Earth Trust away day at Stansfeld Park

Our sister organisation, Earth Trust, took time out this week to enjoy Stansfeld Park’s woodland and buildings, as part of their annual away day.

Like the Oxford Trust, Earth Trust was founded by Sir Martin and Lady Audrey Wood. Originally called the Northmoor Trust, the charity was set-up in 1967 and is an environmental learning organisation that provides access and opportunities for people and communities to discover, appreciate and respect the natural world. They do this via the iconic Oxfordshire landscape they own and manage – over 1000 acres of farmland, woodland and wetland that includes Wittenham Clumps and Little Wittenham Wood.

The Earth Trust is now embarking on ambitious development to build an Earth Lab, a new skills and learning building that will transform the educational facilities and opportunities available to all their stakeholders. Rather like our new Science Oxford Centre, it will provide a flow from indoor to outdoor learning areas.

The idea was to share learning experiences from the build of Stansfeld Park to help the team with their new centre in Little Wittenham. The away day started with a talk from Jude Eades, our Director of Communications, on the Trust’s journey in developing the Wood Centre for Innovation and the Science Oxford Centre and the steps we took to engage the community and local schools, and raise funds for the education centre. It made us realise just how much we’ve achieved in the past two years! The Earth Trust team then had the opportunity to try out all the new exhibits in our Exploration Zone and take a tour of our wonderful ponds and woodland area. After a hearty lunch at the Black Lemon café, the team then held a series of shared-learning sessions in the WCFI boardroom. We hope everyone had a good day and we look forward to seeing the Earth Trust’s new development when it’s finished.