Take a Peek Inside Souter Lighthouse's New Conservation Centre
A new conservation centre neighbouring Souter Lighthouse is encouraging everyone to make the most of this part of the coast
Until recently the National Trust ranger team at Souter Lighthouse and The Leas and the Whitburn Coastal Conservation Group didn't have an indoor area to host events and activities, but that all changed with the opening of Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre earlier this year.
The all-new single-story building is intended to blend in with the coastal landscape with floor-to-ceiling windows giving views over the North Sea. It has been built to provide community groups and visitors the opportunity to learn more about our coastal landscape, its wildlife and its history. The centre will also help in delivering the SeaScapes Partnership which consists of more than 20 organisations and aims to connect people with the coast between the Tyne and Tees through different projects.
‘When I first came into post there was the beginnings of a project which was looking at provision for visitors to Souter Lighthouse, The Leas and Whitburn Coastal Park – if they weren’t coming into the lighthouse – and we had limited facilities, so could we provide something that gave visitors what they need where they park their car?,’ says Eric Wilton, general manager at Souter Lighthouse. ‘We were also looking at a mini facility for the bird ringers. We work with Whitburn Ringing Group and they’ve been bird ringing onsite for around 25 years, but have been working out of a tin hut for years. I saw this mini project and thought, actually, there’s the bones of what could be a really good project that could deliver more for visitors to our coast, and really connect them with our coastal heritage, the natural environment and what they could expect to see or find when they come here.’
‘[It’s] all part of providing visitors with an opportunity
to engage with nature on their doorstep’
The building was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund via the SeaScapes Partnership and the National Trust, partly through their Neptune Coastline Campaign Fund, as well as Gordon Cooper who, after just one visit to Souter Lighthouse (and despite living miles away in Lancashire), left a gift in his will. When the centre was launched this year, the ribbon was cut by Gordon's partner Janet.
Inside the new centre there’s space for exhibitions, events and activities based around the North East coast and marine conservation issues, whilst the National Trust and its partners also host meetings and events there. ‘The centre is there to provide an educational, multi-user classroom-style space,’ Eric explains. ‘It has another area with information that anyone can access via a screen that links to some of the SeaScapes information we’ve produced. The SeaScapes app highlights where people can go along the coast and what they can see, and there’s a heritage element to that. For example you can look up where shipwrecks are out at sea from the centre and learn about them. We’ve been working with Newcastle University and they’ve been diving and surveying the shipwrecks, and from the photographs they’re taking of them, called photogrammetry, they’re creating 3D models of the shipwrecks on the seabed. They’ll be bringing those to life through a digital format which people will be able to access hopefully on their phone, but also at the centre.
’In terms of nature, the centre highlights valuable areas, geology and the uniqueness of the coastline. Next to that space, we have the bird ringing lab. Part of the purpose of the centre was to create a more permanent space for the bird ringers and now they have their own area where you can interact with them, and they do bird ringing workshops and taster days – again that’s all part of providing visitors with an opportunity to engage with nature on their doorstep.’
Improving accessibility was also important when planning the Whitburn Coastal Conservation Centre and the centre’s eco-friendly aspects include recycled plastic tile cladding, sustainable cross laminated timber panels and thick insulation. ‘It’s about trying to make it as carbon neutral as possible,’ says Eric. ‘That’s another tick in the box in terms of providing a super insulated, well-heated building that’s designed to fit into the landscape it sits in, within the green belt of South Tyneside, opposite the Grade II*-listed lighthouse.’
Built in 1871, Souter was the UK’s first purpose-built electric lighthouse. Now a National Trust property, it welcomes an average of 26,500 to 28,500 visitors per year. Whilst the centre offers a great opportunity to visit the historic lighthouse and a brilliant base from which to walk The Leas’s two-and-a-half miles of magnesian limestone cliffs and grassland, visitors can also take a seat on a recently installed bespoke wooden Story Bench which faces the sea and encourages visitors to reflect on and share stories of their love of the coast.
However visitors choose to make the most of their time in and around the centre, the key thing is that they’re connected to the coast. ‘We want people to have a greater knowledge of why we look after these places, why they’re important, the wildlife on their doorstep, the fact that our wildlife has declined over decades and to give people a sense of what they can do to support and help to improve that picture, and get involved,’ explains Eric. ‘We want people to have a deeper connection with the places where they live and that they use. Visitors come to The Leas because it’s such a beautiful coastal landscape. To be able to give a bit more detail about why that landscape is there and why that’s so important helps us to embed a deeper value as to why it’s important to protect it. The other aspect is that if people are coming to visit, you want them to be comfortable, with facilities they can utilise to plan and enjoy their visit properly.’
There’s nowhere in South Tyneside quite like it and the project has been widely supported by the community. ‘In terms of our partners, we’ve been booked out since around March when we’ve started properly taking bookings,’ says Eric. ‘Each day different users, groups and partners are delivering different aspects, from education for young children to a gardening competition group delivering their results. Andy’s Man Club use it to encourage men to talk about their issues, and dementia-friendly training has been delivered here too. It’s definitely fulfilling its purpose as a venue, which is great. The idea is that we provide all this at a reasonable cost.’
Eric and the team plan to continue to evolve how they work in partnership. ‘Since concept we’ve gone from 50 to 100 partners with different groups connecting with the coast in different ways, from a mental and physical wellbeing point of view through to an interest in the natural environment,’ he explains. ‘Our plan is to build on that, and our educational offering, and to continue growing that so that we can offer fantastic experiences throughout the year and get people really connecting with the environment and the landscape.’
The conservation centre is also now working with Stronger Shores – a new project working to restore marine habitats (kelp forests, oyster reefs and seagrass meadows for example) and looking at how they can help protect against the impacts of climate change. ‘It covers the area from the Northumberland coast right down to the North Yorkshire coast,’ says Eric, ‘and the centre is available for them to utilise too.’
