Festival of Nature 2025

Celebrate, discover and learn about the abundance of nature at Horsenden This free event is a celebration of nature that seeks to enthuse and encourage the community to engage with nature and learn about the natural environment.

Throughout the day there will be activities for all the family to enjoy; talks and tours with our resident experts and volunteers. Local crafters will be selling their wares and conservation groups including Ealing Wildlife Group and London Wildlife Trust will be there to answer all your wildlife questions.

Refreshments are available all day with hot food and a delicious selection of goodies from Horsenden Loaf, BBQ and home baked cakes, teas and savoury snacks in the Hayloft. Drinks will be available from Perivale Brewery and The Dodo.  

Please note:  Parking on site for the day is restricted to Blue Badge holders and exhibitors only.

Horsenden Farm is close to Perivale underground station and the 297 bus route. Free street parking is available nearby.

Tours and workshops:

We have a selection of tours and workshops throughout the day for you to learn more about the habitats and wildlife of Horsenden, as well as the work of our volunteers. Tours will last between 30 – 60 minutes.

Places are limited, sign up for your chosen tour when you arrive on the day at the Horsenden World stand.

Unless specified, places for volunteer led tours are free, however we welcome donations to support our work in promoting biodiversity across the Horsenden site and protecting the farm as a thriving community hub.

Here’s the info to help you plan your day:

Owl Pellet Dissection: 12.00noon, 2.00pm, 4.00pm

Join us in woodpecker hollow to learn about an owl’s adaptations to be an apex predator. A short talk will be followed with a chance to dissect a barn owl pellet. Delve into the remains of a barn owl’s supper, will you be able to work out what the owl had for dinner? 

How many individual creatures are within your pellet? 

There will be a small charge of £2. All equipment will be provided, children must be supervised by an adult, this fascinating activity is suitable for all ages. 

An introduction to wildlife and nature photography: 11.30am and 2.00pm  

Your guide, Nigel Bewley, is an award-winning wildlife photographer who has captured many stunning images of Horsenden’s array of birds, butterflies and more.  In this workshop he will go through some basic techniques. Nigel would prefer to show you on your camera rather than mobile phone. 

Nature Friendly Growing – a tour of the market garden: 11.30am

Learn more about the Horsenden’s nature friendly approach to growing in this tour of our orchard and vegetable and flower growing areas. Hear about our ‘No dig’ methods, composting systems and complementary planting schemes which all contribute to farming that is good for nature as well as yeilding healthy produce. Your guide will be Beth who heads our team of volunteer growers.

Horsenden’s Working Farm tour:  12.00noon, 2.00pm and 4.00pm  

A great opportunity to visit areas of the farm the public rarely see including how we take care of the animals and their role in conservation grazing and biodiversity. Horsenden Farm is home to several rare breeds. Your guides are Nick and Elsa , Horsenden volunteers and members of  Horsenden’s rare breeds team.  

A walk around Horsenden’s hedgerows: 1.00pm   

Learn about the hedges at Horsenden, how they are managed, how they support wildlife and how you can get involved as a volunteer. Hedges have always been important for wildlife but intensive farming over decades mean many have disappeared.  More recently their importance is being recognised once more and hedges are being restored and replaced across the UK.   

Horsenden’s hedges are a sight to behold and this tour will take you round some of them where you can learn more about this ancient craft that we have practised at Horsenden for several years.  Your guide is Justin, Horsenden’s Chief hedge layer, volunteer and trustee of Friends of Horsenden 

Horsenden West Woodlands: Conservation and the history of Rohais and Brabston Green 11.30am and 2.30pm   

Discover these woodlands, once an impenetrable thicket of ivy and bramble, now being reinvigorated into a multilayered, biodiverse woodland. With conservation at the heart of the work of a dedicated group of volunteers, this area is divulging its secrets of lost gardens and a paupers’ village. 

Please note suitable footwear is recommended, Not suitable for children under 5 or buggies due to narrow woodland paths with stinging nettles and brambles. Walk will be at approx 1 hour. Your guide is Sally, Horsenden volunteer and pioneer of Horsenden Woodlanders 

Foraging Taster Walk:  12.00noon and 2.00pm

A meander around the fields and hedgerows searching for wild food and medicine. We’ll discuss recipes, preserving techniques, how to identify plants, how to include wild plants in your everyday life and the relationship between food as medicine and medicine as food.  1 hour walk & workshop.

This session will be led by Charlotte Gordon, Professional Forager, Intuitive Herbalist & Grower. There is a fixed charge for this session payable to Charlotte on the day:  £15 adults, £5 children, under 5s free. Secure your place by booking here

Find out more about Charlotte here https://www.charlottegordon.org/ 

Horsenden’s Harvest Mice: 2.30pm

Harvest mice have been reintroduced to the wild after the last sighting in Perivale in 1981. The breeding programme at Horsenden, responsible for the reintroduction, has a display house where you can see them for yourselves and find out more about Britain’s smallest mammal. The talk will be given by Lesley, ‘Mousewife’, one of the Horsenden and Ealing Wildlife Group Harvest Mice Team

Birdsong Quiz: 11.30am and 3.30pm

Join us in the sensory garden to test your birdsong identification skills, and maybe learn some new ones, and maybe win a prize!

Mainstage programme:

Timings are indicative and subject to change

11.00	Welcome to the Festival of Nature
11.05	Talk: Butterflies of Horsenden
11.30	Talk: Citizen Zoo
12.15	Music from DryWood
13.00	Talk: Ealing Wildlife Group
13.30	Talk: Recording Horsenden’s wildlife
14.15	Horsenden’s farming history in songs and story.   Performed by Horsenden Session Players
15.30	Talk: Nature friendly growing
15.50	Raffle prize draw
16.15	Music from DryWood