Conwy Connections - it's almost done!

It's just over a year since work started on our Conwy Connections project, and throughout that time we've taken hundreds of photos to record our progress.  We've blogged (fairly) regularly, and now that the project is approaching its end, I thought it would be good to look back on what we've achieved.  And it isn't quite finished yet. Read to the end to see what else is still to come.

The potholes' days were numbered

The first major project was the car park.  What we had before was not something we were hugely proud of, and we must thank all the volunteers who over the years had filled the potholes with slate chippings, only to see them washed out after the next heavy rain.

In November 2012, half of the car park was surfaced, and a new path built that means you can walk from the entrance to the Visitor Centre without having to dodge vehicles. In our original project, there was only enough money to do half the car park, but thanks to careful savings elsewhere and the support of the team at Communities and Nature (the main funder), we were able to complete the job in June.

It's only when we see the before and after photographs, we remember how much better it is and how dreadful it was. 

[Thanks to Joshua Thomas and Partners and to Brenig Construction for completing the two parts of the project]

Gwyn creates a monster

 

The next job was to prepare the ground for two of the landmark elements of the project: The LookOut and Y Maes.  The muddy area of nothingness between the Visitor Centre and Coffee Shop has always been very wet, and if we wanted to realise our plans for a pleasant place to spend time, we need fewer puddles.  So, last November, contractors buried a network of perforated pipes beneath the earth, not an easy task when there is already a spaghetti-like system of pipes and cables in the same space.

The same team dug a large hole in the bank where The LookOut would go. This is where we had a real bonus, thanks to the digger driver Gwyn Roberts. He moved the earth to the side of Y Maes, but he didn't just leave it in a heap. He carefully shaped it into an animal, an earth monster, finding stones around the site to create its eyes, teeth, tail and spines.  "This is Tegi!" he told us proudly, a monster that lives in the depths of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake), close to Gwyn's home.

Our Wildlife Explorers Group sowed him a coat of grass, and now he's the friendliest monster in North Wales, provider of all sorts of adventures to our younger visitors.  [Thanks to Gwyn Roberts Construction for the drainage and Tegi]

A big hole... and a big problem

In December, engineers arrived to drive steel piles into the ground, which would support the The LookOut, our new building. This is where we hit our first major problem. Our investigations indicated that the piles would hit bedrock at nine metres, and that's what the Coffee Shop next door is built on. After driving the piles to 11 metres, the engineers still hadn't hit rock.  But it wasn't just a case of drilling deeper, because these piles couldn't be used to that depth.  We would need bigger piles.  But bigger piles couldn't be put in close to the ones we'd already drilled, which would mean the whole building would need to be moved.  Which would mean we'd have to go back to the planners, and we didn't really want to move the building anyway...  STOP!

Back to the drawing board. Our architect (Barbara Jones at Strawworks) had to redesign the foundations, to create a stone 'raft' on which the new building would sit.  It might 'only' be made of straw, but it's still a lot of weight, and we didn't want The LookOut to become an underground bunker. On the stone raft, a base of bricks has been built, on top of which we would later add the straw. This has made our building slightly less environmentally-friendly, but this was a necessity (and the bricks are mortared with lime). All this added several extra months to our plans, and for the second half of the winter, the only thing to see was a hole in the ground with some bricks, surrounded by metres of orange barrier netting.  I'm sure visitors wondered whether our new building would ever happen. Sometimes, so did we...

[Thanks to Brenig Construction for building the foundations]

Y Maes... a place for everyone

 

Y Maes is a word with two meanings: field and 'square' . We wanted to turn our wet field into the 'village square' of the reserve, a sociable place where visitors could spend quality time, eating a picnic, enjoying the view, chatting with friends, and playing.  The original concepts for Y Maes come from five years ago, when Davies White ran a workshop with local families to see what visitors wanted from this space. Their designs became the template from which everything else grew, and we turned to Tirlun Barr Associates to develop the detailed designs.

From inception, we wanted this to be a simple place, not full of equipment that would be difficult and expensive to maintain; we wanted it to be a place where children's (and parents') imagination was the most powerful piece of kit.  There would be a degree of risk, but managed risk. Yes, you sometimes get bumps and bruises when you play outside. And we didn't want it to look like a municipal playpark.  We summed this up with our watchwords for the design: "no springy chickens" (you know the ones you sometimes find in play areas?).

In March and April 2013, a team of contractors transformed the wet field of nothingness into a place that, by adding a little sunshine, could become a place you really would want to spend time.  There were days when the contractors probably didn't want to spend time here, as we had the coldest March for decades, and a couple of days were lost because of snow. But rapidly a hillock, a tunnel, a picnic area, an events space, steps, ramps and walls all began to emerge from the earth, and visitors could see what had been in the minds of those children back in 2008.

