'Estuary Shoreline' - coming soon!
We're delighted to share with you our vision for the new ‘Estuary Shoreline’ landscape, launching in early 2025.
Our new wetlands landscape will be situated directly in front of the Kingfisher restaurant and will provide a beautiful, accessible new wetlands environment for visitors to enjoy.
It's been designed in-house (and will be built) by our talented Grounds Team, showcasing the very best of wetlands in a contemporary setting.
This immersive experience will highlight our beautiful Reserve and feature;
- A 'moon gate' framed walkway which will start your journey towards the Estuary Tower.
- An all-weather event space where you'll be able to dine at the shore's edge.
- A ‘sunken’ mindfulness seating area to have a moment of peace.
- Giant lily pad stepping stones.
- A shoreline beach.
- Tributary to play and relax for all ages.
All set amongst luscious native planting, willow artwork and funky seating areas.
The landscape has been fenced off and works will commence over the next couple of weeks, with completion in autumn 2024.
Check back below for updates on the build or keep an eye on our social media for monthly updates.
End of June Update
Our Grounds Team have been busy with the initial works of our new and exciting immersive wetlands landscape. Jobs have included:
- Digging and relocating an array of wildflowers to new homes across our wider site.
- Removing infected soil to allow our new wetlands habitat to thrive.
- Digging footings for our new willow ‘Moon gate’ and sunken ‘Mindfulness’ seating area.
- Reprofiling the old exhibit to allow the creation of our accessible new wetlands landscape.
Our Grounds Team will continue to work their magic through to July, in time for some big architectural build elements!
August Update
July saw a real leap forward with the project. After a huge amount of groundworks over the spring and early summer, the Grounds Team have started to build up!
The real highlight has been the beginning of the build of our landscape-defining, ‘Moon gate’. This is a super structure that will be a new WWT Slimbridge icon; a willow clad gateway to the Severn Estuary - a site of huge importance to WWT.
Now that the serious footings and steels are in, this is being lovingly weaved by the fantastic Chris and Ruth of Oakey Bear Sculptures, alongside our diligent team and volunteers. The finished article will represent a gateway to one of WWT Slimbridge’s jewels in our crown, which will be set amongst extensive wetlands and wildflower meadows - an all new wetlands habitat creation.
Alongside our epic Moon gate, our sunken ‘Mindfulness’ seating area is taking shape with stonework starting in August. This stonework will give a nod to the historically important Duck Hut next door.
Towards the end of August the new ‘Event Space’ will begin to rise from the shell of the old Caribbean Flamingo house - this is being expertly crafted by Emotive Landscapes. Meanwhile the old concrete and tarmac ‘snake way’ will be transformed into an Estuary tributary, filled with local reclaimed stone, shingle and planting.
September Update
August and September were busy months for the Slimbridge Grounds team in progressing this historical project, in readiness for the winter.
The new landmark-defining willow moon gate is almost complete – Chris and Ruth of Oakey Bear Outdoor Learning have done an amazing job turning our vision into a reality. The Slimbridge team have been training with them, to manage the installation in the future. The moon gate will mark the new journey to the Estuary Tower, our wider reserve and onwards to the Severn Estuary.
The new outdoor covered event space, which is on the footprint of the old Caribbean Flamingo house, is progressing nicely. Emotive Landscapes have been pouring footings and commencing paving for the new all-weather outdoor seating area.
Elsewhere in the ‘sunken’ wetlands mindfulness area, next to Duck Hut, the stonework has begun. We’ve built-in funky bee blocks, which allow overwintering and nesting space for solitary bees, whilst our new beach and decking area continues at pace!
October Update
This month saw a whole lot of progress:
- Our stunning willow moon gate is complete and opened just in time for our Halloween Light Trail.
- The viewing deck is finished and open - with signage on the progress of the build, whilst our new beach area continues to take shape. We can't wait for warm spring days to sit on the beach, whilst surrounded by beautiful wetlands planting!
- The Grounds Team have been extremely busy with concreting, carpentry, stonework, and installing of the new stepping stones across the pond, ready for you all to use very soon.
- The outdoor dining area, event space, is starting to raise out of the ground now that the paving is complete.
- Our new bridge across the Estuary tributary is installed and the finishing carpentry is underway, whilst the work around the sunken seating area continues at pace.
November Update
Our marvellous Grounds Team continue to work alongside our specialist contractors, to craft our new wetlands landscape. Poor weather and delays in materials has meant it won’t quite be ready for the end of 2024, but the final stages are in sight!
Latest tasks have included:
- Crafting new raised beds from local sustainable materials for our huge wetlands planting scheme, profiling the landscape behind the new sunken seating area and continuing the hand-crafting of the stonewall and seating.
- The giant stepping stones that will enable our visitors to ‘hop’ from one side of the pond to the other are now fully installed, whilst the ‘living wetlands’ inspired finishing touches are taking place.
- Our new Event Space is really starting to take shape with the giant 400kg glulam roof beams being expertly moved into position by our Grounds Team, with the assistance of 2 robots!
- This has meant that our contractors have almost completed the roof, which is ready to have its final green-roof layer installed in due course. The beautiful views are also starting to evolve, it won't be long before visitors can enjoy a coffee or lunch whilst the water laps at their feet. It will provide a perfect spot to immerse yourself in nature, take in views of the beautiful wetland landscape, whilst birds fly overhead. Bliss!
We’re very excited about this new project as it will allow us to create extensive new wetlands habitat at the front and centre of our site. This will enable us to educate, immerse, and inspire visitors on the superpowers of wetlands.
We can’t wait to share our new landscape with everyone, check back in December for further progress on the project!
