Ham · near Sandwich · Kent

TheBlazing Donkey

Running something here

The questions practitioners actually ask us, answered as plainly as we can manage this early on.

I already run this. Can I just use the venue?

Yes — that is the straightforward version. You have a programme that works, a co-facilitator or a team, and a group who will follow you. You need a building that will not get in the way.

Exclusive use is the default for residential work: no other party in the building, no passing trade, nobody walking through your group. Your work stays entirely yours. We do not put our name on it, we do not sit in, and we do not market it as ours unless you ask us to bring it to our own list.

What if I only have an idea?

Then we build it with you. Sometimes what exists is a strong idea and the experience to lead it, but not yet a residential programme — or the person leading it would rather not hold the whole weekend single-handed.

We work on it with you: shaping the days, thinking through what the group will need, and — where it fits — putting our own clinical people alongside you in delivery. What that looks like depends entirely on the work. It is a conversation, not a package.

What is actually provided?

The whole site, and the parts that are not the work: rooms set the way you want them, beds on site and in the grounds, a working kitchen with a long history of feeding people properly, and the logistics — bookings, arrivals, dietary requirements, room setup. The things that quietly eat a facilitator's attention.

The main hall clears to a full circle under an open beamed roof. Around it are snugs with doors that shut for pairs work, and two acres for someone who needs to step out somewhere that is not the car park.

You mention a clinical team — what does that mean?

PROMIS Hay Farm is our neighbour on the adjoining site. In practice it means experienced clinical people are close at hand, and that where a piece of work calls for it, we can put someone alongside you in delivery.

It is agreed with you before your dates and matched to what you are actually running. It is never automatic, and it is not us entering your programme uninvited. The clinic is a separate organisation with its own governance; a booking here is a booking with us.

What is the building like to work in?

Whitewashed brick, exposed beams, wooden floors, lantern light. Warm rather than corporate — which tends to settle a group faster than a neutral conference space does.

It is not a blank box. If your programme needs blackout, projection or a particular technical setup, raise it early and we will tell you straight what the building can and cannot do.Look round the place →

What about access, parking and group size?

Parking is on site, on gravel. The buildings are old and mostly single-storey, with level thresholds in some places and steps in others. If anyone in your group has access needs, tell us and we will walk the actual route rather than make a general claim.

Group size, timings, exclusive use, catering and what we can put in alongside you all depend on the dates and the work. We would rather answer your specific case than publish a rate card that fits nobody.

How far along are you, honestly?

Early, and saying so. We are building the programme now and actively looking for practitioners to bring work here.

That means dates are open, we are flexible, and there is room to shape how this runs rather than fitting into something already fixed. It also means you would be among the first, which is worth knowing either way.

The same white vaulted room arranged with long tables and dark chairs, a large framed mirror on the end wall.
Plate Set for one group ·Or for one group, facing forward

Tell us what you would run.

What the work involves, roughly when, how many people, and how formed it already is. That is enough to start.