About Me

My photo
Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom
FSC Preston Montford has been an outdoor classroom since 1957 and is a Field Studies Council centre. We deliver curriculum related outdoor education by the experts; from pre-school to Masters level; for infants, school students, undergraduates and enquiring adults with an interest in the natural world. Courses for schools and individuals. A venue for others to use; with bed space for 130, catering facilities and 7 fully equipped teaching and meeting spaces.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Phoenix Shed rises from the Ashlet






The original broken building
Over the last few months the Ashlet building on the South West corner of the FSC Preston Montford site has been replaced  in an extended piece of work involving many  different  people. The initial impetus for this came from a paper based assessment by FSC Head Office but the project developed into a multi-agency affair with a wide range of stake holders to consider. The accompanying images show the stages in the process.                                                                                       
The road to recovery

This sort of building is not one that usually concerns our visitors,  but they serve a vital function in providing space to put stuff.  Sheds matter; they are the unsung heroes of
additional storage capacity  

 

Seen from behind




Buildings in position









Credits for the project:
Initial paperwork-FSC Head Office Finance team
HO-PM liaison and Project  management -Chris Price and Adrian Pickles
Shed Sourcing Chris Price
Demolition and Asbestos removal-City Environmental Services (UK) Ltd
Ground  clearance and base plate preparation- Community Payback team at Shropshire Probation Service
Finishing and Electricals- Andy Powell

Phoenix sheds in position

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Newt Headlines

Pond Newts- train to be a professional Newt worker
FSC Preston Montford runs various courses to train people to work with newts and the next one is taking place from April 23rd-25th. There are still a couple of places left on this course which will be lead by Jackie Underhill who is a vastly experienced and respected Newt worker.

To make sure the course runs successfully Preston Montford staff visited key sites in the area to check that there are still ponds with water in them. The long period of dry weather has been causing concern to people who worry about Newts: Drying out of ponds whether from natural or human causes is a major reason why newts are under threat and in need of serious protection.

The good news is that despite the dry winter the sites had enough water in to support their newt populations, a situation that has been further improved by rain in the first part of April- so the course is happening and the people lucky enough to participate will take a major step towards gaining a licence to work with Great Crested Newts.
The photographs show two of the ponds,  one at a cliff site near Llanymynech and the other a specially constructed pond in the grounds of FSC Preston Montford. If you are interested in taking part in the course please contact the field centre at FSC Preston Montford directly.


Adrian Pickles
e-mail address:  enquiries.pm@field-studies-council.org or telephone the Centre on 01743-852040