WORK has begun on the new visitor centre at Burnby Hall Gardens after plans for the project at Pockling-ton's leading tourist attraction were given financial backing.
Stewart’s Burnby Hall Gardens & Museum Trust were given a grant for £70,000 from Yorkshire Forward which meant work on the new facility could go ahead.The trust plan to open the new visitor centre later this year.
The existing kiosk at the entranc
e to the gardens is currently being demolished and will be replaced with a larger centre that will include information for visitors about what they can see in the gardens – including the National Collection of Hardy Waterlilies – plus a larger gift shop and staff facilities.
The current kiosk was built in the early 1980s and the trust wanted to create a a better welcome to the gardens for visitors. They also hope enhancing the gardens will bring more visitors to the town and help boost the local economy.
The single storey building has an environmentally friendly design and will be made of sustainable materials. Features on the new building will include a sedum, or ‘green’, roof that will encourage plants and insects.
The aim of the larger gift area is to double shop sales – making more money for the charity – as the new centre will stretch across the entrance to the attraction, meaning all visitors will pass through the centre when arriving and leaving the eight-acre site.
Burnby Hall Gardens, and its refurbished Stewart Museum, attract thousands of visitors each year. Visit England, the national tourism agency, placed the gardens as the second most visited paid for garden attraction in 2008. The Stewart Museum, which celebrates the adventures of Major Percy Stewart who left the site to the town, is the most visited museum in East Yorkshire, outside Hull.
Richard Haynes, trust chairman, said: “I am absolutely delighted that with the help of Yorkshire Forward the Trustees of Burnby Gardens are able to go ahead with the project to build a new shop and visitor centre.
“For the first time we will have an entrance which does justice to our wonderful gardens and museum. The new shop is part of a long-term programme for the enhancement of the gardens for the benefit of the people of Pocklington and visitors from further afield.”
