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Therapeutic nursery gains new green meeting room |
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13 Apr 2015, 6:31 PM
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Peep through the 'truth window' and you can see the straw which will keep Bournemouth's Cherry Tree Nursery members snug in the harshest of winters. The third phase of the eco-buildings at Northbourne is now complete.
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Not only will the construction be warm but the Cherry Tree Nursery community also has space and privacy in the light, airy rooms.
The new sustainable buildings are in sharp contrast to the nursery's beginnings a quarter of a century ago. Then a community worker, four patients – known as volunteers – and a dog took over a shabby portable building on a derelict Bournemouth council site.
The idea was to provide therapeutic horticulture to people struggling with severe, long-term mental illness in the country's first Sheltered Work Opportunity Project of this kind.
The nursery thrived and expanded – it now serves around 170 volunteers and produces 100,000 quality plants a year.
The portable buildings multiplied but the roofs and windows leaked and the volunteers aspired to flush toilets, and warm and comfortable inside rooms including meeting rooms so conversations didn't have to take place outside whatever the weather!
Five years ago the Dorset Centre for Rural Skills revealed the plans for the three-phase buildings using natural and –wherever possible – locally sourced materials. Straw bales for the walls, sheep's wool for the floor insulation, locally felled Douglas fir for the framework are just a few examples. An air source heap pump provides warmth and hot water.
DCRS director Rob Buckley said: "The building needs very low levels of heat to stay warm and equally will stay cool in hot weather so using very little energy, reducing the need for expensive and complicated technology.
"This will result in low running costs, a healthy, comfortable environment and a low carbon footprint."
Jess said: "The feeling of being in natural sustainable living buildings is indescribable. There is a remarkable sense of peace, and all the love that went into the creation of the structure remains within it.
"The volunteers have a huge sense of pride in all that the buildings represent. At a time when so many services are closing, it gives reassurance that Cherry Tree will still be here for us all and people who once felt rejected and without self-esteem now feel part of a project that has become a valued part of the community."
Jess extended gratitude from the whole nursery to the organisations and individuals who donated to the buildings – not least to the builders who because "part of our family" while they were there.
Cherry Tree is looking for more sponsorship for its future. If you can help call the nursery on 01202 593537.
Credits:: M.Barber - Blackmore Vale magazine
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