This festive season, the facade of the House has been transformed into a magical, illuminated advent calendar with the help of our Christmas supporter Lights4fun. As we count down to Christmas, we take a look back at how the advent calendar was created.

‘We’ve dreamed of turning the façade of the House into an advent calendar for years, as it very conveniently has 24 windows and we’re delighted to have been able to create this beautiful advent calendar this year with the generous support from Lights4fun’ says Zoë Hughes, Artistic Producer at Harewood House Trust.

The journey began with a team of dedicated Harewood volunteers adding baubles to the Lights4fun garlands – there were over 100 to decorate and the overflow café area was soon overflowing with decorated garlands!

Once decorated, it was time to hand over to our facilities team, who created special frames which needed to be strong enough to withstand the Yorkshire winter, without damaging the historic house.

Of the construction process, Operations Manager Richard Smith comments:

“When initially asked by our creative team to look at carrying out the install, I wasn’t sure it could be done due to the historic nature of the building and its grade 1 listed status. However, after discussing with my team and the contractors responsible for the install, we were able to come up with a design for the frames and a system to fix them in place that would allow them to be installed safely and securely whilst also being non-invasive. The garlands supplied by Lights4fun were extremely easy to use and incredibly effective when lit up, which makes the front of the house look amazing and a real focal point for visitors”

A close up of the frame – the frames sat very carefully within the windows to not damage the House

Each window is lit up by a spotlight

Once all 24 frames and garlands installed, it was time to add all the numbers in and a big light switch on and Harewood is delighted to finally see the advent calendar brought to life. Seeing the beautiful lit garlands and giant gold numbers has been an incredible moment, seeing the team’s creative designs become a reality.

Photo credit Oliver Perrott

Harewood’s Festive Season
Sat 12 Nov–Mon 2 Jan
Tickets available at harewood.org

Our sparkling Christmas supporter
Christmas at Harewood is generously supported by Harrogate-based Lights4fun, bringing even more sparkle to the twinkling grounds throughout the festive season.

We are celebrating a very happy birthday this week at Harewood. 

Mr Otto is one of our Humboldt Penguins and can be found splashing about in the Penguin Pool located within Harewood’s Bird Garden.

Today he turns 26 years old, which is a fantastic age for a Humboldt penguin. Congratulations Mr Otto!

Like the other male penguins in our enclosure, he can be spotted wearing a coloured tag on his right wing. Each penguin has a red, yellow, blue, green or black coloured tag. These tags are located on the left wing for a female and on the right wing for a male. When next visiting the site please do make sure to pop down by the Penguin Pool and see if you can spot him.

Natural Habitat

Humboldt penguins originate from the coastal Peru and Chile. They face many threats in the wild such as the destruction of their habitats, fishing and hunting. The penguin enclosure here at Harewood was specifically designed to replicate the coastline of Peru in South America. The swimming pools are different depths and areas, with a rocky slope leading to a plateau.

Eating Habits 

When in the wild Humboldt penguins would feed on anchovies, squid and sardines as these can be found off the West coast of Peru, our penguins here at Harewood are fed whitebait and sprats, which are very similar in size.

Want to see Mr Otto in person?

Why not join us and meet our famous Humboldt Penguins while exploring Harewood’s Bird Garden.

While on site you can enjoy our penguin talks everyday and there is even the opportunity to get up close and feed these wonderful creatures with one of our Penguin Feeding Experiences.

Visiting as a school?

As part of our educational programme, pupils will be offered an unforgettable learning experience as they get outside the classroom and explore the Harewood Bird Garden in a session designed to stimulate a curiosity for the natural world. Our Learning Team have been hard at work redeveloping this beloved educational session and we hope to see you in 2023.

Meet the Penguins session >>

Meet the Birds session >>

Currently situated centre stage in the Old Kitchen is a most beautiful Gingerbread Harewood House, made and iced by one of our Garden Volunteers Klara. For this blog, we sit down with Klara and ask her about volunteering at Harewood and how her interest in gingerbread began.

