IF YOU went down to the Farmoor woods yesterday you would have come across a muddy tea party.

Youngsters and their parents were getting back to nature and letting their imaginations run wild at the Forest Tots drop in session.

The weekly event is put on by The Hill End Outdoor Education Centre for youngsters aged from six months to five-years-old.

The idea is to let pre-school children explore the outdoors and parents are encouraged to stand back and watch what takes their child's fancy - whether it's building a stick shelter for fairies or putting on a forest tea party.

The Eynsham Road centre forms part of the original Wytham estate purchased in the 1920s by Raymond Ffennell and his wife Hope.

Mr Ffennell believed children should engage with nature and set up a project in outdoor learning, with dormitories and classrooms, which he offered to local schools to use in the 1930s.

For many years the centre was run by Oxfordshire County Council, on behalf of Oxford University, which has owned the sitre since the 1930s. In 2017 a new charitable organisation was set up to keep the site going after the authority said it could no longer afford to fund it.

As well as Forest Tots, Hill End hosts school residential trips and day sessions on the 65 acre site.

Forest Tots runs every Tuesday, during term time, from 10.30am to 1pm.

Visit hill-end.org for more information.