About Jack Raven Bushcraft


about Jack Raven Bushcraft | Kent | London | south east

About Jack Raven Bushcraft

Jack Raven Bushcraft was founded in 2011 by Gary and Nicola.  We now have a team of around 12 people as we continue to add exciting new courses to our range.

Here’s a little more information about Jack Raven Bushcraft.

Why us?

We understand there’s a lot of competition out there for your hard earned cash, not just from other bushcraft companies, but from a host of other activities.  With that in mind, we’ve tried to ensure our whole package is right, from start to finish. So here’s why we think you should spend some time with us.

We’re completely above board

  • We have planning permission to be doing what we do, where we do it (we only know of one other company that has done this, and we were the first!)
  • We’re fully insured (we’ll send you a copy if you want to see)
  • We’re accredited training providers of the Institute for Outdoor Learning (Gary is also a Senior Assessor for the IOL)
  • Vetted by Kent County Council’s Outdoor Education Unit
  • Our instructors are qualified
  • We’re registered with the local authority to prepare and serve food

Great selection of courses

We run 1, 2, 3 and 5 day courses covering essential bushcraft and ancestral skills and also offer a wide range of foraging, herbal remedies and traditional woodland craft courses such as 1 day foraging courses, tracking, carving, herbal remedies, axe workshops, blacksmithing and plenty more. All of these are stand alone.

We’re very proud to be accredited by the Institute for Outdoor Learning to deliver a range of bushcraft qualifications – the Bushcraft Competency Award, Certificate and Diploma.

Easy booking

We’ve made booking onto a course as simple as we can – pick your course, add it to your basket and check out! We schedule our courses a year in front so that you can chose the best time to attend, and give you time to make the appropriate arrangements at work and with your family. We know some other companies wait until they have enough people to run a course and then set a date, but we believe our approach better serves you, the customer.

Once you’ve booked, we’ll send a confirmation email. We then send a comprehensive Joining Pack 6 – 8 weeks prior to the course which tells you everything you need to know.

Low number of participants

We keep our course numbers low. On most courses we max out at 8 students, although on others it’s lower still.  We have no interest in pushing large numbers of people through our courses on a conveyor belt. It would be harmful to our woodland for one thing, but would also prevent the intimacy and camaraderie that’s such a big part of our courses.

Breath taking location

We’re based in a truly stunning ancient woodland in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We’re great fans of the British countryside and have travelled extensively throughout it. We can say in all honesty that our location is as beautiful as anywhere we’ve been. We have around 25 species of native trees, an abundance of wildflowers, woodpeckers, tawny owls, little owls, sparrow hawks, buzzards, tits, jays, fallow deer, stoats, foxes, weasels, squirrels…and on it goes.

Excellent facilities

We think that for you to effectively learn the skills we’re teaching, your basic needs have to be satisfied. So we want to keep you warm and dry. We have a yurt and wood burning stove for when it gets chilly and a composting loo so there’s no need to go wandering off at night to dig a hole. (In reality, people don’t tend to wander far in the dark and the camp could become a minefield!) You can see some photos of our camp here.

Wonderful food

It might not be at the top of the list, but we think that keeping you well fed is important. We are consistently praised for the quality of the meals we serve on our overnight courses and have been told on numerous occasions (at least once by a professional chef) that the food we serve is restaurant quality. Bearing in mind we cook everything from scratch in the woods, that’s no mean feat.

Us

This is easy – we just want to be in the woods sharing knowledge and skills; we want people to have the opportunity to experience what we do. You’ll find that our team is easy going and our courses are run in a professional, friendly and relaxed manner. On nearly every course we’re told that our laid back approach helps with learning and overall enjoyment of the experience.

We have a number of freelance instructors that work with us on specialised courses or at times of high demand. These are people that we have known for a long time and hold in high regard for their professionalism, skills, knowledge, attitude and ability to teach.

Similarly, we have a pool of instructors and assistants that have been personally known to us for a number of years helping out quietly in the background, ensuring that courses run smoothly.

You can find out more about our team by following this link.

After the course

Once the course is over we’ll upload the photos we’ve taken to Facebook. You can tag yourself, add comments etc. We’ll also invite you to add a review to our website so that potential customers can get an independent point of view; as a sign of our appreciation we’ll send you a discount code entitling you to 15% off any future courses you attend.

Contact

For more information, please contact us at info@jackravenbushcraft.co.uk or phone on 07553 763397.

faqs | about Jack Raven Bushcraft