Enhancing visitor experience 
The Westonbirt Project will enhance the arboretum by providing impressive, sustainable new facilities, but how will these facilities tell our story?
How will visitors learn about the tree collection and conservation work undertaken at Westonbirt? How will people find out about the history and heritage of the arboretum, and how will we find new ways to include more people in our woodland?
Ben Oliver, Education and Interpretation Manager at Westonbirt , describes an example of a future route visitors might take around the arboretum:
A welcoming experience
The new Welcome Building will be the first place for visitors of all ages to gain a better understanding of the tree collection. It will also signpost other exciting opportunities for visitors to engage more deeply with Westonbirt.
Interactive displays and imaginative interpretation will be designed to inspire and engage, allowing visitors to delve deeper into our unique heritage and sustainable tree management programme, and to discover the international importance of our collection.
Access all areas
For the first time visitors will be invited to go behind the scenes in the Propagation Unit to explore our world-leading conservation and tree collection management projects. Through regularly changing interpretation, the team will be able to share stories about exciting seed collection expeditions and show how they work to protect and preserve the botanical collection.
Exciting new media will enable visitors to experience the job of a propagator – a modern day plant hunter - from seed collecting to climbing trees and cutting the grass (not as simple as it seems). New volunteer programmes will enable visitors to try out their green fingers and learn new propagation skills that they can use at home.
Exploring history and heritage
Dating back to the early 1800s, the Kennels and Keeper’s Cottage (originally home to the game keeper of the estate) buildings highlight the origins of the Westonbirt estate. For the first time, these buildings will be renovated and opened to visitors as a place to explore the heritage and history of the arboretum’s founding family, the Holfords.
Digital media will enable visitors to take a virtual tour of the whole estate, exploring Westonbirt house (now Westonbirt School) and gardens and connecting them back with the arboretum.
Daring tales of plant hunters and innovative picturesque landscaping methods will be explored and linked with our modern day work in the Propagation Unit. People will be able to walk from the Kennels and Keeper’s Cottage into the propagation area, passing examples showcasing community horticulture projects supported by volunteers, community groups and schools.
An inspirational learning location
We want to work with more people in novel and exciting ways, and the new Education and Learning building will form a fantastic and inspirational centre from which to run our new learning programmes.
As well as developing special programmes to engage specific target audiences, such as secondary students and vulnerable and excluded adults, the centre will enable new partnership working with social and community groups. The extended grounds will link closely with our wood sales area to help tell the story of our sustainable management using timber grown on site.
2050 Glade
This new area in the Old Arboretum will showcase the relationship between trees and climate change and promote visitor understanding of work undertaken by the Forestry Commission to explore the types of trees and plants which might live in our climate in the future. The 2050 Glade will also explore the new management techniques that our team at the arboretum will have to employ as our climate changes.
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photo: © Paul Groom
