Our story begins back in 2000, when Chris Rose and Sarah Wise asked their four year-old daughter where she’d like to go that weekend. “To look for fairies” she said. “What sort of place would that be ?”, they asked. “The sort of place with old knobbly trees and meadows of flowers” she replied, for of course she had read lots of fairy stories.
Having spent years working for conservation groups which struggled to attract ‘mainstream’ families to their projects and sites, Sarah and Chris thought this was a great idea which could connect more parents and children with nature. So they told the big green groups. “Fairies ! It gave us a good laugh in the office” replied one. At the time, they were not interested.
So Sarah and Chris went out to look for such places to take young children to, not too far from where they lived in Norfolk. But it was not easy.
Some places had no nature but lots of “things for kids”. Others had lots of nature but were too hard for small people to get to, or covered in signs telling you not to do this, that or the other. Most conservation groups ran projects for schools (not much fun), or for grown ups (too old). None of them seemed just right.
What to do ?
To cut a long story short, they started a Charity, The Fairyland Trust. With lots of help from lots of people, it now creates family days out, rich in magic and nature, particularly designed for younger children. Each year, thousands of parents, boys and girls experience our events like the Fairy Fair, The Real Halloween or meet us at one of the dozen or more Magical Workshops we have created. These travel to events up and down the country and one way and another we have reached over 250,000 parents, carers and children since 2001, when we first began.
Children enjoy making something special and natural, such as a wildflower Fairy Garden, a Fairy Crown or a Magic Wand. All young children are open to nature and it’s best to reach them while they are small but these days most little children can only get out and about if their parents take them. A family day out often means taking mum and dad, and maybe grandparents and bigger young people need to come too. So at our own events, we include entertainment and activities designed to keep everyone happy.
Where We Work
Fairyland Trust Workshops are often hired by festivals, community groups and others to bring a bit of magic and nature to families up and down the land. We have hundreds of great volunteers, and we train our crew to know some of the rich British nature folklore, as well as basic Natural History (which they weren’t taught in schools for years), so they can help bring nature to children, and parents, grannies and grandpa’s, brothers and sisters and friends.
We have almost twenty different Workshops, to add nature and sparkle to any gathering. Those are designed for children aged 3-8 although they also appeal to some older children.
Our own major events have been the Fairy Fair held in May, and The Real Halloween, at the end of October. After more than twenty years organising these events Sarah and Chris finally called it a day in 2024 and we decided to end running these events in Norfolk, but not end the Fairyland Trust. Read about that here.
In 2025 we plan to expand our programme of travelling Workshops, and run some making Workshops in our own workshop unit at West Acre in Norfolk, over winter ’24 and spring ’25. We’ve also created Wildflower Fortunes, with its own caravan, designed not for children but young adults: experience it and discover your spirit wildflower. It appears at festivals and went down storm at Glastonbury, Latitude and Boomtown in 2024. We are on the lookout for more venues to visit in 2025, for both the Caravan and Travelling Workshops (contact: sarah@fairylandtrust.org)..
Would you like to help ? The very best thing is to become a Supporter but we also need volunteers to help with fundraising, recruitment, promotion and practical work in our stores and at events. If you are interested please get in touch.
The Other Stuff
We are registered Charity no 1089771 (reg May 2001) Company Ltd by guarantee (Engl) 4210261 VAT no 102166856. Our charitable objects are:
- To advance the education of children and young persons in the conservation of the environment, in particular the conservation of woodland and other natural wildlife habitats
- To help children and young persons through leisure time activities to develop their physical, mental and spiritual capacities that they may grow to full maturity as individuals as members of society.
Our registered address is c/o Mapus-Smith & Lemmon, 48 King St, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, PE30 1HE.
Our three stalwart Trustees are Stuart and Glynis Adams, and Jane Vaus.
You can write to us at: Fairyland Trust, c/o 12 Jolly Sailor Yard, Wells Next the Sea, Norfolk, NR23 1LA. email: info@fairylandtrust.org You can also find us on Instagram, TikTok, twitter and Facebook. You are looking at our website www.fairylandtrust.org
We were awarded “Best Day Festival” by Festival Kidz in 2013 and 2015
Our stories and material are protected by copyright. They were researched, created and improved with lots of often voluntary effort by our crew, and the donations of our Supporters. So please don’t copy them but do help us, or hire us.
Many thanks !
