Amberley Museum’s re-imagined Nature Trails are open for visitors
Amberley Museum’s re-imagined nature trails were opened on Saturday 5 June at a celebration for World Environment Day that was attended by local community organisations with a common aim to make West Sussex a more environmentally friendly place. These included Sussex Green Living, Horsham Repair Café, UK Harvest, Chichester Conservation Volunteers, South Downs National Park Authority, Worthing Climate Action Network, Action in Rural Sussex, Wild Sussex, West Sussex County Council Bikeability and Horsham District Cycling Forum.
Tim Burr, Deputy Chair of the Policy and Resources Committee of the South Downs National Park Authority officially opened the nature trails, which have been restored thanks to funding from the SDNPA’s COVID Recovery Fund. There are two nature trails at the Museum: the Hillside Trail had been closed for some time due to fences falling into disrepair and many ash trees along the path suffering from ash dieback and needing to be felled. Thanks to the funding, the Hillside Trail is open once again and visitors can climb to the top of the White Pit and see spectacular views of the Arun Valley. The Lower Nature trail is a more leisurely stroll that now includes a new outdoor meeting space for groups such as guides and scouts and where adult classes can take place. Both trails have new information boards with children’s activities introduced by Bella the Bat, who was drawn by a pupil from Amberley School.
Brighton Energy Cooperative, who installed solar panels on the Museum’s Connected Earth building fifteen months ago, also had a stand and presented a certificate to Richard Vernon, Chairman of the Museum’s trustees to mark the reduced carbon emissions in 2020 as a result of the panels, equivalent to the planting of 1,591 trees.
