College of the Peak (Peaks and Dales Leader+) www.peakdistrictleaderplus.org.uk
College of the Peak was set up in 2003, with the help of European LEADER+ funding, and works with local craftspeople to develop a series of courses in dry stone walling, heritage building skills and woodland crafts. College of the Peak, is an approved LANTRA and City & Guilds centre and has a track record of working in partnership with local learning providers, such as schools, colleges and craft/trade organisations.
Its courses - both accredited and non-accredited - are aimed at small businesses, conservation officers and local authority specifiers, architects, schools, special interest groups, professional organisations, and the general public.
Its role is to:
• Host an event for women in heritage skills
• Share the ‘rural college’ model with other partners who are developing learning opportunities
• Participate in the UK partners’ steering group
• Participate in NNWN women’s workshop activities
• Participate in final seminar
The event for women in heritage skills took place on the weekend of 6th-8th October 2007. The evaluation report highlighted the success of the event in bringing women together and expanding their horizons:
A. AIMS OF THE PROJECT
As part of a wider programme of interlinking projects, College of the Peak have worked with several other partners to encourage women to learn traditional building skills, such as dry stone walling and stone masonry. To date, these skills have been traditionally male dominated, and ironically, although they are currently in high demand, there is a real danger of them dieing-out unless more people are trained in the old techniques.
The overall aim of the transnational project was to promote a positive and equal role for women in the economic, environmental and social fabric of rural communities through sustainable networking and to remove gender inequalities and barriers in this sector.
B. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
A Woman’s Place is a needs driven project that has brought together women from rural networks and groups in the North of England, Scotland and Ireland to share their local priorities. Although, due to funding deadlines the College of the Peak had to complete their involvement in the project by the end of November 2007, the other partners will be working together until mid 2008 to deliver a wide range of projects that will continue to encourage women to become more involved in their local communities and for women and men to work together to explore and support each other in taking on new roles.
College of the Peak’s role in the Woman’s Place project was to promote the development of traditional building skills among women. It did this through a series of training sessions, talks and demonstrations by craftsmen and women from a wide range of disciplines. The project brought together women from the North East of England and across rural Derbyshire. Local activity provided taster sessions, demonstrations and talks about heritage and sustainable building skills with more in-depth training over two days in dry stone walling and lime plasters and renders. The North Northumberland activity gave the group important training on the safe use of tools and equipment followed by the opportunity to use their new skills through ‘hands-on’ training by assisting with a new Walter Segal timber-framed self build.
The project was successful in supporting participants in exploring and developing their ideas around Heritage Building Skills. It offered positive encouragement to participants to enable them to recognise and develop their abilities and skills in a non-threatening environment that enabled participants to develop their self-confidence to achieve their goals. The project resulted in the development of a new network of women that will continue to provide support and encouragement for each member of the group. The project has helped participants to implement ideas and develop their skills and provided direction to other initiatives that could provide further and ongoing support.
C. PROJECT DELIVERY & EVALUATION
The project was comprised of training and networking through visits at both local and transnational levels. Training was given in heritage and sustainable building skills such as dry stone walling, lime plaster & rendering, straw bale building, stone slate roofing and timber framing, through to participation in an environmental self-build project incorporating valuable ‘use of tools’ training.
College of the Peak used email messages to all its partners across the LEADER+ area to support specially designed and printed leaflets that advertised the project. These were widely distributed to partner organisations, and many community notice boards, as well as a targeted mail-shot to all women on the College of the Peak database. Word of mouth was also a strong advertisement for the project, especially through several of the tutors who were able to successfully promote the project to their own contacts.
Advertising initially attracted 22 applicants, 11 of whom met LEADER+ eligibility criteria of living or working in the area. Places were offered on a first-come-first-served basis. The first 10 applicants were offered places on the project and sent details of the project activity, locations and timetable, all other enquiries were informed of their ineligibility or held on a waiting list. The limited time available for advertising the project, recruiting participants, and commencement of project activity, combined with the fact that the project was free, resulted in a high withdrawal rate at the last minute. This meant that only 7 of the initial applicants were able to take up their places. Therefore, remaining places were offered to non-eligible women, but were judged on their rurality and proximity to the LEADER+ area. Some applicants were received from afar afield as Cheshire and Yorkshire, which gives some indication of women’s general interest in heritage and sustainable building skills and their application.
