Brandon Marsh Nature Centre

Brandon Marsh is the ideal place for your school visit due to its excellent opportunities for learning about nature, wildlife and the environment. We have ponds, bird hides, meadows and woodlands all set within our 200 acre nature reserve. The Education Team can provide your school with a tailor made package for your day where you can cover up to four topics. We have excellent facilities for children of all ages as well as those with special educational needs. We also run holiday workshops, Nature Tots and Birthday parties.

Contains displays, hands-on activities and information about the nature reserve, as well as a Tea Room and Shop. Open every day with lots of events and activities for everyone throughout the year.

Your visit to Brandon Marsh Nature Centre starts at the Visitor Centre, opened by Sir David Attenborough in 1998. The reserve contains large areas of pools created by gravel extraction. It consists of reedbeds, willow carr, grassland and woodland. It is outstanding for birds and there are seven bird hides throughout the reserve.

The Sensory Garden

After 1500 volunteer hours, the first chapter in the story of how our garden grew is complete with the official opening of the Sensory Garden at Brandon Marsh Visitor Centre on 19th May 2012.

The Education Centre

Brandon Marsh Nature Centre includes the Lafarge Education Centre - a purpose-built classroom, home to School Visits to Brandon for a variety of curriculum-related activities. We also have children's activities during the school holidays, and even Really Wild Birthday Parties! For grown-ups we also have a programme of Events and guided walks.

The Centre contains displays, hands-on activities and information about the nature reserve, as well as a Tea Room and Shop. The Centre is open every day (except Christmas Day) and has lots of events and activities for everyone throughout the year.

Activity examples:

Prickly Friends, Teddy bear adventure, Magical Forest, Minibeast hunting, Sensory explorer, nuts about nature, duck tales, bugs and bees, let's get creative, animal babies, minibeast misson and brilliant birds. We also have woodland adventure, wild about rabbits, underwater habitats, food chains, art in the wild, flowers and bees, den, rockstars, whatever the weather, team challenge and TREEmendous. Secondary school visits include: vegetation sampling, belt transect, invertebrate sampling, pond comparison, succession walk, nature walk, team building, and dens

Photos Emma Richardson