
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On the Saturday there was a heritage craft fair, birds of prey flights, bell-ringing demonstrations, and many other attractions. There was a special church service on the Sunday commemorating the 800th anniversary of St Leonard’s as a parish church led by the Very Reverend Jo Kelly-Moore, Dean of St Albans. This was followed by a chance to relax in the churchyard and see the winners of the children’s art competition presented by Dione Grimston, Countess of Verulam. The headline acts included a revue featuring Carole Boyd of the Archers and a concert by Ben Earle of the Shires. At the opening reception, the Festival was declared open by the High Sheriff of Hertfordshire, Annie Brewster JP. |
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AGES: all |
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DATES: 6 – 9 June 2024 |
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Community Meals and Events |
| Several community meals and other events continue to take place in St Leonard’s, organised both by Flamstead Heritage and others. Events have included the PCC’s Plough Supper, FoSL’s Village Supper, the live screening of King Charles III’s coronation and regular events such as coffee mornings. Guided tours at such events are available. |
| AGES: all |
| DATES: ongoing |
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Inter-cultural Links |
| Visits to and from a local mosque have taken place. A sell-out Persian food evening was hosted by the Three Blackbirds in November 2023. |
| AGES: all |
| DATES: ongoing |
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Churchyard Management & Ecology Activities |
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Flamstead Heritage worked with the PCC (Parochial Church Council – effectively St Leonard’s management group) to plan some specific ecological activities to fit in with its broader objectives, This builds on work that has already taken place such as wildlife surveys, the provision of bat boxes, and re-wilded areas in the churchyard. |
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AGES: all |
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DATES: ongoing |
There is much material of historical and heritage interest about St Leonard’s and Flamstead stored in various collections, but which is not readily available. Flamstead Heritage is curating, digitising and uploading many of these items so they can be widely shared. You can see some of these from our 
Flamstead Heritage’s presence at the SCF 2022 included an amazing scarecrow tableau featuring “Bruvver Banksy”, a mediaeval wall painter, created by Pam & Hartley Dean.
The | INFORMAL LEARNING |
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Hard Hat Tours |
 Guided tours of the building works including the repairs at roof level took place in 2021.
They were very much valued by all those who attended. |
| DATES: completed May 2021 |
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Craft Community Activities |
 The mediaeval mice proved to be so popular, even becoming a viral hit on social media, that a further generation was created. This new generation continued to delight all age groups, and provided a very gentle introduction to some heritage themes. They just seemed to move themselves around the church when no-one was looking. |
| DATES: 2022 to 2023 |
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Graffiti Survey & Interpretation |
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He delivered one of the expert lectures about his findings and will be returning to talk about St Leonard’s building history. |
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AGES: mostly adults |
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DATES: November 2022 to mid 2023 |
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MORE: video – Matthew Champion at St Leonard’s (video: 4 mins 28 secs – YouTube). Report (download). |
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Location Visits for Film Students |
 Over 20 students from Luton Sixth Form College visited in December 2023, attended a master-class provided by local outside-broadcast professionals, and shot their own videos, using St Leonard’s as a location and putting into practice the techniques they had just learnt.
The final edited videos will be published on this website. |
| AGES: 16 – 18 |
| DATES: December 2023 |
Matthew Champion, an internationally regarded expert on the subject conducted a survey of the mediaeval graffiti at St Leonard’s. The