Member Article

Quick change for the ‘Lady of the North’

The Land Trust has agreed a new joint venture with Northumberland Wildlife Trust to run the Northumberlandia site and café/visitor centre from Easter 2015.

Northumberlandia is a unique piece of public art set in a 46 acre community park near Cramlington in Northumberland, with free public access and four miles of footpaths on, and around, the landform. The centrepiece is a reclining lady, the world’s largest human landform sculpture.

The café closed on Thursday 19 March and will reopen in time for the Easter holidays on Saturday 28 March and although Northumberland Wildlife Trust was already managing agent for the grounds, it is now taking over running the visitor centre and café, with a much wider remit to promote the links between wildlife, art and the community.

Mike Pratt, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Chief Executive said: “We are pleased to get more involved with such an important local landmark from the top of which you can see views from the Cheviots to the coast, with wildlife literally hovering over your head.

“Now we have the chance to get people to experience the nature as well as the art, from the kestrels to the butterflies and adjacent woodlands. We are planning a whole host of exciting activities and events for the coming year to get local people and schools out and about and enjoying a great community asset.”

As well as a new programme of events and activities, research will be undertaken to understand what visitors would like to see at the visitor attraction.

The site needs to generate enough income to keep the grounds and structure safely maintained and run the visitor centre which means raising income from refreshments, merchandise, car parking and donations to keeping the ‘Lady’ looking her best.

Volunteers will be essential to helping with running the centre so anyone interested should log on at www.nwt.org.uk/volunteer to check out the new roles on offer or email louise.chapman@northwt.org.uk.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sue Bishop .