Support, friendship, wellbeing, education, for everyone who needs a little more of all four.
Shuttlewood Clarke Foundation is a Leicestershire charity based at Ulverscroft, near Markfield, in the heart of Charnwood Forest. We run bereavement and wellbeing groups, gentle activity sessions, respite days for carers, and outdoor learning for schools, alongside a working model railway, tea rooms and a deer park that anyone can visit. Come for a cup of tea and a walk round the railway, and you’ve already helped fund someone’s respite day.
Welcome
You don't need a reason to be here yet
Some people find us because they need us: a bereavement, a caring role that’s become too much, a diagnosis that’s changed what “gentle exercise” means. Others find us because a friend mentioned the deer, or the tea rooms, or a model railway that’s been running since long before most of our visitors were born. Both routes in are exactly right. Shuttlewood Clarke Foundation has worked this way for years, as a physical place near Markfield you can visit before you ever need our support, so that when you do need it, it isn’t a stranger’s door you’re knocking on.
Everything on this site connects back to the same four words in our strapline. Support for people going through grief, anxiety or isolation. Friendship in groups where nobody has to explain themselves twice. Wellbeing through gentle movement paced to what your body can actually do today. Education for schoolchildren discovering woodland, wildlife and the Yew Trail for the first time. None of it happens without the people who visit the Grange for a scone, walk the deer park at Ulverscroft Manor, or give an hour of their time, which is exactly why the two sides of what we do sit on the same site instead of two separate ones.
Notices
What's happening right now
We keep this space for what’s happening right now: building work, new sessions launching, or a change to opening hours. Current notices: model railway maintenance schedule confirm with client — exact dates/wording; the launch of our new Men-Only Days confirm with client — start date; and updated opening hours for the Grange tea rooms confirm with client — current hours. Check back here before you visit, particularly if you’re planning around the railway or the tea rooms.
Three ways in
Whoever you are, we want you to leave feeling like you matter.
Looking for support?
If you’re grieving, anxious, isolated, or caring for someone else and running on empty, our services are the place to start. Nothing here needs a referral, a diagnosis, or a form filled in before you’re allowed to ask a question.
Want to visit?
The deer park at Ulverscroft Manor is free to walk round, the tea rooms at the Grange do a proper pot of tea and something home-cooked, and the model railway is one of the few places in Leicestershire where a working 1930s layout is still open to the public. Bring the kids, bring your parents, bring nobody at all.
Want to help?
Volunteers, donors, and local fundraisers keep every one of our services running on top of what statutory funding no longer covers. If you’ve got two hours a week or a one-off donation in mind, there’s a specific, named way to help, tailored to what suits you.
“Amazing! Set in a beautiful location with various walking paths around the actual place. Best model railway I’ve ever seen. Staff are very friendly and nice and the food in the café is amazing and very good quality, made to order from fresh produce. I highly recommend.”— Susan D, Kent, via TripAdvisor
“We were welcomed with tea, coffee and biscuits. We had a lovely ride on the buggy around the land, returned to the Manor for lunch which was excellent, so well cooked and served, all by volunteers. We all had a lovely time — thank you all.”— Carole J, Leicestershire, via TripAdvisor
Whichever of the four words in "Support, Friendship, Wellbeing, Education" brought you here, the next step is the same.
Get in touch, or come and see us at Ulverscroft, Markfield, for yourself.