Recycle Those Unwanted Items for 4Sight Vision Support!

4Sight Vision Support is sending out a call to encourage donations of recyclables and unwanted items to help raise money for its specialist services for blind and sight impaired adults and children across West Sussex. The charity has just announced additional ways to lend your support through recycling, while doing your bit for the environment too!

The recycling scheme includes small items like stamps from everyday post or stamp collections; old or foreign coins; ink cartridges (except laser toner cartridges); and mobile phones including old or broken ones. It also covers cheese packets which are generally not suitable for your household recycling bin and which would otherwise go to landfill – you can include the plastic pouch from blocks or grated cheese, the plastic wrapper from sliced cheese and even mini-cheese nets. But please remember to wash them first!

And if you want to recycle a larger item – 4Sight Vision Support would love to have your old car! It has the resources to turn old cars into cash via auction or scrap.

If you would like to save any of these items they can be dropped off at the charity’s Head Office in Victoria Drive, Bognor Regis during normal office hours. If you require further details or would like a freepost recycling envelope posted out to you please call the Fundraising Team on 01243 828555 or visit www.4sight.org.uk.

School trip blending wildlife and farming now available to primary pupils, says CRT

The Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT) is today launching Mosaic, a new educational programme that delivers a unique farming and wildlife experience to primary pupils in heart of the beautiful Surrey countryside. Mosaic blends the adventure of the great outdoors with key learning outcomes, all aligned to the EYFS and Primary National Curriculum.

Pierrepont Farm is a busy and bustling dairy farm that supports a diversity of habitats for native plants and animals. Three themed programmes, Dairy Cow Discovery, Pond Explorer and Woodland Adventure, have been expertly crafted by education professionals, and are now on offer to visiting classes of up to 30 pupils.

From habitats to healthy eating, or cows to composting, Mosaic will provide pupils with an illuminating discovery and learning opportunity, as well as a truly memorable farm experience.

Gerry Turner, Education Manager at the CRT, said: “Nature and the great outdoors have played an immensely important role in children’s lives over the past year. I am determined that Mosaic will strengthen this connection between the next generation of conservationists and the natural world. Mosaic’s mission is to teach farming and wildlife fundamentals side-by-side, and all our themed programmes provide exactly that.”

Turner concluded: “Set in 200-acres of beautiful Surrey countryside, Pierrepont Farm showcases a wonderful diversity of habitats for our cherished wildlife alongside an award-winning dairy herd and robot milking parlour. There couldn’t be a better setting for young people to piece together the farming and wildlife mosaic.”

About the Countryside Restoration Trust

The Countryside Restoration Trust (CRT) is steward to 2,000 acres of land across 18 sites in England. Established in 1993, the CRT is dedicated to restoring and protecting the countryside and its wildlife. For almost 30 years, we have proved how farming with nature in mind has increased biodiversity and sustainable food production for the benefit of all.

The CRT’s aim is for conservation improvements to be carried out alongside practical farming and land management, and to spread these aims by example and education. Bringing together tenant farmers, CRT friends and volunteers, the CRT is a diverse community of voices dedicated to nature-led farming.

About Mosaic

The Mosaic Farming & Wildlife Education Programme (Helping children piece together the farming & wildlife mosaic) offers a wide range of food, farming, and wildlife themed activities on working farms, fostering a lasting relationship with our wonderful countryside.

Support, join and follow

Keep up to date with our latest events, new and activities by following us on social media, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Read the latest copy of our exclusive membership magazine The Lark for the latest news from CRT farms. To find out more about becoming a friend of the CRT or volunteering opportunities across our farms, visit the website.

