Calverley Old Hall activities and events

Thanks to funding from National Lottery Players, the project at Calverley Old Hall has become a catalyst for engagement work with the local and wider community.

Our overarching theme is Crafting Cultures - using traditional craft skills, including building crafts, textiles and food, to connect communities, cultures and heritage. Through these activities we will:

Explore and discover the history and context of Calverley Old Hall through research, learning and creative activities that engage with a wide range of people and explore cross-cultural links and influences.
Return this ancient manor to prominence and popularity, setting Calverley Old Hall within a regional and national context.
Provide accredited training and meaningful work experience opportunities that encourages long term involvement in our heritage and improves life chances for people.
Present a programme of events and open days that inspire a range of audiences, and encourage its future use as a venue for small creative events, meetings, and workshops.

SWAP Week 3 - lime plaster panels - group 600x400.jpg

During the restoration of Calverley Old Hall we have been holding activities and training sessions both on-site and online, and will continue to do so as this fascinating project develops. All future events will be advertised via our website, email newsletter, social media platforms, posters and other local networks.

Follow our Engagement projects across Landmark Trust including Calverley Old Hall, on social media here: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.

Coming soon

Public Opening Event

6 October 2024

We are thrilled to invite you to experience our newly completed restoration project at Calverley Old Hall. Visit the finished, fully furnished Landmark holiday let, see the hireable Community Space, and explore the soon to be leased one-bedroom residential flat. With activities for all the family, our opening day is a chance to see for yourself the craftsmanship, creativity and care which has contributed to this stunning restoration project. Admission is free for all, though capacity is limited so booking is advised to guarantee entry.

Crafting Cultures: Reimagining the Calverleys

11 October 2024

Over the last few months a team of artists have been working with local people to creatively retell the story of the Walter Calverley murders in 1605. You are invited to see the result of these artistic interventions, which delve into the background of Walter’s family and examine the story with a modern eye.

Featuring textiles, drawings, creative writing and a series of dramatic monologues that tell the story from different people’s perspective - all using the beautifully restored Hall as the backdrop. Plus the unveiling of a community weaving artwork coordinated by textiles artist Agnes Smallwood and our new stone sculpture inspired by our restoration project carved by artist Pat Walls.

More information and book

Past events

Traditional furniture making workshops

On 27 and 28 August 2024 we held full-day furniture making workshops at Calverley Old Hall. Participants learned new joinery skills and learned how to make a beautiful traditionally crafted bench for use by visitors to the building.

Minecraft: Build Calverley Old Hall

In early August 2024, we held exciting one-day Minecraft workshops where kids could unleash their creativity! In this hands-on event, children had the opportunity to build their own version of the historic Calverley Old Hall using Minecraft, letting their imaginations run wild as they constructed and designed their virtual masterpieces.

This immersive experience was brought to you by ComputerXplorers in collaboration with the Landmark Trust. With thanks to National Lottery Players and generous funding from the National Lottery Heritage fund we were able to offer this workshop free of charge.

Workshop: 3D Scanning for Heritage CPD

The creation of digital 3D ‘twins’ of real-world objects offers wide-ranging benefits for the museum and heritage sectors. From enhancing public-facing digital collections catalogues to providing sub-millimetre accurate data for preservation and research purposes, 3D models can engage, inform and support curation.

This workshop on 1 August 2024 at Calverley Old Hall explored what 3D scanning can offer heritage practice, covering the use of 3D scanned data within the fields of conservation/preservation, collections curation and public-engagement.

Cultural Craft Exchange

In advance of refugee week, and in partnership with Migration Yorkshire, we welcomed six talented craftspeople to Calverley Old Hall to demonstrate a range of traditional craft skills. The event on 15 June 2024 included crafts and crafters from Japan, Hong Kong, and even the UNESCO listed Intangible Heritage craft of Ukrainian Petrykivka painting.

Community garden

We are creating a brand-new community garden at Calverley Old Hall. We wanted to ensure that the garden becomes a real asset to the people who live nearby and is valued for years to come, so in March 2024 we invited our neighbours in and around Calverley to contribute ideas for the design of the space.

Find out more

Volunteer limewashing

Thanks to all of our volunteers who joined us in May 2024 to help limewash the 15th century chapel at Calverley Old Hall. The session saw our volunteers learn all about limewash and how to apply this traditional material, before adding their efforts to the huge restoration project at Calverley Old Hall.

Calverley Old Hall lunchtime webinars

In November 2023 and January 2024 we held two free webinars about the work taking place at Calverley Old Hall. Viewers were given the chance to learn more about designing for a historic building with Karen Lim from Cowper Griffith Architects and the restoration's sustainability with Diane Hubbard of Green Footsteps Limited. If you missed either of the webinars, recordings are available to watch now.

