The Meadow Barns
The barns and sheds of this unique centre sit at the heart of a small hamlet, called Penpell. The name dates back to 1196 and is Cornish for ‘Distant Height’ … a quick glance at the slider photos will instantly show what an apt title this is, given those coastal views that take your breath away.
For many visitors over the past 5 years, the first element of interest has been the Grand Design-type project, which saw the owner-occupier, Caroline Stephenson, renew her barns following ambitious Eco Build principles, between 2017 and 2019. Her story provides many examples of how ordinary families with limited budgets can still go ‘Full STEAMS Ahead’ for a Greener Future.
Equally fascinating, though less obvious, is the connection with mining, going way back 4000 years!
Penpell was first a centre for tin streaming, then iron excavation and later housed workers for one of the most productive copper mines in the world. This heritage of Local Industries has underpinned Caroline’s recent education work in Science or STEM and adds a further dimension to her constant search for solutions to the challenges faced today by people and the planet.
Times Change … and Meadow Barns is changing too
2026 has blown in, with massive gales, but also some very exciting new opportunities.
On January 21st Caroline was up at Westminster, meeting a minister at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. This has come to fruition after years of patient partner-working with the bio-fuels provider, Mitchell and Webber. It sums up what Meadow Barns offers = a style of learning closely linked with today’s innovative industries for renewables, storage and metals.
Links with the UK’S network of UNESCO Learning Cities
Ten days after the Westminster visit, two of the Meadow Barns lead teachers sat in on an online session and heard how the far away city of Durham has just been accepted into this group.
At first sight there are very few parallels between Durham, a centre of learning and theology dating back to the 11th century, and our untamed Celtic region! But as you see, we have a geographic similarity, compressed into being almost an island, and having experienced, in the 1800s, a very similar impact of the industrial revolution, though they were mining coal and we were after tin and copper.
It was in those Victorian times that learning came to ordinary working people not from Cathedrals or Universities but through the Methodist movement, in Sunday Schools and chapels and Working Mens’ clubs, offering the first step on what we now call a career ladder, or what UNESCO celebrates – lifelong learning.
A 2nd Industrial Revolution needs a New route to Lifelong Learning
As you see, in the headline, today we are entering a 2nd industrial revolution, within our own UNESCO World Heritage Site areas for metal mining. We are seeking tin and copper again, but also tungsten, lithium, indium and many other possibilities of metals needed in response to our growing demands for digital technology. But how and where is the learning at grass-roots level going to be delivered? In today’s secular society the equivalent to the Chapel is … a Coffee Shop, or a Pub Dining room! And funnily enough, that is how we deliver education at Meadow Barns. Always with a good cuppa, and now – to be piloted in our nearest village of Luxulyan during summer 2026 – we will be training young people to be ambassadors for a greener future and launching a loyalty card for lifelong learning!
So please come to the village by train, the green way, and you will be met and served your coffees from a mobile coffee and learning shop (with both the village shop and pub fully involved to help). With your snacks you can also be served Good as Gold Stories and take a pack with you on walks, helping to open your eyes to the World Unique Science/ STEM within the valley. And before you leave, make sure you have a stamp on your learning card, like this!
Full STEAMS Ahead & Good as Gold Stories for Families
Lifelong Learning works really well if it can be shared by all generations in families, through Good as Gold Stories, gathering deep knowledge from local ‘elders’ and sharing at key stopping points during a walk. Frequently this ends up in the form of recorded and edited Learning Conversations, with a few people tossing questions and ideas around in a light-hearted vein. We have sets of these ready recorded, with accompanying booklets, for sections 1, 2 and 4 of Full STEAMS Ahead syllabus (Geology, Chemistry and Social Impacts) and are well on the way to completing 3 (Engineering/STEM) and 5 (Environmental ESG). All of those are about the past and present of Mills and Mines in Cornwall or West Devon. During the next years we will gradually be developing many opportunities for studying the Section 6 stories of a New Dawn. But how can all of this be offered to families across the region, to illustrate our Learning City status, if we want to?
Simply, we need any business that can provide a warm welcome with a cuppa and some miners’ morsels (saffron cake, heavy cake, pasties etc) and is keen to nurture lifelong learning locally, to join and work in partnership with us at Meadow Barns. We will put you in touch with relevant other providers, like museums, libraries, industrial heritage or future mining enterprise centres in your area, and help to strengthen connections with schools, colleges and universities too.
To climb on board, going with us on this exciting journey, please send an email to Caroline Stephenson cjs@themeadowbarns.co.uk
The money questions
At this moment, we have not had time to re-write the sections of this website about costs. But there definitely will continue to be elements offered ‘Entirely Free’. However, a much larger venture of this scale, aiming to deliver lifelong learning with many partners, requires many hours of conversations to develop a financial model. We are fully aware that any real future for this scheme has to deliver economic benefits, from the smallest local end (increasing visitor numbers to cafes and pubs, and to the train companies) to the far greater benefit of a skilled and enthusiastic workforce for future green technology. But for now, please just see one example of a collaboration last October half term, where yes we did enjoy coffees from a local cafe, yes we did stamp the Learning Loyalty Cards of our participants and yes we did have a great partnership to help deliver local Geology Learning with the Town Council & Bodmin Town Museum and their wonderfully supportive staff.
Half Term Holiday Example – October 2025, £10 for a morning of fun
February Half Term Family Learning, 2024
2 years ago we were able to collaborate to deliver a slightly different model of inter-generational study of climate issues, in a broader more international context, linking with another religion and culture. As with Bodmin in 2025, we only could do so by linking up with the enthusiasm and energy of many groups of all different ages and backgrounds. So, we were able to produce a really heart-warming Ceremony 4 Climate Hope at the centre of the Truro community, thanks to numerous volunteers and talented staff, including Jason Thomas and his amazing youth dance company, the councillor, Rob Nolan, Truro BID team and Salt Projects at the Pydar PopUp building.
If you are inspired by what you have seen here, please take this link to our YouTube channel for further films. As you see, we have a number of playlists, dating all the way back to the Covid Tapestry of Heroes in 2020 to 21.
