Wild at heart…

[prev] …£367 and the last party saw 320 people help to raise more than £4,600. I also applied for lottery grants, landfill tax money, and to the Round Table and local Rotary Clubs. If I did a talk on the project and raised £50, it would also go into the kitty. I knew I had to keep on going because too many people had already given their help. There was always a way – I just had to find it. After all, as my dad always taught me, there’s no such word as can’t.’

Overwhelming support
Brian also rang around a lot of Perkins’ suppliers, borrowing both machinery and staff to help with the major earthworks, including the craning into position of the aqueduct sections. These substantial pieces of cast iron are a triumph of Victorian engineering but, at 22 tonnes each, required significant structural supports to pass building control. ‘I did a presentation to the Minster Rotary Club explaining how we needed help with this. Then this guy called Chris Brown stepped forward and offered to design them for us. He happened to be the financial director at civil engineers Posford Duvivier.’

Posford Duvivier designed the supports, Perkins paid for the concrete and Reinforcements Peterborough sponsored the steelworks. ‘I had originally been quoted £9,500 for the construction of just two supports. Thanks to all that help we managed to get every one of the six supports required, as well as the three bridges lifted into position, for less than £3,000. Stuart Smith of Peterborough Crane Hire was our saviour; his 300-tonne crane lifted those aqueducts. It just goes to show what can be achieved with people’s generosity and when we all work together for a common cause.’

Working on the pond. The environment centre is in the background

A lot of goodwill has also gone into the construction and finishing touches to the Wildlife Haven’s environmental education centre. Originally just a steel frame and roof, the materials needed to turn it into a useable space have been begged, borrowed and donated over many years. The centrepiece to the building is an enormous globe, painted and decorated by volunteers and rotated using an old Perkins car park barrier gate powered by solar panels sponsored by Microsoft. The centre’s mezzanine floor was donated by A1 Steel. The education centre is open for everyone and aims to entertain and educate about the natural world and the environment.

Wild space
Volunteers have also helped Brian transform the site by planting more than 300 trees and countless shrubs, plants and thousands of bulbs. Native species form the majority of the planting, in turn attracting a wide range of native wildlife. Wildlife spotted includes stoats and weasels, woodpeckers and lots of grass snakes. ‘The other day I saw a kingfisher for only the second time in my life,’ adds Brian. A 40m-long pond at the centre of the site attracts plenty of frogs, toads and newts, plus damsel and dragonflies. It is fed with rainwater collected off the education centre’s 300sqm roof. Volunteers have also made many of the bird boxes and insect hotels that are dotted about the site, giving visitors simple ideas for attracting wildlife to recreate in their own gardens. ‘All we are doing here is giving nature a home,’ says Brian. ‘If everyone gave up just a corner of their garden for nature the combined effect would give an enormous boost to our struggling wildlife. I want people to take that message away with them.’

Award winning
In 2012 the Wildlife Haven was renamed the Reverend Richard Paten Nature Haven after the passing of this instrumental character. An archway at the entrance celebrates the influential philanthropist, without whom Railworld and the Wildlife Haven would never have been possible. Since its founding the Haven has won eight national awards and one global Community Service Award from Caterpillar. Of course, it’s no surprise that the Wildlife Haven has been so successful – the visionary attitude of Brian has turned this once derelict space into one Peterborough’s top attractions, drawing in thousands of visitors a year who come to explore the life, colour and sounds of nature that abounds here.

But has it all been worth if for Brian, who still spends 60 to 70 hours per week here? ‘Sometimes I feel this is probably the best thing I have ever done in my life. Minutes later something goes wrong and I feel it’s the stupidest. Either way it has truly taken over my life! What started as a home for wildlife has grown into something more. Our volunteers hope that children love the place as much as we have all loved building it for them. ‘A couple of weeks ago this young lad came up to me and said “excuse me mister, I’m an explorer and I’m showing my brother around because he’s not been before”. He must only have been three! Then yesterday there was another toddler who was completely fascinated by the grass snakes. It is things like this that make it all worthwhile.’

This article has been supported by Peterborough-based Perkins Engines Company Limited, one of the world’s leading suppliers of off-highway diesel and gas engines.  

The Wildlife Haven Railworld, Oundle Road, Peterborough PE2 9NR. 01733 344240, www.railworld.net