Cows In The Auditorium?

In March 2014 Harwood Hill School pupils and staff made a visit to the Barn Theatre, which was organised as part of the Trust’s ‘Where Do You Think We Worked?’ project to enable pupils to find out about the Welwyn Dairy.

The following appeared on the Harwood Hill School’s Class 3 webpage:

"On Thursday 13th March Year 3 went for a stroll in the sunshine to the Barn Theatre.

Whilst we were there we were treated to a talk about the history of the barn and then we went searching for clues about the past of the building. We found lots of interesting features including old original doors and evidence of a light railway track from when the Barn was a dairy farm in the 1920s.

We even visited the auditorium where the cows used to be kept when it was a dairy farm. It was funny to think that the area where people now sit to enjoy shows used to be full of cows!

On the way back to school we stopped off to see the Sir Ebenezer Howard memorial in the town centre. It was great to see it in real life!”

Comments from parents:

“Just to let you know I had very positive feedback from A following the year 3 trip to the Barn. He spontaneously gave me a potted history of the barn theatre, including facts I didn't know, and he obviously enjoyed the trip.”

“I just wanted to let you know how much J enjoyed the second of his visits to the town to learn about the history of Welwyn Garden City. I now know that the silo was used to store hay to feed the cows for example! I feel that local history is a potentially tricky subject for young children to engage with but J has thoroughly enjoyed his tours and I hope other groups of schoolchildren will also benefit from the extensive knowledge of local experts.”

 “I wanted to let you know that R really enjoyed the visit to the Barn Theatre last Thursday. She came back telling me lots about the history of the barn and how it had been used for different things in the past. She loved seeing the dressing area backstage with all the outfits used in the plays. I can see R was really engaged during the visit and came home very excited to tell me all about it.”