Yorkshire Muddings: The forest school that grew out of woodland play in lockdown

“There was nothing to do,” she reflects. “I spent loads of time with my two-year-old going out to the woods by my house. We just used to wander around, play with clay, I’d help her climb trees a bit, kill time really. I had a really hard time with postnatal depression and found it hard to parent my two-year-old and my newborn. And I realised that getting us outside and parenting outside, I found much easier.”

When restrictions started to ease, Victoria, who lives in the Holme Valley, West Yorkshire, was keen to find outdoor play sessions for her girls. Her search led her to the concept of forest schools, child-led educational and play experiences that use the outdoor environment. “I had this idea to set my own up. I had a vision of what I wanted to take my daughters to and I thought I can do this.”

Victoria previously ran a marketing and PR firm but was looking for a new challenge after maternity leave. “I had always wanted to work with children but I had never wanted to be a teacher. And it all aligned really.” She re-trained as a forest school practitioner and found the perfect venue in Cockley Woodland, between Wakefield and Huddersfield. In November 2021, Yorkshire Muddings was born.

The first six weeks were pilot sessions before an official launch after the winter in March 2022. Since then, Yorkshire Muddings has expanded, opening a new site at Tong Garden Centre in Bradford earlier this year. There are plans to open a third location soon at Stamford Bridge in York, with recruitment underway now for someone to lead it.

Victoria now has a team working with her at Muddings, including co-owner Susannah Holroyd, an experienced primary school teacher who joined earlier this year. The pair have big ambitions to open more sites and would like to get venues up and running in both Leeds and the Holme Valley. “As sad as it makes me, I think that requires me to come out of the woodland and do more of the brand building stuff,” Victoria says.

What children and parents enjoy most about Muddings is the "relaxed, free-flow and child-led approach”, she says. “It’s very much just come and explore.” Many of the activity stations have been crafted with the help of her husband and father and are made by recycling and repurposing materials such as old tyres, scaffolding boards, and cable drums. Sessions also include the opportunity for children to toast marshmallows around an open fire. “You don’t need to spend a lot of money on play equipment for it to be really enjoyed and useable,” Victoria says, “in all weathers too.”

Her own girls, five-year-old Rose and three-year-old Nell, remain big fans of outdoor play. “When I get them out of the bath and drain the bathwater, if there’s mud and grime in the bottom, I think great, they’ve had a really good day. I want them to think about their childhood and think that it was fun running through waist high puddles and squelching in dirt."

Such experiences “allow kids to be kids” she says, whilst engaging with nature and the environment. “Childhood should be messy and it should be muddy. Kids should be digging in the ground with their fingers and sliding down muddy banks on their bums.

"We’ve got to let them experience nature and the outdoor environment in a really raw way. We’ve got to let them have fun outside, jump in muddy puddles, find worms, play in water, make mud pies, because they’re going to have fun whilst doing so.

"These children are going to grow into adults that have got to care for the environment. And they’ve got to have had positive experiences in nature as children otherwise how can they be expected to care for the environment as an adult if they’ve never experienced it?

"We don’t need to turn kids into ecowarriors and that’s not what we’re about. It’s about allowing children to be children outside and create positive connections in their brains….They might not always remember what they played with at Muddings but they will always have a positive association of being in nature, having fun and feeling calm. Giving them that is so important.”