Volunteers help wildlife centre to take shape

The wildlife discovery centre, pictured in May. Picture by Dunan Hutt

A year ago last week, work began on Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s new centre on its Hauxley reserve at Druridge Bay, with hard-working volunteers giving up their time to build it. The centre is due to open in the autumn.

The volunteers are also busy on other tasks including managing the land extension and the creation of a new circular walk and wetland habitat around the revamped outflow.

The Dynamic Druridge project now has more than 100 people working on it. Some 90 per cent of the regular building group (around 20 people) are retired and of the other builders, about 60 per cent of them are aged over 65. The oldest volunteer is 84 and turns up every Friday.

Alex Lister, the Trust’s Druridge Bay reserves manager, said: “Without the volunteers, there wouldn’t be a building as magnificent as this one is going to be. They have all done fantastic jobs and without their long-term commitment to the project, we certainly wouldn’t have got this far so quickly.”

The project received £400,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.