Conservation work at Clandon Park marks major milestone

Conservation bricklayer Emma Simpson re-points historic brickwork at Clandon Park NTI Images, Andrew Shaylor

A two-and-a-half-year programme of conservation repairs has begun at Clandon Park.
Using craft techniques rarely seen today, the repairs will help to preserve the fire-damaged structure for generations to come.
This major conservation work follows debris clearance, research and investigation, and essential maintenance by the conservation charity.
A small team of expert brick and stone conservators have set to work investigating the most sensitive way to repair damage in the surviving external walls, chimney stacks and balustrade.
In the first phase this will focus mainly on an area in the south-east corner of the house.
Thousands of new bricks will be made by traditional family brickmakers over two years which carefully match the colour and texture of those made by local brickmakers 300 years ago.
Repairing this damage is a crucial step in the National Trust’s long-term project to bring the house back to life.

The long-term National Trust project to bring Clandon Park back to life has reached a major milestone this month. In a key step forward, a major programme of conservation and repair has begun at the Surrey property, which was severely damaged by a fire in 2015.

Since 2015, the conservation charity has been painstakingly working on the future for the house, which lost many of its intricate interiors and internal floors, as well as its roof in the devastating fire.

Before any construction work could commence, there were many key phases to complete; the house had to be stabilised, tonnes of debris sorted through and collections salvaged, while feasibility and developing design work was undertaken to assess what could be possible.

Project Director Kent Rawlinson said “This is a key step forward for Clandon. After so much work behind the scenes to ensure we are taking the best approach to the house, it’s exciting to begin this next phase of the project. The two-and-a-half-year programme of conservation to the house’s stone and brickwork is going to prepare the building for any future work we carry out as the project develops, so it’s a really important moment. The brick and stonework at Clandon is really special and although we see brickwork all around us in modern buildings, the skills needed to repair historic brickwork are sadly under threat, so we are very proud to be continuing their legacy here.”

Alongside their own team of experts, the National Trust are working with heritage conservation specialists Simpson Brick Conservation and Frew Conservation to carry out the work, who have worked at notable historic buildings including Hampton Court Palace and Kensington Palace. It will begin with trialling of conservation approaches to explore the most sensitive and appropriate repairs to specific defects in slipped arches, damaged quoins and leaning chimney stacks, which moved during the fire.

Conservation repairs to brickwork and stonework is an intricate process, where historic buildings are assessed and recorded, before being carefully conserved using tools that would be familiar to 18^th century craftsmen. Work can range from simple repointing of the joints in lime mortar, replacing individual bricks or stones to rebuilding damaged areas reusing existing historic material alongside carefully chosen new ones. While the repairs are an essential next step in Clandon’s story, to conservation bricklayer Emma Simpson it’s about far more than function alone; it’s a way to connect with people who came before us. ‘We’re immensely thrilled when we find evidence of the people that built Clandon in the 1730s; we’ve seen the fingerprints of the original bricklayers and last week I found some etched graffiti on the bricks dated 1743.’ she says. ‘Working on a special building like Clandon, you feel a responsibility to the people who built it.’

Digital content

Read an interview with brickwork conservation expert Emma Simpson here.

Giving hard working NHS staff a place where they can recharge

A brand new wellbeing space to care for the mental and physical wellbeing of Royal Surrey staff has opened its doors thanks to more than £100,000 generously donated by the public.

The new permanent building was made possible thanks to a grant from the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 appeal and support by the Royal Surrey Charity.

The space will be exclusively used for the Trust’s health and wellbeing programme offering free holistic therapies and a variety of courses and exercise sessions, ensuring staff are nurtured, supported and re-energised after caring for patients during the pandemic.

Affectionately called the ‘Wellbeing Cabin’, its doors were officially opened on, Tuesday 5 October 2021, by Royal Surrey Chief Executive Louise Stead and HR Director Louise Hall who were joined by colleagues from across the hospital to cut the ribbon.

Director of HR Louise Hall said: “After millions of pounds were donated by the public last year, in support of frontline NHS keyworkers during the peak of the pandemic, we are delighted that some of the money has been spent locally here in Surrey.

“Staff health and wellbeing has never been so important and thanks to the generous support of the public we now have a protected space away from patient areas they can decompress, access support, and engage in a wellbeing related activity or just relax.”

