The first blog on for our new website. The aim is to keep viewers of the blog up-to-date with what is or has been happening at Whitwell Hall. Depending on the seasons, depends on our work load but we will ensure the blog is ongoing, so keep a look out.Whitwell Hall and the staff had a brilliantly busy season of schools and activities. Every year before the season starts we comment on how quickly it approaches after Christmas and we weren’t wrong again! By the third week of March we had already started with our first school in the hall, Firside from Hellesdon. After them it wasn’t long before we then put our tents out on the campsites ready for the first camping groups.
By the peak, we had three different schools on site doing a range of activities. It always amazes us at how our bodies can go from a slow pace through to working long hours and stopping long enough for a cup of tea!
And then it is the end of the school term and although the pace lessens slightly, our summer is filled with a range of private groups camping or staying in the hall. This is the time that the maintenance of the site begins. catching up on what has been delayed during the busy school season and listing what needs doing. The website was a priority this year and hopefully, now that it is live, people are pleased with it.
If you visited Whitwell Hall Country Centre during May, June and July, you may have seen the four new additions Cobb and Bracken, our Red Squirrels had. Over a the Easter weekend, we had four kittens (young squirrels) emerge from the boxes within the squirrel enclosure. When Matt and John first saw them, they were still wobbly and not sure but it didn’t take them long to find their feet and start bouncing around. The kittens proved to be a star attraction to the visiting groups with most of the schools being taken to see them. Once the school season was over, the tricky job of trying to catch the kittens started! We catch the squirrels and take them to Pensthorpe Natural Park where they get looked after, checked, chiiped and distributed to other enclosures or released to a stable wild population. Within the enclosure this allows for Cobb and Bracken to have more room and get ready for their next litter. You can find out more about our Red Squirrels and the work we do at http://www.whitwellhall.org/red-squirrels-whitwell/
Look out for another blog soon!
