A seat for all seasons thanks to charity lottery
Tuesday 17th October 2017
Northumberland Wildlife Trust volunteers (l-r): Peter Cowling, Mel Rockett and Mo Dewar test out the new bench at Annstead Dunes, photo Geoff Dobbins.
Nature lovers visiting a nature reserve in Northumberland this autumn will now have somewhere to rest their legs and watch the world go by, thanks to players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Support from the charity lottery has enabled a team of volunteers from Northumberland Wildlife Trust to install a new seat individually crafted on its Annstead Dunes reserve.
The seat has been made using an oak tree from the Trust’s Juliet’s Wood reserve and a Douglas fir tree from its Briarwood Banks which had blown down earlier in the year. It replaces an earlier memorial bench which had become unsafe to sit on.
Situated between Beadnell and Seahouses, dune flora such as lady’s bedstraw and restharrow thrive on the reserve as well as hemlock and houndstongue. The site is well used by narrow-bordered five spot burnet and cinnabar moths. There is a colony of common lizards on the site.
Speaking about the bench project, Geoff Dobbins, Northumberland Wildlife Trust Senior Estates Officer said: “It’s not always the big projects which makes the support from People’s Postcode Lottery so welcome, small projects such as this one can give just as much satisfaction as the bigger conservation tasks. Now visitors to the site can take a seat and admire the wonderful views across the reserve and out across the North Sea.”