Great Outdoors Memory Box

We developed our memory box with Lancashire County Council's Heritage Learning Team and it's full of activities designed to trigger positive recollections and encourage conversation about past countryside visits and adventures.

Why not take a look at the ideas below and have fun making up your very own Great Outdoors Memory Box? 

Wildflower Playing Cards

We've put photographs of beautiful Bowland wildflowers on each of the five sheets below (three different flowers on each sheet - 15 flowers altogether).  Why not print them all off (or as many as you need), then cut them out and laminate them so that they last longer and are easier to keep clean?

Each flower is duplicated, which means you can play all sorts of games with them – like Snap! or Pairs. 

  1. Bird's eye primrose, Yellow rattle, Melancholy thistle cards 
  2. Common spotted orchid, Bird's foot trefoil, Speedwell cards 
  3. Ox-eye daisy, Red campion, Globe flower cards
  4. Primrose, Bluebell, Red clover cards
  5. Ramsons, Meadow craneshill, Mouse-ear hawk bit cards

Forest of Bowland Photograph Album

People have enjoyed visiting Bowland for decades and many of us will have fond memories of favourite places, childhood visits or family picnic spots.

We've put together photographs of some of the places we love in the Forest of Bowland and we hope you enjoy looking through to see if you recognise any of them. Why not print them out and make your very own "album" or scrapbook? Or use your own Bowland photographs instead!

For more great photos of Bowland life, take a look at our 50th anniversary Bowland Scrapbook

Our Memory Box also includes…..

  • A pair of basic binoculars and a garden bird identification chart from the Field Studies Council. Great for getting up close to whatever birds visit your garden.
  • A selection of the RSPB's soft toy birds which make authentic calls when squeezed. They're really nice to hold, as well as listen to. 
  • A crocheted daisy chain. Perhaps you can make one yourself from a pattern online?
  • A woolly hat. (It's always good to wrap up warm!)
  • A a tightly lidded tub of hay. It really captures the fragrance of a sunny, summer day in the countryside and can be replaced with a fresh batch once the smell has faded.
  • A selection of natural textures like conkers, acorns, conifer cones and twigs, which are good for 
    holding and feeling. 

(Just remember to wash your hands after handling any natural materials!)