Watch the webinars

Photo credit: Cowper Griffith Architects

Work Experience Placements at Calverley Old Hall

Throughout 2023 we offered six one-week long work experience opportunities for those aged 18 and above. Participants worked with Dobson Construction Ltd, our main contractors, on the active site at Calverley Old Hall. The placements involved a hands-on range of activities and provided an overview of working on a heritage restoration project. The main focus of each week was bespoke to each placement’s interests, with weeks offered with a focus on joinery, stone masonry, site management, and landscaping.

Participants who took part in the work experience said:

“I was not expecting to learn so many new skills, everyone was very friendly and explained things clearly.”

“Having only visited sites for meetings it has been invaluable being able to see a working site over the course of a week. It will help me going forward no end.”

Hard Hat Tours

With the success of our previous Hard Hat Tours, we were pleased to be able to open the doors of Calverley Old Hall once more for a limited number of tours in September 2023. This gave people the opportunity to explore the Old Hall in the midst of its restoration.

Calverley Old Hall Open Day

Our Open Day in October 2023 offered the rare opportunity for visitors to see Calverley Old Hall's restoration progress mid-way through and see the amount of work it really takes to restore such a nationally important building. Visitors also had the chance to get hands-on with helping us to screen print the curtains which will be used in Calverley's community room post-completion.

Care and Repair of an Old Building CPD workshops

Throughout the Calverley Old Hall restoration project, we have hosted a series of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshops. In April and May 2023 this included two sets of 'Care and Repair of an Old Building' workshops. The workshops were aimed at helping homeowners of historic buildings learn more about how to care for their property and improving the skillset of professional tradespeople who wish to learn more about traditional working practices. One workshop had a lime plaster focus, whilst the other used traditional window repairs as a case study.

Set in stone: Calverley Old Hall Stone Carving Workshops

As part of our National Lottery Heritage Funded restoration project, in April 2023 we ran a programme of events including a series of creative stone carving workshops run by professional stone craftsman, Patrick Walls.

The group produced their own small carvings and designs to form a sculpture which will be displayed in the garden at Calverley Old Hall once the restoration is complete.

Calverley Christmas wreath-making workshop

Working in collaboration with a local florist in November 2022, we offered people the chance to learn how to make a festive Christmas wreath, in the beautiful surroundings of Calverley Old Hall. 

Traditional weaving workshops

In October and November 2022, we ran a series of workshops in collaboration with weaving artist Agnis Smallwood, to design and produce a final woven textile artwork inspired by Calverley Old Hall. The final piece will be displayed in our community space in the building once the restoration project is complete.

Working with Lime Masterclass

On Thursday 17 November 2022 we ran a Working with Lime Masterclass. The tutor, Kevin Woods, has over 30 years experience working on historic buildings, and has obtained heritage skills gold accreditation. The course was a Lime masterclass and included preparation, pointing, galletting, lime mortar mixing, placement of mortar and aftercare. Participants worked on the active site of Calverley Old Hall, so this was a unique opportunity to contribute towards the restoration of this amazing building whilst learning new skills to help them in their own work.

Calverley Old Hall September Open Day

On Saturday 24 September 2022 we hosted our first Open Day since the restoration project began. We ran bookable hard hat tours of the current restoration site throughout the day, led by Landmark’s historian, Caroline Stanford. We were also joined by historical re-enactors, Frei Compagnie, who showed visitors historic food, weapons, and armour, and performed re-enactments in the garden. Live music on site was provided by Leeds Waits, which helped create a fantastic atmosphere for all.

Keep an eye out on this webpage for future Open Days throughout and after the restoration of Calverley Old Hall.

Local resident hard hat tours

On Friday 23 September 2022 we opened the site to our neighbours by running hard hat tours of Calverley Old Hall. It was a chance for our closest neighbours to visit the building site to see what is happening behind the Heras fencing they walk and drive past each day. Tours were led by Project Manager, Linda Lockett, with support from Hannah Thompson, Project Engagement Officer, and staff from our main contractors Dobson Construction Ltd.

If you are a local resident of Calverley and the surrounding villages, and would like to be invited to our local resident events, please contact [email protected] to sign up to our project mailing list.

Sector-based Work Academy Programme

Our first major activity to complement the capital works taking place at Calverley Old Hall is our Sector-based Work Academy Programme, a Department of Work and Pensions initiative to help people re-train or develop their skills ready for paid work.
Running for six weeks in June and July 2022.

Find out what's been happening

For the latest updates from the Calverley Old Hall project:

Calverley Old Hall updates

Thanks to National Lottery players