Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s (CWT) headquarters and education centre are located at Bickley Hall Farm in south Cheshire near the village of Malpas. The farm provides children with a fantastic opportunity to experience both farming and wildlife. Bickley Hall Farm is open to for school visits from May to mid October.

Bickley Hall Farm is 85.48 hectares in total and the land is used to produce 7.99 ha spring barley, 10.5 ha species rich hay, 5.8 ha hay and 13 ha silage. The farm is stocked with Longhorn and Dexter cattle and Hebridean sheep. The number present change seasonally as the livestock are not all here during the growing season (they graze our other nature reserves). About 20 Longhorns are kept on the farm in the spring/summer.

The farm, leased from the Cholmondeley Estate, is managed with conservation in mind. The land is in Defra’s Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme, which seeks to deliver significant environmental benefits in high priority situations and areas. Bickley Hall Farm has species rich hay meadows and pastures – The farm grows hay and silage and has wild bird mix margins, which are all good for invertebrates and small mammals and birds at various times of the year. Many species of wild animals are found on the farm including badgers, hares, Great crested newts, sky larks and lapwings.

There are seven ponds on site, some of which are suitable for safe pond dipping sessions. We have a special trailer developed into a platform that we can push in and out of the pond as the water level changes. There is a whole variety of pond invertebrates and creatures found in our ponds including water boatman, snails, newts, newt larvae of various stages and dragonfly nymphs.

The farm hosts a variety of different habitats and exciting wildlife, which are accessible and excellent for educational use, including great crested newts, dragonflies, damselflies, badgers, foxes, barn owls, swallows and harvest mice, and variety of stunning wildflowers and amazing minibeasts. Hedges and wild field margins provide excellent habitats for minibeast hunting. We also have wildlife rich ditches, an orchard and arable fields, which support many wildflowers and arable farmland birds.

One of the farm building is converted into a temporary summer classroom suitable for indoor activities. Facilities at Bickley Hall Farm include:

• Indoor working area for learning, shelter and lunch in the education barn.
• Bag storage boxes.
• Portable toilets.
• A wash room for hand washing with warm and cold running water, soap and paper towels.