Tracey Gibson and David Briggs meet Coco the barn owl from Rockcliffe Raptors to celebrate the opening

Dozens of guests joined the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire David Briggs for the opening of a new wildlife trust education centre near Nantwich.

The £120,000 new Bickley Barn education centre, between Wrenbury and Malpas, is based in a converted 100-year-old diary milking barn.

The project, funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, has transformed the barn into a purpose-built centre of classrooms and other facilities for visiting schoolchildren from across the region.

The opening marks the first time since Cheshire Wildlife Trust took on Bickley Hall Farm in 2007, that visiting youngsters will have an all-weather teaching facility, including indoor washrooms, disabled access and a kitchen.

The latest technology also means neighbouring wildlife can be beamed by wireless cameras directly into the centre and big screens can bring microscopic creatures in the farm’s ponds to life.

The new centre also opens onto a large outdoor learning area with ponds, an orchard and wildflower meadows close to the classroom, along with native-breed Longhorn cattle and Hebridean sheep on the 200 acre wildlife-friendly farm.

Face to face with a caterpillarPreviously, the lack of an all-weather facility had limited the Trust to bringing just 1,000 youngsters a year to the venue.

Now it’s hoped schools across South Cheshire will make use of the new conference room for community events, educational courses and private functions.

Lord Lieutenant Briggs said the facility had been a great achievement for the Trust.

He said it was all the more important after recent research showed just one in five youngsters get a meaningful regular experience in the outdoors.

Charlotte Harris, Cheshire Wildlife Trust chief executive, said: “We’re thrilled to be opening this new centre at the working heart of the farm, giving children the chance to get a real and genuine taste of the outdoors and the rural environment, hand-in-hand with all the facilities schools expect of a modern learning facility.

“The wildlife and habitats that make the visiting experience for children so exciting are just seconds from the classroom, giving us enormous flexibility for our education work, whatever the weather throws at us.

“This has been a vision for us for the last seven years, and I’d like to express huge thanks on behalf of the Trust to all of our funding partners and those generous individuals who have allowed us to achieve this superb new centre.”

The first schools will be able to enjoy the new centre from the beginning of the autumn term, with a full programme of courses and events expected to be available from the spring next year.

Bickley Barn has been supported by Heritage Lottery Fund, Big Lottery, People’s Postcode Trust, the Meres & Mosses Landscape Partnership, Urenco, the Garfield Weston Foundation, The Jean Jackson Charitable Trust and private donors, including through an appeal with the Trust’s 13,000-strong membership.

Enquiries for the centre can be made by calling 01948 820728 or [email protected]

Children enjoying the wildflower meadows

Charlotte Harris & David Briggs  plant a commemorative lime tree

Official opening group shot

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