Artist inspired Reed Hide
/>REED HIDECleveland Lakes, Cotswold Water Park Specialist Media InformationA unique, artist designed bird hide has been created as an iconic landmark in the Cotswold Water Park, 40 square miles of post gravel extraction landscape set on the borders of Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Oxfordshire.Cleveland Lakes is the major habitat regeneration initiative. Already 15 hectares of reedbed and shallow wetlands has been created, as a wonderful refuge and breeding habitat for birds and fish. 2.5km of public access footpaths and viewing points is an integral part of this project.The ArtistStroud based wildlife artist Helen Shackleton (www.wildmurals.com) was chosen from a national open competition for British artists, winning the commission with a design that combined artistic originality, sustainability in design and making, and fitness for purpose. Helen’s background is in painting; she specialises in wild life murals. Helen spent much of her career as head of interpretation for The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, an internationally renowned environmental charity. More recently she has been commissioned by several nationally important conservation organisations to carry out a variety of projects encompassing her skills in the fields of interpretation, exhibition design, mural painting and illustration. Helen has been passionate about the Reed Hide as she is continually inspired by nature and loves working on projects that allow her to take a design from an initial idea on paper through detail design to its final conclusion in the landscape. “Every inch of the building has been designed with nature in mind from the overall views to the shutter catches”Helen has enjoyed sourcing and working closely with local craftsmen to make sure that her vision became reality. She worked in partnership with Stroud based Lloyd Turner Ltd, Ecological Construction Solutions on the detail design and construction of Reed Hide, utilising her artistic skills with Lloyd’s construction expertise to produce a unique, distinctive and exciting structure using green and environmentally friendly materials and techniques.Location and ContextReed Hide, so called because it is sited in a newly planted waterscape of some 5 hectares of reeds, is superbly located with uninterrupted views of Reed Lagoon that is habitat to a huge variety of bird life. Cleveland Lakes is already attracting sedge, cetti’s and reed warblers, common sandpiper, kingfisher, marsh harrier, swan, geese, pochard, widgeon, tufted duck, coot, mallard, tern, and grebe. Moreover the new habitat has been designed to fulfil the Water Park’s Biodiversity Action Plan and benefit rarer visitors, such as bittern, in the hope that they remain and eventually breed in this stunning environment. The Reed Hide overlooks one of the largest heronries in the South West– an extraordinary sight in spring when the herons are nesting in the high trees opposite. Artist / Ecologist CollaborationThe hide was designed in such a way as to enhance the bird watching experience not only of local visitors and their families, but also of the experienced bird watcher. The artist designed Reed Hide in close consultation with Gareth Harris, the Cotswold Water Park Society’s lead ecologist, to ensure that the design was not only beautiful but absolutely practical. The windows are positioned to ensure maximum visibility for bird viewing, whilst eliminating silhouettes that would scare the wildlife. The design of this unique bird hide combines the concepts of bird viewing with habitat creation. A variety of bat roosts have been integrated into the structure, adding another rich dimension to fulfilling local and national biodiversity action targets. The Cotswold Water Park is a key habitat for 12 of the 16 UK species including the rare Daubenton’s bat.The Bird Watcher’s OpinionThe idea for an artist designed bird hide was primarily to enhance access to nature for non bird watching members of the public. By enticing people to visit an intriguing iconic structure, interest would then turn to watching birds. However Reed Hide also had to fulfil the more critical assessment of serious bird watchers. The Cotswold Water Park Society’s feedback from local ‘birders’, such as Darren Tonge, John Grearson, Steve Davies and others has been highly positive: “(it makes) a fantastic change to watch birds from a structure that doesn’t look like a garden shed! The hide looks great and the view from inside is wonderful”. Green Design ConstructionReed Hide is a circular design inspired by the spiralling structure of the Common Reed. Inside the Hide rises a central pole symbolising the stem of a reed. This stem supports the dramatic spiralling reed leaves forming the roof, built to Lloyd’s template using nearly 1000 Oak laths by Bristol based Exis UK Ltd. Eventually this stem rises to the crowning glory of the sculpted metal flowering reed head created by local craftsman Rodger Bone. The interwoven oa