C.1 COLLEGE OF THE PEAK HERITAGE BUILDING SKILLS TRAINING
College of the Peak organised the first part of the transnational project which was a three day programme held over the first weekend of October 2007 at the National Stone Centre, Wirksworth, Derbyshire. Numbers of participants varied over the weekend, but overall, College of the Peak brought together a group of 12 local women and North Northumberland Women’s Network brought 9 women in addition to 6 children of the participant’s children with ages ranging from 10 weeks to 11 years.
C.1.1 Heritage & Sustainable Building Skills Fair – taster sessions
The first day brought the women together and gave them access to the College’s annual Heritage and Sustainable Building Skills Fair. Here they were able to listen to talks, watch demonstrations, talk to craftsmen & women about their work and to ‘have a go’ at any of the skills on show. This was a valuable introduction for many of the women to the range of skills that could be developed by women for their own benefit or that of their communities. Some of the comments received from the participants highlighted the value of attendance at the fair, some examples of positive feedback are:
• “Excellent – Saturday very good, lots of different inspiration”
• “Everything has been excellent, it has lived up to my expectations”
• “Found the fair really useful for gathering information on heritage skills and great opportunity for ‘hands-on’ experience and for networking”
• “Skills Fair very interesting, great that so many skilled people took the time to attend this introduction of their trade”
C.1.2 Lime Plaster & Mortar Taster day
The second day was a one-day taster course with Mastercraftsman Andy Lawson introducing lime plastering and mortar. The women were able to gain experience mixing lime mortars and then rendering stone and strawbale walls. Comments received about this training include:
• “Tuition for lime rendering was excellent…day seemed long enough to achieve/learn techniques…pitched at right level for all on course”
• “Good to work in groups, but also good that tutor made time to work with individuals”
• “Good blend of information and technique explanation and practical chances to try these out
• “Lime plastering and pointing very interesting – a real passion of the tutor”
C.1.3 Dry Stone Walling Taster day
The third day’s training was an introduction to dry stone walling. This was a valuable hands-on session that provided expert female tuition in this ancient male-dominated art. Many of the women grew in self-confidence and they increased their ability to be creative and constructive. Very positive feedback was received for this session, examples are:
• “Tuition was fun and very non-threatening”
• “Tuition pitched at the right level and lots of opportunities to ask questions”
• “Tutors were enthusiastic, committed and knowledgeable, especially enjoyed the dry stone walling which was brilliant”
• “Tutor interacted really well with the women”
General comments received from evaluations include:
• “Well managed, very effective”
• “It has made me more confident in helping with our self-build house”
• “I’m going to look into a further short course”
• “Really appreciate the flexibility, especially in relation to childcare needs”
• “Has opened the door to feeling that I can achieve a lot more”
• “Good, safe, atmosphere for learning”
• “Excellent three days, thanks very much! It’s great to have been in a women friendly environment doing traditionally male things – complete with shared baby/childcare”
C.1.4 Young women encouraged to explore opportunities through schools programme
As part of this project, College of the Peak was keen to encourage more young women to explore heritage and sustainable building skills as a potential career option. As in the previous year, the Heritage and Sustainable Building Skills Fair was run over two days, with the first day being specially organised for students from local schools. Small groups of students went through a structured programme of ‘mini taster’ sessions each lasting 45minutes, to give them a valuable ‘hands-on’ session with craftsmen and women in a wide range of skills. In that first year, no girls attended the event, as they probably felt that the subject matter was not relevant to them as historically these skills have been seen to be male dominated. College of the Peak worked with the schools to encourage more female students to attend the day and at this event, 10 of the 40 students were young women – that’s a 25% increase on last year!
C.1.5 What could have been improved?
Some issues were raised however, that the group felt may have made the project even more successful. There were several comments on the size of the group, feeling that smaller group sizes could have led to greater opportunities for individual feedback, although generally, group feedback was found to be excellent.
Several participants also felt that it would have been valuable to have had more time on the first day for the women to meet, with a longer introductory session to outline the project’s aims and objectives and to allow the group to get network. It was also suggested that it would have been valuable for the group to get together socially on the first evening. College of the Peak staff were under enormous pressure and time constraints to manage and organise both the skills fair and the Women’s Place project, and concedes that these areas could have been improved. The College worked with the Northumberland Women’s Network to address these issues for the second part of the project.
