The Footprint Takes Its First Steps
The first straw bale building in the Lake District, ‘The Footprint Project’, was completed by the National Trust at St Catherine’s near Windermere in April 2007. During its construction every opportunity was taken to engage volunteers and the local community in the process. A year on from the Footprint first opening its doors, it is going from strength to strength as an inspirational and environmentally friendly base for education and other groups.
It is with some pride that Kelley Sproston, our new Community Learning Officer, launched the new Footprint Learning Programme for Primary Schools at the end of February. These exciting and cross-curricular discovery sessions focus on sustainability and the environment. We are hoping to engage many more schools from Cumbria and further afield in hands-on and inspiring outdoor sessions at the Footprint.
In keeping with the community engagement element of the construction of the Footprint Building, we have been hosting Community Rag Rug sessions throughout the autumn and winter to create beautiful wall hangings to decorate the interior walls of the Footprint using recycled fabric. Participants have helped to design and create wall hangings based on seasonal and local natural history themes.
We hosted our first ‘green wedding’ in the summer of 2007 and our first ‘environmental birthday party’ in February 2008. There are opportunities for just about any green ceremony you could think of!
Throughout the Footprint Project, the Community Learning Officer has worked with four local schools, Windermere Juniors, Goodly Dale, Elleray and Staveley Primary School, in a ground-breaking venture to explore the concept of sustainability. Researching the materials used in the building, their life cycle and environmental benefits, the children’s hard work culminated in innovative sculpture workshops to create installations using those materials. The children have gone on to audit their own water and energy use and waste in school and calculate their environmental footprints. They used their own waste and recycled materials to create life-size signage based on the children themselves, focusing on either water, energy use or paper and waste to get important messages across to the whole school community. The signage installations look fantastic and the children proudly shared them with the rest of the school and their parents at final performances before Christmas.
If you would like to find out any further information on any of the activities at the Footprint, please contact Kelley Sproston on 015394 88409 or footprint@nationaltrust.org.uk.