Embedded Files
Details of events where the Friends of Gressenhall will running activities or will just be available to have a chat about membership or volunteering.
Events from earlier in the 2025 Season are listed at the bottom of the page.
On the Norfolk Museums Service website
Sunday 21 September 2025
Heritage Open Day and Friends of Gressenhall 50th Anniversary
Free entry at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
You are invited to the 50th Anniversary of the Friends of Gressenhall Museum by the current Committee to an Open Event at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum of Norfolk Life
The event is being held exactly fifty years since the first ever Museum Open Event, at the start of the Friends journey to its current formation.
The doors open at 10am and we are taking the opportunity to share our own history and to use the event as a platform to demonstrate all the strengths of the Museum offer.
Volunteer teams will be actively demonstrating and talking about their work across the site, alongside the specially invited partner organisations.
We are taking the opportunity to launch our 'The Suffolk Horse Sponsorship' packs at the event, as the Museum is now supporting several horses who are less able to work for their keep.
The Head of the Norfolk Museum Service, Steve Miller will be introducing Gillian Shephard, Baroness Shephard of Northwold who will cut a ribbon at midday to formally re-open the revamped Village Row, Cherry Tree Cottage and the newly installed Pub. Baroness Shephard was the original secretary of the Friends when it formed in 1975, supporting Dick Joice, the first Chair.
Free Entry to all as part of the Open Heritage Day - so please do come and join us!
If you are in contact with anyone else who was a Friend, or who worked, or volunteered at the Museum please do let them know about the event, as unfortunately we may not reach everyone as contact details are not complete.
Museum Service Activities
Free entry to the site as part of the HOD festival nationwide – and in celebration of the Friends of Gressenhall’s 50th anniversary, to the day!
Volunteer teams will be showcasing the skills and expertise they use throughout the year at the Museum. Horses will be working and select visiting partners will join us to celebrate keeping heritage open.
On the Museum's website
Wednesday 1 October 2025 @ 7:30pm
Friends of Gressenhall AGM followed by
'Norwich Castle: Royal Palace Reborn, A Story 900 Years in the Making'
The Beech Room,
Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum
Our Annual General Meeting is open to all members of the Friends of Gressenhall, including paid members, volunteer members and honorary members.
The meeting will be brief and will be followed by a talk given by Hannah Jackson (see below)
Norwich Castle: Royal Palace Reborn, A Story 900 Years in the Making
Join Project Manager, Hannah Jackson, to explore the fascinating history of Norwich Castle. Find out more about how the team approached this complex redevelopment in a building that has been permanently occupied for over 900 years. The transformation of Norwich Castle’s iconic Norman Keep is one of the largest UK heritage projects of recent years, generously supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. It has enabled the rebuilding of the medieval floors and rooms so that visitors will be able to experience a Norman royal palace and its stories. The British Museum’s first medieval gallery outside of London brings treasures of international importance to Norwich and for the first time everyone will be able to explore all 5 levels of the Keep – from basement to battlements.
The talk, which is open to all members, will commence immediately after the short Friends of Gressenhall Annual General Meeting. Please contact us and let us know if you wish to attend.
Apple Day - Sunday 12 October 2025
At Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
Buy plants (some which come from the Museum gardens) and crafts made by our volunteers.
Museum Service Activities
Autumn event running since 1991, celebrating heritage fruit, local Norfolk food, farming, folk practices, crafts and traditional living.
Will be available on the Museum's website
2025 Season Past Events
Home Front Stories: Norfolk in 1945 - Sunday 24 August 2025
At Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
Buy Raffle tickets for our Summer Raffle. Lots of brilliant prizes to be won (Today is the draw day)!
Museum Service Activities
Bank holiday event focused on what was going on in Norfolk in 1945, e.g. domestic experiences, WLA, ARP, Home Guard, American forces in residence – timed to coincide with 2025’s VE & VJ Day anniversaries.
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flyover TBC.
Will be available on the Museum's website
Earth Day - Friday 11 April 2025
At Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum 10:00 - 16:00
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
Friends of Gressenhall will have a stall at this event. Do come and say 'hello'.
There will be a competition to raise money for the Friends: Guess the square where you think the two Suffolk horses are hiding and you could win a voucher to visit the Thursford Collection or a voucher for Family entry for Gressenhall. Just £1 a guess*.
Museum Service Activities
Enjoy crafting, mapping and making with plenty of activity stations across the museum. Meet some experts helping wildlife to thrive, including Norfolk Wildlife Trust, talk: Wildlife and the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society. Learn more aboout what the Northgate Orchard Committee, and much more.
For full details of the event, see the Norfolk Museums Service website.
On the Norfolk Museums Service website
Dereham Day - Saturday 10 May 2025
At Neatherd High School, Dereham NR20 3AX
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
Friends of Gressenhall will have a stall at this event. Do come and say 'hello'.
There will be a competition to raise money for the Friends: Guess the square where you think the two Suffolk horses are hiding and you could win a voucher to visit the Thursford Collection or a voucher for Family entry for Gressenhall. Just £1 a guess*.
Buy raffle tickets for our Summer Raffle. Lots of brilliant prizes to be won (Draw date: 24 August 2024)
Free to do: Make flower pots and plant sunflower seeds
Spring Fairy Tale - Wednesday 28 May 2025
At Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
Friends of Gressenhall will have a stall at this event where we will be selling handmade crafts, jewellery, crochet keyrings and more, to raise money for the Museum. Do come and say 'hello'.
Buy raffle tickets for our Summer Raffle. Lots of brilliant prizes to be won (Draw date: 24 August 2024)
Museum Service Activities
This event is made with young families in mind - all about the joy of stories that we've loved for generations.
Meet costumed characters from favourite tales and take part in their themed activities, from a princess party in the Farmhouse to sweets with the Wicked Witch in Cherry Tree Cottage. Special guests Norfolk Libraries are leading Bounce & Rhyme sessions, BSL Storytime sessions are running in partnership with Little Bear Club, and our Flax and Fleece Project will be spinning a good yarn down on the Farm! Seek out some magic on one of our trails around the site from Cinderella's mice in the museum to missing magical objects. Look out for fairies in our beautiful woodland, orchard and river walk - or even in Art Attack, 1-4pm.
Will be available on the Museum's website
Open Farm Sunday - Sunday 8 June 2025
Free Entry at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse Museum
(Parking charge applies per vehicle)
Friends of Gressenhall Activities
Friends of Gressenhall will have a stall at this event where we will be selling handmade crafts, jewellery, rare breed crochet keyrings and more.
Win a plant on the Plant tombola or buy raffle tickets for our Summer Raffle. Lots of brilliant prizes to be won (Draw date: 24 August 2024)
Do come and say 'hello'.
Museum Service Activities
Free entry to the site as part of the national LEAF Open Farm Sunday initiative. A parking charge applies per vehicle - £5 prebooked, £8 on the day. No parking charges for blue badge holders.
Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse is opening its doors for the popular Open Farm Sunday. Visitors are welcome to come and enjoy our site for free, including Union Farm and our own East Anglian rare breeds - Suffolk horses, Red Poll cows, Large Black pigs and Norfolk Horn sheep, as well as Norfolk Black turkeys and other poultry.
On the Museum's website
* The Suffolk Horse competition closing date is 10 May 2025 at the Dereham Day event.
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