If you went down in the woods on Monday you would have had an 'utterly brilliant' time in the sunshine at a wildlife event at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse.

Now in its second year the special Gressenhall Goes Wild event at the rural life attraction near Dereham saw about 1,000 visitors to the site join in a range of activities which helped them learn more about the animals and insects around them.

As well as woodland exploration, with youngsters given sweep nets to find out what lives in the long grasses of the orchard, there were a few wilder animals to hand thanks to Jurassic Encounters, the mobile zoo.

Visitors were able to meet and handle snakes, lizards, tortoises, skunks, skinny pigs and other creatures.

Vicky from Wild4 kept children entertained with some messy fun and natural crafts using leaves and twigs to create woodland beasties.

Events manager Hannah Jackson said it was wonderful to see young people learning about the wildlife around Gressenhall and the creatures they could find throughout the British countryside.

'It is only the second time we have held this event and we have had more people than expected, but then we couldn't have asked for better weather,' she said. 'It was utterly brilliant.Families brought picnics and there was a very relaxed atmosphere with lots of people exploring the woods.

'They loved things like the Waveney Valley Hogspital stand where they could make wonderful hedgehog artwork and they were learning while having fun which is always the idea.

'Young children really enjoyed sweeping their nets in the orchard and then getting up close to what they found.'

For information about future events at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse visit the website www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/visit_us/gressenhall_farm_and_workhouse.