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| Features from Wildlife magazine |
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Wonderful Willsbridge
Willsbridge Mill comes of age
Willsbridge Mill, the Trust’s first centre
for environmental learning, celebrated its 21st birthday in 2007.
This special anniversary provides an opportunity to reflect on
a pioneering flagship education project which set the standards
that Folly Farm will further develop in 2008.
Educating for the future
In a world becoming increasingly ‘virtual’ and removed
from the reality of the passing seasons and natural rhythm of life,
here at Willsbridge Mill we are involved in the business of engaging
children with their outside environment and provoking wonder and
excitement in their surroundings. Having awakened this interest
we aim to nurture care and responsibility for our wildlife and
countryside.
Willsbridge Mill Education Centre comprises an impressively
restored 19th Century corn mill and long barn which stands in a
22 acre nature reserve surrounded by housing estates midway between
Bristol and Bath. There is an amazing array of wildlife habitats – wood,
pond, meadow, scrub and quarries, all within easy reach of the
centre and located alongside the fast flowing Siston Brook which
runs through Willsbridge Valley. There is also a demonstration
wild waste garden showing gardening for wildlife using items often
just thrown away, like old sinks, baths and washing machine drums.
This green oasis on the urban fringe teems with wildlife, including
dippers, kingfishers, badgers and bats.
The nature reserve offers
unrestricted and full access at all times. Wheelchairs can easily
access the garden and immediate woodland edge and teaching pond
areas. Most of our environmental education work is with visiting
school groups although we do have a programme of outreach activities
for community groups like cubs and brownies and holiday play schemes.
Children usually spend a day at the centre with hands-on
activities that involve active learning in some of the different
habitats. The most popular include pond dipping, stream quality
survey, river study, woodland workshops, minibeast hunts and wildlife
games. The programmes have been developed to ensure there are links
with many areas of the curriculum especially in science, geography,
english, maths
and art, but always in a relevant and meaningful context.
At lunchtime
the children enter the Lunchbox Challenge which involves them looking
at the waste left after their packed lunch and reusing and recycling
what they can. The waste destined for landfill is then weighed
and an average weight per person is calculated. Letters from children
afterwards show they enjoy this and it makes them think about their
responsibility to our world. One of our aims is to encourage our
visiting children to think about sustainable living and to want
to live more lightly on this planet.
Special events for the general
public are staged throughout the year and family activities are
offered in the main school holiday periods. Pond dipping is a perennial
favourite and nets can be hired in the school holidays. And for
a Birthday Party with a difference we provide tailor-made events
at the Mill, including den building and mini-beast hunts. All these
activities are designed to help foster a deep love and commitment
to our world – for the
future of our planet lies in our children’s hands.
Further
information: for details about Environmental Education at Willsbridge
Mill, please contact Alison Logan on 0117 932 6885
Email: alisonlogan@avonwildlifetrust.org.uk
How to get to Willsbridge: Take the A431 Bristol to Bath road, turning into Long Beach Road.
Car park on left.
Buses from Bristol to Long Beach Road or Willsbridge Hill.
Memories of the Mill
Early inspiration
“My name is Sarah van der Meer and I am the new Volunteering
Officer at Avon Wildlife Trust! I have always known I wanted to
work with wildlife ever since my mum took me on visits to Willsbridge
Mill when I was younger, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. My
mum would take my cousins and me to the Mill in the summer holidays.
I remember that was the first time I ever saw a dragonfly. It was blue and
green and whizzed along overhead as we walked along by the stream. I was amazed
at the size and speed at which it flew as it chased after other insects. Whilst
there we also hired nets and did pond dipping with the help of some lovely
lady volunteers who helped us identify what we had caught. All other trips
paled into insignificance that summer, as I loved the fact I could get
my hands dirty and explore the wildlife there.
After studying for a Zoology Degree I noticed the vacancy for
voluntary Conservation Assistants and applied. I got the position
and volunteered for two years, helping run the Wildlife Action
Group on tasks around the reserves, doing monitoring and surveys.
I met some great people and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I then applied
for the vacant role of Volunteering Officer and was invited for
an interview and I was so pleased when I was phoned to say I had
the job I was sso thrilled I jumped around for joy in the middle
of a busy café! Working for the Trust is enabling me to
fulfil my dream of working to conserve wildlife – and it’s
given me an excuse to go to Willsbridge Mill again and look at
the dragonflies that inspired me so much as a child!”
Class of 1937
On a recent visit to Willsbridge Mill, Brian Colston, a retired
GP from Birmingham shared his fond memories of a school trip to
the Mill made almost 70 years ago. His enlightened science teacher
broke with what was then a tradition of exclusively classroom-based
learning by taking his students on a series of visits to local
businesses. These memories, far more than the classroom lessons,
have stayed with him all his life.
‘Willsbridge was quite different in those days’, he
recalled
‘I remember the dust, dirt and noise. The track was rough
to the entrance, and there was constant noise of the water as the
rumbling 8 horsepower wheel turned and generated the energy need
to drive the machinery. I remember the gantry, used to lift the
sacks of flour for storage on the top floor, whilst the millstones
turned endlessly on the middle floor. Health and Safety would have
had a field day – no guards to the belts, and flourdust laden
atmosphere with no masks. It is a delight to see that school visits
have grown in a different way for children today and to see the
Mill enjoying a new lease of life.’
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