Member Article

What a difference a year makes

This time last year there was a large gap on Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Hauxley nature reserve on Druridge Bay, where its arson hit visitors centre had once stood.

But what a difference a year makes! With a grant award of £417,400 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), donations from a number of charitable trusts at the start of the year and a building design from North Shields based architects Brightblue Studio, the wildlife charity’s Hauxley Volunteer Building Squad set to work, last January, constructing a brand new Wildlife Discovery Centre.

Built from the landscape and within the landscape, the Centre’s construction has been dominated by the challenging weather throughout the year. Fuelled by donations of biscuits from Nestlé UK., volunteers have worked tirelessly in all weather conditions - from glorious sunshine in July to driving wind and rain towards the end of the year

Using locally grown and traditional building materials, including, in excess of 600 locally sourced straw bales, turf for the green roof from Ellington, stones for 150 gabion baskets from Howick Quarry and structural timber from the tur’s Briarwood Banks reserve in South Northumberland, this wonderful eco-build has the potential to be the greenest building in the north-east, and, as Christine Hall, Hauxley volunteer commented: “This year has been great for us, but next year is going to be even better. I can’t wait ‘til the building is open.” The reserve is currently closed to members of the public whilst the Wildlife Discovery Centre is under construction, however, the Trust inviting members of the public to a special open day at the Low Hauxley reserve on Sunday 14/02/2016 between¬ 10:00am ¬ 4:00pm, to view the project’s progress.

Details of future open days are available at www.nwt.org.uk/what’s-on and the progress of the build can be followed via Facebook at www.facebook.com/HauxleyNatureReserve

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