One participant also raised a comment regarding the location of childcare, but this could be resolved for future projects with more time to arrange closer, more convenient childcare options. Not knowing final numbers until days before the project, age of children and a range of road closures influenced the location of, and ease of accessibility of, some of the childcare.
C.2 NORTH NUMBERLAND WOMEN’S NETWORK SELF-BUILD
The North Northumberland Women’s Network has an ongoing project to give women the opportunity to work with architect Mary Kelly of the Walter Segal Trust to design, construct and erect a Walter Segal Timber Frame building.
An analysis of a variety of transport options were investigated, resulting in minibus transport to the site as being considered both the most cost effective and logistically efficient option. The College of the Peak was able to hire the Derbyshire County Council’s Youth Service minibus for a significantly lower cost than that of a private hire company. Although it was necessary for the driver to hold a special permit, the additional cost of arranging this driving test and permit was still favourable to the private hire cost. This also resulted in an additional product output for one of the College of the Peak tutors, through gaining extra training and a valuable asset to her skills base. The College of the Peak may also benefit in future from this training, if trainees are required to visit sites as a group as part of their course(s).
Their were no childcare issues for the Derbyshire group, but finding accommodation for eleven women on a half term weekend a few weeks before, proved to be challenging. However, the Hope and Anchor in Alnmouth did have the required number of beds and being a hotel, was not badly inconvenienced by the very late arrival of the group (12.20am) due to horrendous traffic congestion!
Overall the evaluations received from participants were very positive. Comments include:
• “The weekend surpassed my expectations”
• “Well organised and well managed”
• “Tuition was excellent and just at the right level…everyone was encouraged and no-one hesitated to ask for help”
• “A very practical weekend where it was possible to make a contribution at many different skills levels – confidence boosting. It proves how enthusiasm and effort can carry a project forward”
• “Very much appreciated the financial support”
• “It was an excellent way to learn and spend time with other women working towards an interesting goal as a team”
• “Hope to translate some skills/ideas into renovating my own house in a more ‘green’ way”
• “I would like to self-build in the future”
There were some areas that would need addressing for any future projects of a similar nature. Facilities on site, such as toilets, could be improved and travel arrangements would need some rethinking – ie avoiding school holidays. There were also some comments regarding ‘downtime’ with some people lacking tasks for some of the time.
The North Northumberland Women’s Network compiled their own evaluation of the Self-Build Weekend, and it has been included here:
C.2.1 NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND WOMEN’S NETWORK - EVALUATIONS SUMMARY FOR SELF-BUILD WEEKEND:
10 evaluations received
Using a set of ranges to register their views participants marked the event as follows
Interesting 10 Boring 0 Useful 9 1 Irrelevant 0
Well organised 10 Poorly organised 0 Challenging 7 Undemanding 2
Clear 8 Confusing 0 Met my needs or interests 10 Did not meet my needs or interests 0
What pleased you most about the weekend?
• Fantastic opportunity to learn with other women about timber construction/self build.
• Plenty to do and well looked after.
• Friendly relaxed, supportive atmosphere. Team effort.
• Learning new skills and putting them into practice. The fact that it was all funded. Would not have been able to do it otherwise. (x2)
• Positive and cooperative environment. Working with other women. Developing confidence in using manual construction skills.
• Feeling of satisfaction – being involved in something ‘new’.
• Sense of achievement & challenge. Feeling part of a team that can achieve work together.
• Organisation/people/space i.e. indoor – outdoor/classroom/kitchen/leadership/catering/tuition
• Finding out how to build my own home within a confident group, professionally run.
What did you find less enjoyable?
• The journey/ traffic (x5)
• Nothing (x3)
• Waiting around when there were too many people for jobs.
• Toilets, lack of pens and mugs
Comments, criticisms and suggestions for trainers/facilitators?
• Excellent trainers. Clear & patient. (x2) helped make the experience both informative and very enjoyable.
• Everyone friendly, helpful and good explanations.
• Style and approach of trainers – respectful of all abilities, engaging, positive & flexible.
• Very good training
• Superb – clear instructions, everybody having a role- excellent/inspiring.
• Good delegation of roles. Some windows of space when people stood around (timing). Excellent tuition in tools & their use.
• This should happen more often to allow us to learn form each other & build confidence.
Comments, criticisms and suggestions for the organisers?
