Price
£85-95 inc. home-made lunch
Short courses at Assington Mill
We run an eclectic mix of over seventy different short rural skills and crafts courses throughout the year. The courses, which include things like beekeeping for beginners, hen keeping, story telling, upholstery and a wealth of others (see below) – are held in East Anglia’s first straw bale building. The building is located on a small seventy-acre farm in one of Suffolk’s beautiful secret valleys, which is managed as a private nature reserve. Included in the programme are home-made lunches, biscuits and cakes, with food either grown on our own allotment, or sourced locally, and organic where possible. We specialise in gluten-free food.
So whatever you’re looking for you are bound to find something new of interest at Assington Mill. Book a course with us soon!
Please click ‘Visit Website’ for details and booking information.
Some of the various courses on offer include:
- A novel in a day
- Archery
- Badgers
- Beekeeping for beginners
- Bike maintenance
- Book restoration
- Bread-making
- Bricklaying for amateurs
- Calligraphy
- Cane & rush chair seating
- Cat psychology
- Celtic drawing
- Cheese-making from goat’s milk
- Chainsawing for amateurs
- Christmas wreath-making
- Clay oven building
- Clean cakes
- Coracle making
- Crochet for beginners/improvers
- Cyder making
- Dog psychology
- Dowsing
- Falconry
- Felt-making
- Fly fishing
- Foraging & cooking
- Fruit tree pruning
- Goat husbandry
- Goat cheese-making, hands on
- Hands on the hive
- Hedgelaying
- Hen keeping for beginners
- Jams, jellies & cordials
- Knitting for beginners, and returners
- Landscape painting
- Medieval gold manuscript illumination
- Metal detecting
- Mindfulness
- Natural skin care
- Needle felting
- Novel in a day
- Plumbing DIY
- Mosaic
- Pig-keeping – introduction
- Rush-weaving
- Scythes, use and maintenance
- Sheep husbandry for smallholders
- Sign-writing
- Silver clay jewellery
- Soap & cosmetics from honey & beeswax
- Stained glass
- Steam-bending timber
- Storytelling
- Taxidermy
- Tortoises
- Ukelele – learn to play in a day
- Upholstery
- Why does my cat …?
- Why does my dog …?
- Wild game butchery
- Wild medicine
- Willow fencing
- Willow plant supports
For more local information, please see Sudbury Guide
Additional Features
- Disabled Access
- Learn a New Skill!
- Unique Experience!
- Suitable for Adults only
- Wheelchair access ground floor only
- Well behaved dogs allowed
- Gift Vouchers Available
- Parking on site
- Come on your own!
- Fun for individuals as well as groups
- Meet New People & Make New Friends!
- Courses in a range of subjects
- Day Courses for all standards
- Gift Vouchers Available
Accommodation Nearby: Mill Cottage
Located in a private valley, Mill Cottage is a hidden gem that is ideal for visitors who want to get away from the hustle and bustle and experience the ultimate peace, comfort, and tranquility.
Nestled against the Mill Pond, this stunning cottage is located a quarter mile from the road inside a 70-acre nature reserve. Here, animal-loving visitors can make use of the badger watching sites and owl tower. The cottage is also dog-friendly.
The main entrance to the cottage leads into a farmhouse kitchen which overlooks the pond’s grassy bank. There are also some outdoor tables and chairs if you’re in the mood for an al fresco meal by the pondside. This ground floor is also home to the sizeable bathroom.
Additionally, if you’re interested to learn more about the cottage’s eco heating system, you can visit the pump room and take a look at the ground source heat pumps.
A stunning oak staircase will lead visitors to the large sitting room and double bedroom. The sitting room overlooks the pond and is home to a cozy wood-burning stove. Keep in mind that the beams in the building can be quite low, so be careful not to hit your head.
At nighttime, the sky is clear and free of pollution, making this thatched cottage a lovely setting for stargazing.
Outside, the sloping garden leads to Mill Pond, where visitors can enjoy swimming, sunbathing, or rowing with a provided boat. Around the pond, there are various footpaths perfect for beautiful walks, including those leading to the Owl Tower.
There is also an entire reserve to be enjoyed, including a fenced-off woodland area where dogs can run around. The reserve is filled with wooded glades, ancient hedgerows, meadows of wildflowers, and wildlife well worth seeing.
The local wildlife includes badgers, deer, rabbits, kingfishers, hares, barn owls, egrets, herons, woodpeckers, otters, ospreys, butterflies, dragonflies, and other garden birds. It is the perfect place if you are a wildlife photographer or enthusiast.
Visitors can expect to see chickens wandering the grounds and are encouraged to take a basket and collect some fresh eggs where these free-range chickens roost. If you are traveling with a furry friend, be sure to keep them leashed for the safety of the chickens.
The cottage prides itself on its eco-friendly design and built. When the building was re-built, restored, and converted, most of the materials used for the building were locally sourced or reclaimed traditional materials in keeping with the building’s history, such as the re-used timbers inside. The historic renovation was carried out by local artisans and specialist builders with the highest standards and ecological build practices.
During the major building works carried out, lime plaster and washes were used on the walls, and sheep’s wool was used to insulate the roof and fill the wall cavities. All the floors were made from locally sourced oak and the kitchen and wet room include handmade floor and wall tiles. Some of the original floors which include original Suffolk white brick had to be supplemented using bricks provided by the local firm: Bulmer Brick.
The Mill’s wheel pit and new steel wheel generates its own electrical power. The straw bale barn is home to a composting toilet, and any waste water is used to treat the land. The barn is one of four straw walled buildings on the farm.
The land is home to various notable plants, such as bee orchids, bluebells, and edible watercress. Inside the Tower, twenty-eight barn owl chicks have been reared and ringed in the past ten years.
