Tai Chi Retreats-
About the Retreats and Site
Our Tai Chi Retreats offer a short escape from the World, while dipping into the wonderfully relaxing art of Tai Chi Chuan and Chi Kung (Qigong) with our insured instructors, or train harder by joining one of our Undivided Tai Chi retreats and workshops. The site has a naturally calming feel about it, where we try to live in harmony with Nature, rather than always controlling her. A typical day within our 2 and 4 day retreats will include two, hour long Chi Kung sessions and an hour and a half Tai Chi practice, focusing on the Yang Style Short Form.
We aim to maintain the site for two purposes, the enjoyment of it for our visitors and a safe haven, away from chemicals and heavy management, for the wildlife. As such it may appear somewhat "unkempt" with bushes of bramble, long grass and dense coppice trees in places. All these places have unique habitats and as such we protect them. The site regularly gets visited by badgers, foxes, buzzards, ravens, horseshoe bats (greater and lesser) and countless small birds. We hope all our visitors will grow to love the site's slightly ragged nature and avoid any little "presents" the wildlife may leave!
Of course we do not expect you to wear wellys, or watch every step you take, so we do our best to maintain pathways, camping areas and the Tai Chi areas to the best possible standard. However, as with any natural environment, it can change over night and all visitors must be aware of the sheer power of a badger to wreck a lovely flat lawn, or the rain to create a sticky quagmire!
4 day Retreats.
Our long Retreats start on Thursday at 12noon and end on the Sunday at approximately
3.30pm. They are a none intensive Retreat with approximately 3 to 3 ½
hours of training per day, giving plenty of time for relaxation and alternative
therapies*.
2 day Retreats.
Relaxing: These Retreats are slightly more intensive with 3 ½
to 4 hours training a day, which still leaves time for relaxation and our
Therapies*. They start at 10am on the Saturday and finish at approximately
4pm on the Sunday.
“Undivided Tai Chi”:
We are also holding an intensive “Undivided Tai Chi” Retreat,
which aims to give an overall view of Tai Chi and it’s many different
aspects. There will be workshops in the martial applications of the Tai
Chi form, discussions on Chi and Jing as well as the relaxing parts of Chi
Kung and learning the Yang style short form. A reasonable level of fitness
is required for this Retreat as there will be 5 hours of group training
a day and more time for personal training. The Retreat starts at 10am on
the Saturday and finishes at approximately 4pm on the Sunday.
1 day Workshops.
Our one day workshops offer a great introduction into Tai Chi and Chi Kung.
We offer two types of Workshops; relaxing and our “Undivided Tai Chi”.
Both start at 10am and finish at approximately 6pm but vary in the amount
of training on offer. The relaxing workshops have 3½ hours of training,
while the Undivided Tai Chi has 4½ hours. As with all our retreats,
visitors are welcome to partake in as much or as little of the training
provided, so there is the chance to sneak away and have one of the therapies
on offer*.
*Pre-booking is required for all therapies
One of the largest Sweet Chestnut trees in the forest, thought to be at
least 400 years old.
About Dean Hall Temple site.
Discovered in 1982, after many years of searching, by the owner Don Macer-Wright, the Temple at Dean Hall has a long and interesting history. It was professionally excavated by the late Professor Barri Jones from Manchester University, who identified it as a water shrine, originating in the pre-Roman Celtic period. At this time it appears to have been a wooden structure surrounding a springhead. The spring itself is unusual as Dean Hall sits almost on the top of a hill around 560 feet above sea level. Before the division of lands, it would have been only a short walk from the spring to the top of the hill and one of the best views of the river Severn’s Horseshoe bend - the largest in Europe.
View from the top Tai Chi Area over to the Severn
The site was Romanised in the 2nd -3rd centuries CE and a large stone Temple was built, remains of the foundations can still be seen today. The Temple was then most likely Christianised and later destroyed in the early middle ages. In the 15th/16th centuries the site appears to have been used for iron furnaces. It was planted up as an apple orchard after the second World War, when many of the remains were removed.
The site itself is set within the grounds of Dean Hall (sometimes known as Little Dean Hall) which has a strong history; it was once in the Guinness Book of Records as the oldest continuously inhabited house in England. Originally a Saxon hall, it was then converted to a Norman hall, evolving into a substantial medieval manor house by the time it was eventually replaced with a Jacobean house in 1612. The present house is 16th century in date, with an early 17th century north wing and a mid 19th century top storey. It was once renowned for being the most haunted house in England, though it has since been exorcised!