[Thanks to Wright Landscapes, the main contractor, and special thanks to Beech Developments and MacBryde Homes who donated hundreds of tonnes of earth for the project]

A new view

It was always our ambition that Conwy Connections would have something for everyone. There were, it must be said, a few critics.  One person told me that we were "turning the reserve into Alton Towers", and we make no bones about the fact that Y Maes is about encouraging new people, especially families, to discover the reserve. But nature will always be the centrepiece of a visit to Conwy, and we wanted to open up new views for visitors. The next part of the build came by listening to suggestions from regular visitors, frustrated that there was no opportunity to see the wildlife at the south end of the lagoons, and that there was no focal point at which to stop on a walk between the Carneddau Hide and the estuary.

The Vardre Viewpoint involved us constructing a new footpath across the grassland from the Ganol Trail, ending at a wooden viewing screen that overlooks the islands where large flocks of waders roost at high tide. To screen the footpath from the grassland, we would transplant reeds nearby.  We had to get permission to do this, of course, assessing the impact on wildlife before planning consent was granted. We didn't get the paperwork through until early March, and work had to be completed by early April, when the lapwings would start to nest.

Thankfully, we had another team of brilliant contractors ready to leap into action, and they completed the work in just two weeks, despite the challenges of digging into very soft sand to build the viewing screen. A couple of weeks after they finished, the first lapwings were on eggs, so the new path wasn't open until June. But the feedback from visitors has been excellent, and a real bonus is that hundreds of southern marsh orchids grow next to the new path.

[Thanks to JD Jones Contractors for building The Vardre Viewpoint]

Outside In

Next up for some TLC was the Tal-y-fan Hide. This is always a popular hide, thanks to its big windows and its views across the lagoons to Conwy Castle, and it's regularly used by the thousands of schoolchildren who visit the reserve's Outdoor Classroom each year. Several designs were put forward for a new mural to replace one that was painted here in the mid 1990s, and the winning one was by muralist Richard Hackett. Richard's work reflects the reserve, from day to night, and each of the wildlife images is a beautiful artwork.  And he even painted birds onto the ceiling.

During the Easter holidays, Richard was our artist-in-residence, chatting to visitors as he completed the mural. Do you remember Easter 2013? It was freezing cold, and Richard had to endure temperatures that froze his fingers and meant that the paint wouldn't dry. But he didn't give up, spending time getting the mural just right.  We also took the opportunity to replace the flooring in the hide, and the result is a great place to spend time watching wildlife through the windows - or on the walls!  Thank you Richard.

You can huff and puff, but The LookOut is solid

 

The LookOut was the most innovative part of Conwy Connections.  A new building, originally to be called The Nature Observatory, which morphed into its name The LookOut during construction. This is innovative in all sorts of ways: it's the first straw building on an RSPB reserve, it is a 'hide' which will be warm in winter and which has lighting and power so that we can use it for events too. Unlike most construction projects, it was largely built by volunteers and staff, so we know its story and our DNA runs through it.

We blogged about the project at each stage: How to Build a Straw House Part 1 I Part 2 I Part 3 I Part 4 and so did The Crown Estate, who not only helped to pay for it, but also grew the straw on one of their farms in Cheshire and then spent time out of the office to come and help build it. It's well worth a read. 

We asked our friends on social media networks to suggest what we should put in a time capsule, which is buried in the floor of The LookOut.  This blog reveals what we put in the box.

The result is a building that makes people go 'wow' when they step inside. When I open it up each morning, you can smell the straw and the clay from which it is built. The view across the lagoon and the estuary to the mountains is a daily reminder that we live in a stunningly beautiful area. And the organic feel to the render reminds me that every day we spent here until 8 pm whacking straw or splatting lime on the walls was well worth it.

We had lots of media interest in The LookOut, with appearances on both tv and radio. Huw Jenkins from Natur Cymru also made this short film about the project.

[Our thanks to Strawworks who designed The LookOut and trained us to build it, and to Greenbuilt who did all the joinery and oversaw the construction. But above all to the many volunteers who put it up]

Bits and pieces

While we were building The LookOut, we also had lots of 'little things' to make Y Maes feel more complete. To the landscaped area, we added some wooden climbing frames and stepping logs in a very large sandpit (which itself has been very popular with pre-schoolers), edged with locally grown cedar log seats.  Our tunnel was spraypainted with underground wildlife by the children in our Wildlife Explorers group. We added turf to some of the main areas that would be heavily used, but most of the grass was grown from seed, slowed first by the cold spring and then by the dry summer, so it's done remarkably well considering. And we added a lovely wooden bench, carved in locally-grown oak, in the shape of two wings.  We still have more work to do in Y Maes, but we were able to open it at the start of the school holidays and it has been well received by many families, taking their first steps onto a nature reserve.

