FUTURE PLANS FOR THE BARN OWL CENTRE

Working to support the environment, our wildlife & the community through EDUCATION, CONSERVATION & BIRD WELFARE

The building our new Owl Conservation Centre will create huge benefits for the environment & for wildlife. Through our on-site facilities, communities of all age groups will benefit through an interactive Educational Centre where people can learn more about Owls, their habitats & their ability to survive in a forever changing countryside. For Gloucestershire & the surrounding counties, our new Centre will become an important asset for everyone especially young children.

The building of our new Centre isn't going to be easy especially in todays financial climate (2011). If we keep our feet on the ground we will acheive what we have set out to do. Support offered from the wider community is important to us, so if you can offer any help, materials or extra funding through a donation, this would be greatly appreciated.

Here is some history. The Barn Owl Centre is now settled & established within its new home at Netheridge Farm, this is located on the outer ring road (A430) close to Hempsted Village, Gloucester. For those who are new to our organisation, we moved to Netheridge Farm from a previous location in Brockworth, this occurred during March 2008.

The 12.5 acre farm we have moved into is leased to our charity by Gloucester City Council; we have been given a supportive long-term lease for a period of 99 years with a peppercorn rent period for the first 25 years.

The farm was in need of a lot of TLC when it was handed to us in its derelict state. Before we moved from our previous location at Brockworth to Netheridge, we took the route of re-building within a temporary area, this was from scratch with very little funding to hand, this made the task very difficult & harder than we expected!

 

 

This image show the temporary bird aviaries that were initially build when moving onto the farm, all aviaries you see have been professionally constructed by the charity & positioned to the north side of the many derelict buildings we have future plans for. By building temporary it simply kept the initial moving costs down, this allowed our charity & our birds to move to the farm much quicker & cheaper. With the tightest of budget & determination WE & OUR BIRDS MADE IT!

 

 

 

 

During 2010 we continued building more aviaries that will help accommodate more birds that come into our care. Because we support many birds that become unwanted through the pet trade or birds that have mis-treated by their owners, more space is required to provide adequate housing that can offer unwanted birds the support they need.

This image shows the 35 new aviaries that will be in addition to aviaries we already have, the below image shows the scale of the aviary complex & where they are positioned on the farm.

This aviary project is now very close to completion & soon they will be providing permanent or semi permanent homes for birds that are in need.

With the temporary Barn Owl Centre successfully up & running & working brilliantly, we are able to continue the charitys work & its activities comfortably with the knowledge that minimal disruption will be caused later on & during future development stages of the farm buildings.

To help with the extra funding needed for future works, we need to look at increasing the charity's income levels so we can meet all future expenditure that will occur, this includes the cost of all future development that is to take place.

With the the plans in place to build Gloucestershire’s first Barn Owl Conservation Centre with full educational facilities, we need to reach out for all the support we can get, no matter how small, the community have been brilliant but we do need added support with grant funding & any funding or materials we can obtain from the business community. Any offer of support will be of greatly appreciated because it is a huge benefit to the work of our charity.

 

For anyone wishing to help or become involved, please get in touch, we would love to show you around, a visit will enable you see the full potential of this exciting project. If you support environment issues & wildlife, you will be able to see how important the Barn Owl Centre is as an Owl Charity. Here's a question to the business community, Can any of you taxable business profits be donated to charity of the Barn Owl Centre, this might be a question you could ask your accountant.

For information on BUSINESS TAX DONATIONS - CLICK HERE

Images below will help to show the scale of the project work in front of us, some of the images will also show you how we have progressed with the minimal of funds to work with.

If you wish to support us by post, donations can be  forwarded using the below address

Barn Owl Centre
Netheridge Farm. Netheridge Close
Hempsted. Gloucester. GL2 5LE
Tel: 01452 383999

Your support is very important to us as a charity - Our Charity Number is: 1097410

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