DOZENS of guests joined the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, David Briggs MBE as nature charity the Cheshire Wildlife Trust opened their new Bickley Barn education centre.

The £120,000 project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, has seen a 100 year old former dairy milking barn – still in daily use just eight months ago – transformed into a purpose-built centre of classrooms and other facilities for visiting schoolchildren from across the region.

The opening marks the first time since the charity 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 dedicated outdoor learning area; with ponds, an orchard and wildflower meadows just seconds away from the classroom, along with native-breed Longhorn cattle and Hebridean sheep just across the fence on the 200 acre wildlife-friendly farm.

Previously, schools we given a more rustic experience of hay-bale seats, portaloos and occasional dive-bombing sorties from swallows nesting in the hay loft above. Despite this rural charm, the lack of an all-weather facility has limited the Trust’s opportunity to expand beyond the 1,000 or so youngsters that currently visit the farm each year, along with the annual Open Farm Sunday event.

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.”