Ramsey Heights Countryside Classroom and Claypits Nature Reserve
Ramsey Heights Countryside Classroom and Claypits Nature Reserve have been owned and managed as an educational resource by The Wildlife Trust for over 30 years. It is on the site of a brick and tile works, which operated using the local clay until the First World War. The firing trenches of the kiln remain and the fuel store is now a large classroom, which is currently being extended to provide a toilet block with disabled access, and renovated to make it suitable for school and community groups to visit all year round.
The reserve has a good variety of habitats ranging from open water and marsh in the old clay workings to open grassland, bushes and copses of mature trees. It's situated in the Huntingdonshire Fens, four miles from Ramsey.
The Wildlife Trust at Ramsey Heights aims to set a good example to all visitors in environmental good practice after becoming an EcoCentre in January 2006. The fans in the new block are operated by photovoltaic (solar) panels and the renovations include environmentally friendly insulation and sun tubes to reduce the need for artificial lighting. Used paper is recycled and visitors are encouraged to compost fruit remains in the compost bins on site. Notices around the buildings draw visitors' attention to these and other environmental actions.
Links to the Great Fen The Great Fen is a partnership project to create a large wetland nature reserve for wildlife and people linking and protecting two National Nature Reserves, Woodwalton Fen and Holme Fen. The Countryside Classroom, just outside the Great Fen Project area, is the base for the Great Fen Wildlife Watch Group and the only facility for school and community visits to the area at present. For more information on the Great Fen go to www.greatfen.org.uk.
Please click here to get in touch with the centre manager or follow the quicklinks for how to Get involved and Educational opportunities.
News
Cambridgeshire Education Centre gets a face lift 2 April 2007
Major renovations take place at Ramsey Heights Countryside Classroom
Great crested newts receive a helping hand 22 January 2007
Their watery habitat gets a make-over to improve living conditions