The Scandinavian-style wooden cabin is located within peaceful gardens in the rear of the hospital grounds. Staff will be able to benefit from a quieter space away from the pressures of busy wards.

Yoga, Tai-Chi and, Flex and Stretch classes have begun, whilst some of the junior doctors have been making use of the space after shifts, taking part in exercise sessions with colleagues. A full timetable of events will be rolled out this autumn. These will be available to all staff and will include access to Clinical Psychology services supporting individual mental health.

NHS Charities Together continue to award funding to hospital initiatives and the Trust was awarded the money to support its wellbeing plans. This comes after £33 Million pounds was raised by national hero Captain Sir Tom Moore last year, towards the appeal, thanks to his daily walking challenge around his garden ahead of turning 100^.The appeal was also supported by Joe Wicks, premier league footballers, and thousands of other generous individuals across the UK.

A further grant from SC Johnson has funded the softer furnishings, ensuring staff can relax when visiting.

Louise Stead Chief Executive said: “Our staff have given so much during the pandemic; emotionally, mentally and physically. The introduction of our wellbeing programme and our new space, has given them a place that’s theirs away from the pressures of their patient facing work. It’s thanks to all the donations given that we could buy this wonderful new cabin and will be somewhere we hope to make good use of.”

Follow @royalsurreycharity on social media to see regular updates on how our cabin is benefitting staff across the winter.

RHS Garden Wisley hails over 100 Champion Trees

The Royal Horticultural Society, the world’s leading gardening charity, is celebrating the news that its flagship RHS Garden Wisley is now home to more than 100 British Champion Trees. RHS Wisley is now one of the country’s top ten destinations to see the nation’s tallest and widest trees as officially recorded by The Tree Register of the British Isles (TROBI).

The Tree Register is a unique database of over 250,000 of Britain’s most notable trees, which serves to record the nation’s tree heritage through the definitive list of champion trees, and is staffed entirely by volunteers. Trees are measured for height and trunk girth, and a champion is defined as being the tallest or widest of its type in a region.

At RHS Garden Wisley each British Champion is marked with a special silver plaque to denote its status, and Curator Matthew Pottage will introduce a tree trail around the garden to help people find and enjoy these winning examples. In addition, more than 200 trees at RHS Wisley have achieved English or County Champion status.

Dan Kitching, RHS Wisley’s nominated Champion Tree Guardian who has been working with TROBI to survey the garden’s trees over the last two years, says: “It’s amazing to know we have over 100 British champion trees here at Wisley, and as an arborist, being a guardian of the largest trees of their type gives me huge satisfaction. I think it stems from seeing the potential of what could be, given time.

“Part of the beauty of RHS Garden Wisley, and the RHS as a whole, is the diverse nature of the trees we have within the gardens. Cultivars of tree species are prolific and we are luckily able to display many of them to the public, including a huge number of rare and exciting trees which have been able to grow into Champion Trees.”

Both Dan Kitching and TROBI’s David Alderman selected the champion Cercidiphyllum japonicum AGM (Katsura tree) on Battleston Hill as their favourite Champion Tree in the garden. Dan also highlights the tiny Tilia cordata ‘Lico’ in the Jubilee Arboretum, a dwarf small-leaved lime with a great winter silhouette which proportionally is almost exactly the same as the larger species. The example at RHS Wisley is the only tree of this cultivar listed on the Tree Register. The Pinus pinea AGM (Stone pine) which gives its name to the café in Howard’s Field is another much-loved specimen that is a British champion for height.

RHS Garden Rosemoor in Devon is also home to eight British Champions, including Populus tremula ‘Erecta’ AGM (aspen ‘Erecta’) and Liriodendron chinense AGM (Chinese tulip tree). In North Yorkshire, RHS Garden Harlow Carr’s current list of Champion Trees is due to be updated following results of a survey to be completed later this year.

RHS Garden Wisley Curator Matthew Pottage interviews David Alderman of the Tree Register and Dan Kitching at the garden for a special ‘Magnificent Trees’ episode of the Gardening with the RHS Podcast which can be heard here.