Teacher Information: Primary Creative Activities at Mottisfont
Overview:
Mottisfont is a place of peace and beauty. These activities are designed for children to experience
the elements through a series of reflective and creative responses to stimuli. They are
teacher/adult-led and can easily be adapted to suit different client groups.
These activities offer opportunities for children to explore the grounds of Mottisfont in an engaging
and inspiring way while developing observational, creative and evaluative skills. In these activities
children are encouraged to collect and use natural materials to produce a creative response to the
setting. They can explore their ideas and record their experiences in small sketchbooks, or
experience the use of natural material in Land Art sessions.
There are seven suggested activities to use as a basis for planning your visit – choose as many or
as few suits your group and length of visit.
Alongside these creative activities, it is hoped that children will discover the spirit of Mottisfont,
recognizing it as a place with opportunities for reflection, calm and wonder. Children are
encouraged to pause, observe, ponder and respond in a creative way.
Organisation:
The Learning Space (which must be booked in advance) in the Stable Block is available to use as
a meeting place, for leaving lunchboxes, and wet weather shelter. However, all the activities are
designed to take place outside. There are toilet facilities located within the Stable Block.
You may wish to organise classes into smaller groups of six to eight children with an adult to carry
out the activities. Please ensure there is adequate adult supervision.
Health and safety: your attention is drawn to potential hazards you may encounter during these
activities. Please familiarize yourself with these before starting. nb the risks noted only apply to the
activities themselves, not to other areas of the site.
Teacher Information: A Brief History of Mottisfont
Eight centuries of history are buried deep within the walls of today’s grand country house at
Mottisfont and in the estate that surrounds it. Mottisfont’s story is told through the people who have
lived here for 800 years, from the Augustinian Canons in 1201 to sparkling 20th-century society
hostess Maud Russell.
In the beginning
The Priory was founded in 1201 by William Briwere (Brewer), businessman, administrator and
right-hand man to four Plantagenet kings. Mottisfont was a stop on the journey from Winchester to
Salisbury, so Medieval pilgrims would rest here, where hospitable Augustinian canons welcomed
them with food and shelter. Pilgrims visited the Priory’s holy relic, the miraculous forefinger of St
John the Baptist.
The Sandys
When Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries when he broke from the Catholic Church, Mottisfont
was converted from a medieval church to became the Tudor home of statesman Sir William
Sandys in 1536.
The Mills
With the 17th and 18th century came the Mill family and transformation into a Georgian house and
estate. Hunting, shooting and fishing became the main activity while elegant stone and the
remains of the priory combined to make the facade of today’s house.
The Russells
The arrival of Maud and Gilbert Russell in 1934 made Mottisfont the centre of a fashionable artistic
and political circle. Much of the house interior you see today reflects their legacy.
The Trust
Maud Russell donated Mottisfont, including the 2080 acre estate, to the National Trust in 1957.
Maud continued to live at Mottisfont for another 15 years until she moved out to a house in the
village in the early 70s.
The Gardens and Estate
These have evolved over the centuries and reflect the lives and interests of the owners of the
estate from the Abbots to the National Trust who now cares for and enhances this beautiful
heritage. This ranges from the historic cottages in the village, the magnificent formal gardens,
including the world famous Graham Thomas rose gardens, from the SSSI protected countryside to
one of the world’s top chalk Salmon and Trout Rivers.
Today
As you explore the house and gardens today you’ll find traces of all these people, from the great
cellarium where the monks kept their stores to the Georgian facade of the house.
Activity 1: Tuning in to Mottisfont
Seeing, listening, feeling, describing
Location: the font
Teacher information: history and context of the font and its significance.
The font is a very important part of Mottisfont, and is a really good way to start your day.
The name Mottisfont comes from the Old
English ‘motes funta’, ‘the meeting place by
the spring’. The word moot also means
meeting and the Latin word for spring is fons.
In 1340 the Cellarer in charge of the stores at
the Priory describes a spring that fed a pond
which supplied water for one or two watermills
plus all the gardens, an apple orchard and a
tannery.
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200 gallons / 900 litres of water per minute bubble up from the font and into the font stream
Between 1743 and 1825 (probably in the second half of the 18th Century) the cascade was
made in the stream flowing out of the font
In 2006 when the font ran very low, the stream ceased to flow and the font water became
stagnant!
This has always been a spiritual and magical place, take time to pause and look
PAUSE: encourage children to look and listen
for 30 seconds in silence.
Children think of words to describe:
What can they see? What can they hear?
How does it make them feel?
Ask children to draw something they see, hear
or feel
rushing... gurgling… swirling
Ask children to write their words around a
circle in their sketch books
PONDER: ask children to think about
1. Where the water has come from?
2. Where is the water is going – is it flowing into the font or out of it?
Adult to float a leaf at the exit point and get children to watch the direction it takes.
