Join this brand new trail, meet those who farmed here 800 years ago, be inspired — and help shape a lasting memorial to this lost community.

This creative trail takes place at Skelton Country Park — a starting point for an imaginative journey not across distance, but through time. Eight hundred years ago, this area was occupied by a preceptory: a commercial religious farmstead run by the Knights Templar, whose brothers, workers and tenants shaped the land and the daily rhythms of life from Skelton to Colton. While we know they started the Temple Newsam estate and influenced the local wool industryfor centuries to come, surviving records tell us surprisingly little about them. This trail reconstructs their voices from what historical evidence provides — and what careful imagination can recreate.

What will it be like?
This gives you something rare: time and material to think differently. We'll share what we know about the people who worked this land eight hundred years ago — their world, their constraints, their daily textures — and then step back. What that stirs in you is yours. Some people will find unexpected connections to their own lives. Some will find questions they didn't know they had. Some will make something. All of that is the point. We'll encourage you to capture what comes up — a phone, a notebook, whatever feels natural. But this isn't primarily about feeding our project. It's about giving you a genuine occasion to think — about another world, and from that, to consider your own from a new angle. You don’t need to share your creative responses if you choose not to; however you’re willing to share will be gratefully received.

*Why 'Neusum'? This is how Newsam was spelt in the 13th century. It was originally Neu Heusun - new houses.

Find out more on the artist's website.

This workshop is part of Situation Leeds Festival, happening across May and June 2026, celebrating contemporary art in the public realm. Find out more at situationleeds.org/festival

Situation Leeds is supported by Yorkshire Visual Arts Network and Hyde Park Book Club.

16, 18 and 24 May 2026, 1.30pm - 3.30pm.