12.03.04
New visitor centre coming to Tresco
Abbey Garden
Work is now well underway on a stylish new visitor centre
being built at the world-famous Tresco Abbey Garden.
The centre – which will greatly enhance visitor facilities
at the Grade I Listed Garden – is being built as the
result of a £535,000 project supported by investment
from Objective One.
Alan Knight, the estate general manager, said that work on
the centre began in December and is now proceeding at great
speed. Once complete, the centre will provide Tresco with
a new U-shaped visitor centre that incorporates exhibition
and meeting space, toilets, kitchens, a café and a
shop.
He said: "The old facilities were much too small, split
onto different levels and inadequate for today's visitors.
This project gathers everything together, triples the size
of our facilities and brings them up to the expected modern
standard.”
Mike Nelhams, the garden curator, added: "Until now,
we've had 45,000 visitors a year arriving via what's little
more than a garden shed. Tresco is in the premier league of
gardens not just in Britain but also around the world. Now,
we'll have a visitor centre of a quality that allows us to
welcome people in an appropriate style.”
The new centre was designed by Somerset architects Llewellyn
Harker and St Ives-based Symons Construction are the lead
contractors. Built just outside the garden itself, the new
centre should be complete by the end of May and will include
a number of distinctive features – including timber cladding
cut from the garden's own Monterey cypress trees.
Mike Nelhams explained: "The Monterey cypress was introduced
to Britain by Augustus Smith, who founded Tresco Abbey Garden.
He planted a number of the trees here as a shelterbelt but
some were brought down when Tresco was hit by a hurricane
in 1990. We stored the timber and have since used the wood
for a number of projects, including this one. It's nice to
think that trees planted 180 years ago by the garden's founder
are now being used for our new visitor centre.”
A feature of the centre's interior will be a series of 10
paintings by leading Belgium-based artist Carole Hartley.
The paintings show 10 of the most distinctive groups of plants
in the garden, which is home to specimens that will not grow
outside anywhere else in the British Isles.
The new visitor centre should be complete by the end of May
– in time for Tresco's second flower festival, which
runs from 4th to 6th June. As well as including lectures and
a mini flower festival, the event will feature the RHS exhibition
Travelling Trees, which looks at some of the tree species
introduced to Britain by some of the plant hunters of the
19th century.
The development of the new visitor centre follows investment
from the South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) for
Tresco's new heliport and Alan Knight said that the completion
of the two projects will mark a major advancement in providing
visitors with an efficient, high-standard welcome to the garden.
Objective One Programme Director Carleen Kelemen added: "Tresco
Abbey Garden is the biggest single visitor attraction on the
Isles of Scilly and its fame draws people from around the
world.
"Tresco is totally unique. The garden has become part
of the landscape of the island and an important feature of
our regional heritage. By investing in its facilities, Objective
One is helping an important tourism business to maintain their
commercial advantage, a position that helps draw economic
benefits to the whole region.”
The visitor centre project is being supported with just over
£187,000 in investment from the European Regional Development
Fund provided through Objective One (equivalent to 35% of
the total cost). The RDA is contributing a further 15% of
the cost, with the remainder being met by estate owner Robert
Dorrien-Smith.
Editor's notes:
European Regional
Development Fund (ERDF)
ERDF is one of our four funds that make up
the Objective One Programme, which is making £337 million
of investment available for developing the local economy between
2000 and 2006. ERDF exists to:
|
Help reduce the gap between development levels and
living standards among the regions and the extent to which
least-favoured regions are lagging behind. |
|
Help redress the main regional imbalances in the European
Community by participating in the development and structural
adjustment of regions whose development is lagging behind,
and the social conversion of regions. |
For further information contact:
Alan Knight
Tresco Estate
01720 424103 or 01720 422849
Jason Clark
Objective One Communications Manager
01872 276276
Jason Clark
Communications Adviser
Objective One Partnership Office
Castle House
Pydar Street
Truro TR1 2UD
Tel: 01872 241379
Fax: 01872 241388
objectiveone@cornwall.gov.uk
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