Extension: what does the font symbolize? The well-spring is like a symbol for the source of
energy and inspiration in our own lives. Where do you get your energy from? What brings you
alive? Where are you going?
Then follow the path by the stream – looking and listening.
(At this point you can collect natural materials, particularly leaves but also twigs, small stones etc
in preparation for Activity 2 if required.)
Health and safety: remind the children not to pick anything that is still growing or looks like it
might be sharp or prickly.
Health and safety: fast flowing and deep water. Bridges without rails, uneven footpath, trip
hazards.
How is the water different here to how it was in the font?
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Take pathway down towards remains of the
old mill in the abbey stream
Take a look at the pump and explain that
water from the font used to be pumped up to
the house and the neighboring farm
Continue to the abbey stream to look at
where the mill and water wheel used to be.
Talk about the power of the water.
Return to main path and have a look at
where the font stream joins the abbey
stream now.
Activity 2: Found Material Art (Small Scale Work)
Location: Choose you own location (but please not on the formal lawn in front of the house)
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Take a walk around the garden, and collect small
scale natural materials to make a piece of “found
material art work”
Choose your location to work and ask children to
carefully place materials. Encourage them to make
patterns or representations on the ground.
When complete, ask each child to talk about their
work to the group.
Take photos of work to make a display back at
school
Make a record of children’s comments to add to
the display
PONDER: what patterns can you spot in nature? Why are there patterns?
Depending on where the children have been working, you may need to clear away the
found material art activity when you have finished - please ask your outdoor guide. Thank you.
Activity 3: Collaborative Large Scale Land Art Work
Location: Land Art area (near the winter garden – ask your outdoor guide to
show you)
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Meet together at the font. Look at the water and the font and take the opportunity for a
moment of calm
Look at the shape of the font and the stream and the flints which form the rim of the font.
Talk about the presence of flint in the landscape and link to materials provided for land art.
Take a short walk to collect “found materials”
Walk to a space under trees opposite the winter garden
As a whole class or (more effectively) in smaller groups, children create a land art shape
reflecting their visit to Mottisfont
Use materials collected, as well as those provided in the land art area, to construct a natural
collaborative art work or works (in the style of the artist Andy Goldsworthy)
Take photos - review and evaluate each other’s work. We would love to have copies of
these!
PONDER: Take time to look at your work. How did you work together successfully? What went
well? What might you have done differently? How did you feel working with these materials?
What other natural materials would you like to use? Would you do this again – at home or
school?
Health and safety: be aware of sharp flints and prickly plants.
Activity 4: Really Looking
Location: outdoor classroom
Take a walk around the gardens and collect fallen leaves in collection bags.
(Please don’t picking any leaves that are still attached!)
Return to the outdoor classroom.
Ask children to find a leaf that is interesting and draw it in detail in their sketch books using
pencil – really look at its shape rather than just what it should look like. Remember to include
veins, serrated edges, imperfections etc.
Draw a different leaf… Think about what makes it different.
Children can then evaluate their own drawings and those of others.
OBSERVE: are any of the leaves the same? Is being different important?
Extension activity: what kind of leaf is it? (Use leaf identification sheets.) Can you see the tree it
came from?
Health and safety: in the summer there may be wasps and other stinging insects.
Activity 5: Using Natural Drawing Materials
Location: front (south) lawn, near the bridge
Charcoal and chalk are natural drawing materials, which have been used by artists for a very long
time.
Charcoal is made on the estate by burning wood in special kilns.
Chalk is found on/in the ground in many parts of the estate.
Show children both media in their raw state. Both are used as art materials today, but have been
‘processed’ to make them easier to use. Show children art charcoal and chalk sticks to compare
with the raw materials.
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Ask children to look around at the trees – get them to really look at size, shapes, branches,
trunks, etc.
Ask them to draw a tree that they can see from where they are sitting in only five mins using
charcoal.
Ask the children to draw another tree on coloured paper using chalk. Which material do they
prefer using?
PONDER: what is the tallest/smallest tree you can see? Is it better to be small or tall?
Health and safety: near fast flowing, deep water with no barrier.
Activity 6: The Bigger Picture
Location: front (south) lawn
Ask children to frame a landscape view using their thumbs and first fingers.
Use own choice of art medium, pencil or charcoal to make a sketch.
Extension:
Use this sketch in preparation for a painting back at school.
Ask children to “annotate” their sketch with notes about colours, textures, patterns etc.
PONDER: look at the shapes formed by the landscape.
What things do you notice that you hadn’t spotted before?
What feelings do you get when you look at the landscape?
Activity 7: Reflection and Evaluation
This is a good way to finish your visit…
RESPONSE: what will you take with you from Mottisfont?
For example, children write a six word memoir to describe the Spirit of Mottisfont – their emotional
response.
Please let us have copies of these, as we would love to build up a picture of children’s responses.