News

Education Centre

For many years, Heritage has accepted and promoted educational visits to the Centre - ranging from nursery children up to A'level and college students, special needs groups and many other sectors of our local community.

More recently, Heritage have begun taking some of the mammals and reptiles on a 'Roadshow', introducing children (and adults) to the vast range of animals we have here. These have become popular and we are now promoting these shows to a range of groups and institutions. Enquiries from schools, nursing homes, public libraries and more have shown that there is a demand for this service and one that we aim to offer on a regular basis soon.

Using the land to grow soft fruit lends itself to education absolutely. How wonderful is it to show young children where the food on their plate actually originates from? Children are naturally inquisitive and this should be encouraged and used wherever possible.

At Heritage, our aim for 2010 is to work within the National Curriculum framework for Key Stages 1 and 2. We will soon be inviting schools to visit our facilities, showing them how our centre can enhance the learning of the next generation.

This will include:

• Fruit picking
• Jam making
• Learning about the wide variety of aquatic life both saltwater and freshwater
• (all children recognise Nemo and Dory!)
• Close encounters with reptiles and insects
• Close encounters with chicks, chickens, ducks and other poultry
• Conservation and Animal Welfare
• Looking after pets - helping children to begin to understand responsibility of pets

With our new child-friendly gardens, sand pit, indoor seating and ample parking, Heritage is ideal for school trips so if you are interested in finding out more please email the office via our contact page.

Heritage Farm Nurseries

As an agricultural small holding, we have spent a long time deciding on how to produce the best, most effective crop from this land. As well as the aquatic and tropical plant centres, we felt we had so much more to offer to the local community. Early 2009 we planted a vinery (under glass). This so far has proved to be very successful and this year the vines are showing signs of being very productive!

Marine Centre Many of you may remember Dave - our resident black tip reef shark? Well, when he moved to his new home in 2006, we took out the shark pool that was a dominant feature of our Marine Centre. Now, a few years on we have begun to re-instate a shark pool!! Watch this space for more information!!

Meet the Team Managers Steve and Sam run the front line supported by a strong, dedicated team of staff! Between us all we have over 100 years of fishkeeping experience! Now thats a lot of experience! In fact, our Centre is so good, we have OATA using us for promotional films and publishers using our stock for their educational DVD's for retail sale!