Get hands on and learn about Roman pantheon! Drop-in workshops for all ages
Activities free with your admission! Normal entrance prices apply.
Join artist Isabel Young to create a votive offering dedicated to Ceres, goddess of harvest!
This May half term we’ll be unveiling a brand new Lararium – a Roman household shrine - in our beautiful Roman Villa as we celebrate the Villa’s 20th anniversary.
As part of the grand unveiling the artist behind the Lararium, Isabel Young from the RCA (Royal College of Art), will be running free drop-in workshops for visitors to make a votive offering for the shrine. Learn more about ancient Roman beliefs and get hands on with clay and natural materials to make a beautiful statuette to honour the roman gods!
Workshops will run from 10:30 to 12:30 and 1:30 to 3:30 daily. Find out more about Isabel and her Lararium project below.
half term activities
Follow a free trail around the farm to discover the gods and monsters of ancient mythology!
Get hands-on and learn an ancient skill like spinning or carving chalk
Learn about the Roman pantheon and make an offering in our lararium!
Please be aware our half term activities may be subject to change on the day.
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In ancient Roman times a lararium (a shrine to the household gods) would have been a feature in every Roman household and used in the practice of everyday private worship.
In celebration of the Villa’s 20th year since opening artist Isabel Young is constructing a lararium devoted to Ceres, goddess of harvest. Referencing the traditions of lararium architecture the design will resemble a miniature temple brightly decorated with paintings of Ceres, snakes as guardians of the house, and the twin Lares as ancestral protective spirits. The shrine will take the form of a free-standing expanded painting combining architectural model making and oil painting.
The lararium will be a permanent fixture of the Roman Villa and used during re-enactments to receive offerings in the interpretation of religious beliefs, ritual practices, and to explore the cultural dynamics of the Roman home.
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Isabel Young is an award-winning artist and Senior Tutor (Research) at the Royal College of Art where she lectures on an interdisciplinary art & design programme. Drawing on research into the history of the house and integrated landscapes, she considers the cultural, political, economic, environmental and social dynamics associated with notions of ‘home’. Her area of practice takes the form of new developments in expanded painting and focuses on vernacular architecture, ancient buildings, the people who lived in them, and the relationships between buildings, people and landscape.
Conceptually her research investigates architectural space and the built environment as a reflection of how we once lived, and how we now live, making associations between object making, image making and spatial design.
*Annual Passholders get free admission to the farm any day we’re open for general admission — you only need to visit twice before you’re quid’s in! Learn more.
DOGS: Please feel free to bring your dogs with you!
REFUNDS: If we aren’t able to open the farm on the day of your visit, you will of course be completely refunded. Unfortunately in any other circumstances we aren’t able to offer refunds.
COVID-19: We’re still being careful, and will follow the government advice at the time. We’re a mostly-outdoors site, and encourage people to mask indoors if it makes them more comfortable. If you have any symptoms of COVID-19 or have been asked to self-isolate when you’re due to visit, please stay at home and take care of yourself.