How sticks, twigs and a bit of imagination are becoming big business for one Yorkshire mum

When Karen Griggs and her family moved to The Old Forge York in Sand Hutton, the garden which had untouched for 20 years was a sleeping beauty’s forest.

In some parts the overgrowth was so thick they had to use a chainsaw and a digger to get to the boundary.

“We had lived in Elvington in a modern suburban house but we loved camping and being outside and so we decided why not live the life,” explains Karen.

“We all fell in love with the wildness of our garden. We converted the garden shed into a small holiday cottage and then set about creating a beautiful holiday cottage in the barn.”

Her son Freddie was nine at the time and just wanted to eat, sleep and play outside.

“We had a collection of sticks by the back door. But they weren’t sticks. We had a treasure finder, a scythe and a Viking’s oar.”

It was Freddie’s collection of sticks that gave Karen an idea for packs that are for children visiting the holiday the holiday cottage.

“I made them for friends and family coming to visit. I would invent a story and we would go foraging in our ‘sleeping beauty forest’ for supplies to make a fairy bed, a dragon’s nest or bark boat for the paddling pool.”

Fast forward. Freddie is 16 and Karen has just completed creating her second holiday cottage, Next Door at Old Forge York.

The Forest School Play Packs are welcome gifts for visiting families.

Then lockdown happened.

“Covid-19 and lockdown was a terrible blow financially and emotionally,” she says.

“I had survived a very long and difficult barn conversion and overnight my holiday cottages were closed.”

When Karen decided to pop a forest school play pack in the post to a family who had to cancel their holiday, she had no idea that it would spark an entirely new business.

Their daughter loved it, the mum posted photos on Instagram and overnight Karen had requests from 30 mums wanting one.

This was at the start of lockdown. Schools, nurseries and after-school clubs had stopped overnight. Families were juggling work and home schooling with whatever resources they had at home.

It was a very stressful time for parents and Karen’s packs, designed to be an instant hit with families arriving at her holiday cottage, became a lifesaver for many parents struggling with work and home schooling.

Karen’s Forest School Play Packs including the packaging, are biodegradable and can be composted.

“It was really important to me 
that we weren’t adding to the 
amount of plastic waste,” she explains.

“All the components in the packs are made from garden waste, from twigs and sticks that have fall. It is all natural.”

With one and a half acres of mature gardens, Karen has plenty of garden leftovers for the packs.

She sources pine cones with permission from local private woodlands. The pheasant feathers were a collection she had for styling interiors, events and photoshoots.

The response from parents has been incredible, she says.

“The most frequent compliment is the way these packs spark imaginative play which continues for days.

“Most children go onto use the pack with their own ideas and develop the activity further and want to add onto it again and again.”

After sending out 30 packs for free Karen started to think that there was a possible business in them.

“It’s not about making massive profit but I am now working with a printer, rather than doing it all myself at home, and I may have to find a supplier for the moss I use.

“The Forest School Play Packs have given me purpose and work throughout this difficult time. The encouragement and support I have had from the Instagram community has given me the confidence to take a leap of faith and turn my holiday cottage welcome gifts into a product to sell online.

“This could be the start of a very exciting journey. I am so grateful to my first customers who took time to help me tweak and refine my ideas.

“I will always remember their kindness and encouragement to go for it.”

After making more than 100 packs at her kitchen table, Karen has decided to see if the Forest School Play Packs will be a successful activity for children and the start of a Yorkshire business.

“My vision is to create an online business that could provide home working for others with flexible hours,” says Karen.

“The play packs will always be handmade in Yorkshire and I like 
the idea of each person having 
their name on every pack they 
make. For example ‘Forest Fairy play pack: handmade in Yorkshire by Karen’.

“I am using the income I make from selling the packs to employ a York graphic designer for the templates and instructions, and have Yorkshire forest school teachers testing each play pack for me.”

Next steps are to launch the play packs which cost £14.95 plus P&P, on Etsy and the website Notonthehighstreet.com.

“In the meantime I am taking orders via Instagram and Facebook @oldforgeyorksandhutton.”

For more information on the holiday cottages which Karen hopes to reopen on July 4 visit www.oldforgeyork.com