In early October, we stripped some of the grass from the fenced area behind the Coffee Shop, leaving the remainder as paths between the two small wooden gates.  The Wildlife Explorers group have sown the beds with seeds, so that in future summers, it will be a colourful area, providing nectar for bumblebees and butterflies. The bunting and streamers are temporary, to stop the local flock of feral/racing pigeons from scoffing the seed, and the mild weather means that some of the seed is already starting to germinate.

[Our thanks to Llyn Wood Products for the cedar logs, Fawns for the play equipment, Flintshire Turf and Topsoil for the turf, Andy Birch Dime One for the graffiti workshop, Richard Hackett for painting Tegi's eyes and Mike Owens Sculpture for the carved bench]

Going solar
One of the first contracts that we let was to install a solar thermal system on the roof of the Coffee Shop.  This should have been among the simplest of the jobs in the whole Conwy Connections project, but it turned into a bit of a nightmare.  The company that installed it let us down badly, failing to make it work despite return visits over several months.  Legal wrangles followed, and then the company went into liquidation (and then the administrator threatened to sue us for not paying the bill, for a product that didn't work!).  It left us out of pocket and with a system that could never work, an independent assessor told us. 

In September 2013, a whole year after the first installation went in, Globaltherm Solar came and sorted it out.  And now we have a system that works brilliantly, providing us with hot water in the Coffee Shop and toilets.  Each day we are saving both money and reducing the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere. And in a world in which the effects of climatic change on wildlife become more evident each year, that can only be a good thing.

Caught on tape (well, digital)

Throughout the project, we have been keeping a photographic record and a blog of the work in progress. We also commissioned TAPE Community Music and Film to produce some short films for the blog.  This group of young people became a valued part of the Conwy Connections team during 2013, and they've done a brilliant job of capturing the ups and downs of the project.  And it was a great way of getting feedback from visitors about what they thought of the changes.  We put out a call for some young presenters for the films, and Peter and Efa proved to be absolute stars - remember when they're famous, that you saw them here first.  You can see their finished film here, and the earlier one about Y Maes here.

Keeping in touch

As well as social media and films, we produced some regular Bulletins for visitors to keep abreast of progress. You can read the archive below.

Summer 2013: English Cymraeg
Spring 2013: English Cymraeg
Autumn 2012: English Cymraeg
Summer 2012: English Cymraeg

We also created Mudmag for our younger readers...

Spring 2013: English Cymraeg
Winter 2012: English Cymraeg

Thanks to Tim Albin at Droplet Creative for creating such brilliant newsletters. 

Lift off...

We had huge support for our two big launch days at the end of August. The first was to thank all the funders, fundraisers, volunteers, contractors and local people who have worked so hard to make Conwy Connections possible. Then we had our Discovery Day, and hundreds of people turned out to enjoy what the reserve has to offer, to discover what we'd been doing, and most importantly to discover nature.  There were lots of smiling faces and good feedback about the project.

 So what is still to come?

This picture is just a little teaser. It's one small part of a large sculpture that will be positioned at the entrance to the reserve, next to the A55 roundabout. Since we took this photo, the steel has been galvanised and painted, and it looks fantastic. You'll know that you've arrived somewhere that is giving nature a home. It has been designed and built by Giovanni Jacovelli from Garden Art in Dolgarrog, and it will be put up in the autumn.  It's the last big piece of the Conwy Connections jigsaw.

Over the coming months, we will also be putting some finishing touches to the Maes.
- We'll be removing stripping the grass from the fenced area behind the Coffee Shop, and the Wildlife Explorers group will be sowing the whole area with seeds, so that in future summers, it will be a colourful area, providing nectar for bumblebees and butterflies. There'll be a grass path through the area with a gate at each end (the fence is to keep the rabbits out)
- We'll create a small willow dome at the centre of the circular path behind the sandpit*
- We'll lay cobbles to create a feature in the middle of the events space behind the Visitor Centre
- We'll be planting wildlife-friendly bushes and trees around Y Maes over the winter*

*these two elements are subject to funding - fingers crossed!

We would also like to finish The LookOut by adding a 'green' turf roof.  We couldn't afford it as part of the current project, but the building has been designed to take a green roof, so we are seeking further funding to add this.

Some final words

Seven years ago, when the Visitor Centre was built and the Coffee Shop opened, we always hoped one day to connect the two with a nice outside space where people would want to spend time. Over the warm summer months, our hopes have been realised and it's been wonderful to see people enjoying the Maes, The LookOut and all of the other parts of the project.  Getting children outside has been a big driver for the project, and it's been magic to see many more families visiting the reserve this year, connecting with nature.

The thank yous are too many to mention, as Conwy Connections has involved so many people. For us, the biggest satisfaction comes from the smile on this little girl's face, and those of so many other children. If she likes coming to Conwy, exploring the trails and discovering nature, it could be the first few steps to her wanting to look after nature, and caring about what happens to this small green and blue planet.