• Lovely food and hospitality.
• Well organised – good job! (x2)
• Excellent that essential costs were covered.
• Well organised and well resourced.
• More spaces were women can learn/work in single gender groups.
• Wish we had more time!
• Fantastic – hope to link up in future.
• Plan events further in advance to make arrangements easier.
• Well organised and welcoming, good accommodation and evening out. Felt I’d made friends and contacts for the future.
Comments, criticisms and suggestions for the self build project?
• Info sheet explaining the steps of work
• Showed me the benefit of working as a team towards specific outcome. Valuable skills learnt that I will be able to use in future.
• Longer tern involvement would be good.
• Impressed with the way the project was prepared so that everything worked smoothly.
• Would love to come back and contribute to further progress. (x2)
• Excellent mix of training/application/talks and great to meet like minded people.
• Really interesting project that sparks other’s interest, so keep up publicity.
Comments, criticisms and suggestions for NNWN?
• Good luck – great network.
• ‘Can do’ attitude is important and empowering.
• Fantastic organisation with a warm hearted group that are building links between women.
• Reflects the diversity of women’s experiences/backgrounds and needs. Important to be well resources to facilitate involvement of isolated, disadvantaged women.
• Thanks for making us feel so welcome and comfortable. (x2)
• Lets do more!
• To get involved in WRI in Derbyshire and hopefully participate in a similar project this way.
Further comments relate to worth of doing activities in women focused environment – helps build confidence and skills in non threatening way. But need to be mindful of doing things within a context of giving women confidence to participate in mixed activities.
D. PROJECT MILESTONES, RESULTS and OUTPUTS
D.1 Main Outputs
Profiled numbers are indicated in brackets
Activity Duration Number of community participants Trainers/speakers/project managers timescale
No of events held (o30) 1 (1) Oct 07
Transregional Visits (o29) 2 days 11 (10) 1 (8) Sept & Oct 07
Training sessions Fri = 1x10x4.5=45
Sat = 1x10x70=70
Sun = 1x10x7=70
Mon = 1x7x7=49, total of 234 training hours
(3 X 7 hrs x10 trainees = 210 hours) 12 + 10 young women from local schools
(10) 14 Oct 07
Local People participating in local events (r19) 1 day 12 + 10 young women from local schools
(10) Oct 07
Evaluation report Nov 07
No of groups assisted (o23) 1 (1) 11 trainees + 1 trainer
(10 trainees + 1 trainer)
D.2 Milestones:
Identification and recruitment of participants – completed Sep 2007
Identification and recruitment of trainers and speakers – completed Sep 2007
Completion of local programme – completed 8th Oct 2007
Visit by North Northumberland participants - completed 6-8th Oct 2007
Visit by Peaks, Dales and Moorlands participants to Northumberland – completed 26-28th Oct 2007
Evaluation – completed Nov 2007
D.3 Additional Outputs:
Minibus Driver Training and Driving Permit awarded to one of the College of the Peak Dry Stone Walling Instrutors
The project met its outputs and objectives with the exception of eligibility criteria. Area-based projects often struggle to reach required numbers from a specific area, but the College of the Peak is confident that all of the women who took part in this project have benefited positively from the experience and are most likely to apply their new skills to future work either on a professional or domestic level.
It was effective in developing the potential of participants by:
• Supporting participants in exploring and developing their ideas around Heritage Building Skills;
• Offering positive encouragement to participants to enable them to recognise and develop their abilities and skills;
• Providing a supportive, non-threatening environment that enabled participants to develop their self-confidence to achieve their goals.
• Helping people with implementing ideas and developing skills through direction to other initiatives that could provide further and ongoing support.
D.4 Output Table for Peak Weekend
Profiled Outputs Actual Actual L+ Actual non L+ % Eligible each day
Sat Fair 10 10 7 3 70.00%
Sun Lime 10 10 6 4 60.00%
Mon Walling 10 7 4 3 57.14%
10.0 9.0 5.7 3.3
Overall 12 women from the Peak District LEADER+ area took part in the Heritage Building Skills training weekend. Eleven of these women took travelled to Alnmouth in North Northumberland for the second part of the project.
D.5 Output Table for North Northumberland Weekend
Profiled Outputs Actual Actual L+ Actual non L+ % Eligible each day
N Northumberland 10 11 7 4 63.64%
