Entering the area through the beautiful split-log gate, you’ll immediately stumble upon rosy-cheeked children elbow-deep in the water tray, filling teapots and pouring them out down a ramp. They watch the water sloshing over a pile of shells that Acting Manager Lucy has brought in for them to explore. Past them, there will be others making soup in the mud kitchen, fetching ingredients from the reed bed, with a smiling adult watching on. If you take a stroll into the shady grey willows, you’ll be greeted by the muddy wellies of a child mid-swing and hear the excited squealing of others high up in the tree.

Creeping under the branches, you come back out on a path that leads to the Willow Dome, around which the whole space centres. It is under here that children can be found exploring the charcoal they made the week previously or sitting with an adult making little bird feeders with pine cones. Here, in the winter, we have a log burner, which children love to help stoke.