When did you make and ice your first gingerbread?
I grew up in Hungary. Since I was a child, making gingerbread has been a part of my life. It is a Christmas tradition in our country to make and decorate gingerbread cookies, we call “mézeskalacs”.

How did you learn your craft?
At first, I learned my craft from my mother. Later, I developed my own style and various recipes, including gluten free, diary free and vegan. Over the years I adjusted my collections to meet the country-specific trend where I had been living. However, I have never lost my own style that makes my work unique and recognizable. I have a quality-oriented mindset, that comes from my background as a chemical engineer working in quality management and also as a certificated botanical artist.

How did you hear about volunteering at Harewood ?
I moved to Yorkshire in 2021 and I was looking for a volunteer gardening opportunity and I saw an advertisement for a Volunteer Open Afternoon in the Walled Garden when I first visited Harewood.

What is it you enjoy most about volunteering with the garden team?

The Garden team (staff and volunteers) are all very friendly and welcoming. We learn so much from the professional gardeners.

We work in a very warm environment, in beautiful surroundings, where everyone is very enthusiastic about our work and at the end of the day, when we see the results of our efforts, we feel very proud.

How did you start to make the Harewood gingerbread House ?
I researched the floorplan, took many photos and then simplified the House, retaining its main characteristics. In total, it took about 2 weeks to complete the project.

What icing do you find most satisfying or do you enjoy doing most?
I like the simple traditional designs, but my favourite is creating gingerbreads where I can use my own imagination and design. It is most satisfying when I see the magic of a plain gingerbread transformed through my icing. I especially like doing 3D creations such as houses, Easter eggs, boxes, etc.

What would you like to do in the future?
I hope that I will have more opportunities in the UK to introduce my gingerbread artwork to more people and share my love of this beautiful craft.

@paindepicesdeklara
Klara’s Gingerbread on Facebook

The Learning Team here at Harewood are thrilled to announce that we have been awarded a quality badge by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom.

This year our team has launched a brand-new learning programme filled with exciting workshops and tours for educational groups. We are so pleased by the positive reaction to the new programme, which has been rated consistently ‘Oustanding’ by teachers, and look forward to what the next few months will bring.

What is the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom?

As a registered charity the Council are champions of learning outside the classroom.

They believe in equal opportunities for all children to experience life outside of the classroom. They wish to ensure that more young people have access to life changing educational experiences.

Find out more about the council for Learning Outside the Classroom at https://www.lotc.org.uk/

Sandford Award

Harewood is also recipient of the prestigious Sandford Award, which celebrates high quality heritage education and provides independent quality assurance to sites that run formal education programmes in the UK and Ireland.

Find out more about the Sandford Award at https://www.heritageeducationtrust.org/about-the-sandford-award 

If you would like to speak to a member of the Learning Team about our current programme they can be reached at learn@harewood.org.

References

Learning Outside the Classroom Website – https://www.lotc.org.uk/

Primley Wood Primary

It’s certainly been an exciting start to the new school year, as well as launching several brand-new workshops we’ve also been busy delivering some old favourites too!

October saw us teach the first of our Harewood & the Transatlantic Slave Trade workshops. This session has been designed to highlight Harewood’s historic links to the horrific practice, as well as discussing the trade and its wider legacies. Harewood is dedicated to an Open History and acknowledges the importance of addressing these important topics with all ages.

We have been so pleased to have been rated outstanding by all of the schools who have taken part in our new workshops so far. All of the positive and lovely feedback has been greatly appreciated.

”The workshop was fantastic as not only did it explore the slave trade, it also had strong links to Harewood House and its own challenging history. The children were able to look at replica sources and documents during the session which we would not have had access to if teaching the lesson at school. The workshop was also cross-curricular as we did some map work based on the location of different plantations, some investigative source work and had lots of discussion. We then had a tour of the house by the staff members whose expertise shone through.”

-Teacher, Primley Wood Primary, October 2022

If you would like to find out more about available workshops, our friendly Learning Team can be reached via email at learn@harewood.org.

Primley Wood Primary