The Northern Burrows is a scientifically important area which juts out into the mouth of the Taw/Torridge Estuary, with a range of habitats including sand dunes, salt marsh, grassland and rocky shore. We are hosting a handful of creative experiences that encourage people to stop, look and listen to the natural world around us and to appreciate this particularly magical place.
Why not make an afternoon of it? Find out more below, with a full schedule at the bottom of the page.
Northam Burrows Visitor’s Centre, Sandymere Rd, Northam, EX39 1XS
12pm – 4pm
Parking – Sandymere carpark, close to the Visitors Centre
Find details of what’s on, in alphabetical order…
The Burton Art Box
The Burton Art box is a travelling horsebox which takes The Burton ‘on the road’ and offers people a chance to get involved in free art activities. Join the brilliant Carole Evans to explore and create cyanotypes – a photographic printing process that produces blue prints using coated paper and light.
Carole is a socially engaged artist who tells stories. She originally trained in photography and has recently moved into working with textiles, particularly quilting. She is also the Learning and Engagement Manager at The Burton. Find out more about her work and get creative at the Art Box!
Cloudscapes by Gobbledegook Theatre
Cloudscapes is an intimate installation combining clouds and script, set in an outdoor auditorium — a cloud-gazing area. Audiences are encouraged to look up and contemplate the changing clouds, as well as the changeability of humanity, guided by the soothing voice of performer and creator Lorna Rees.
Audiences lie back on giant beanbags for the 25-minute show, while Lorna Rees talks to them, through headphones, about cloud formation, interspersed with stories of her own relationship with the troposphere and of the journey of a lifetime with her father.
After the audio has finished, audience members are invited to visit the Cloud Museum housed in a vintage horse trailer.
Gobbledegook Theatre are renowned for creating innovative, cross-artform work for unusual places. Cloudscapes was made in collaboration with artist Heidi Steller (heidisteller.co.uk) with audio production by sound artist and producer Jo Tyler (BBC Radio 4, Radio 6). Dramaturgical support from author John Grindrod (writer of Concretopia and Outskirts) and Dr Zöe Svendsen. Several leading meteorologists and scientists involved in the study of climate change were consulted about the piece.
Artistic Director and Performer: Lorna Rees
Company Director: Adam Coshan
The Oystercatchers by Red Herring
The Estuary of the Torridge and Taw Rivers is an important habitat for wading birds and the Oystercatcher is one of the most characterful residents. Some live here all year round and others visit from northern climes during the winter in order to feast on the mudflats.
Meet a Red Herring Host at the Visitor’s Centre and they’ll help you to spot a pair of curious Oystercatchers, who have just arrived back from the Faroe Islands. Binoculars are available to spy on them as they set to work setting up home and going fishing.
To find out more about the Oystercatchers click HERE
Plastic Free North Devon
Plastic Free North Devon join us with their Ocean Explorer Virtual Reality experience which shares specially created immersive footage of snorkelling with seals around Lundy Island, a rockpooling adventure, and a voyage down the River Taw and out to sea.
These experiences act as a stepping board to elicit questions from curious minds and start to share ways in which we can shape our daily habits to be kinder to our environment. The aim is to connect individuals with the complex beauty on our doorstep and inspire them to want to protect it.
If you want to learn more about our environment and how you can help to play your part in protecting it, come and find out more at the gazebo or head to their website /social media pages to find out more.
Where the River meets the Sea
Visit the Northam Burrows Visitor’s Centre to find a fantastic exhibition of their memory magazines, selected photos and group poems displayed on them. All this work was created by Year 6 pupils from East-the-Water Primary School (classes of 2022). A slideshow captures some of the creative experience.
Then walk with us a short distance from the centre, to nestle into the dunes and listen to an atmospheric and characterful soundscape of their poems.
Creative Team:
Red Herring Producer / Facilitators: Kim Tilbrook & Fiona Fraser Smith
Poet, Facilitator, Photo Poems & Slideshow Creation: Amanda McCormack
Sound Artist, Facilitator and Sound Editor: Ed Jobling
‘Where the River Meets the Sea’ is supported by North Devon Coast Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Lottery Heritage Fund project ‘Finding Nature’s Footprints’
To find out more about the project click HERE
Performance schedule
| 12pm-4pm | Burton Art Box | Art workshops | Northam Burrows Visitor Centre |
| 12pm-4pm | Plastic Free North Devon | Virtual Reality experience | Northam Burrows Visitor Centre |
| 12pm, 1pm, 2.30pm, & 3.30pm | Cloudscapes by Gobbledegook | Cloud gazing show (30 mins) | By Northam Burrows Visitor Centre |
| 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm | Where the River Meets the Sea | Exhibition & Audio walk (40 mins) | Walk from the Visitor Centre |
| 1pm & 3pm | Oystercatchers | Absurd walkabout theatre (40 mins) | Beach by Visitor Centre |