Bernard Johnson on the 50th anniversary celebrations at Barnet Environment Centre

A group of volunteers and supporters in a line at Barnet Environment Centre — Friends of Barnet Environment Centre at its 50th anniversary event – (Credit – Jim Jenkins)

80 invited guests gathered at the Barnet Environment Centre in Byng Road last month to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The centre was set up by Denis Bland in 1975 on seven and a half acres of old school playing fields as part of Barnet Council’s education service and it was very successful for many years, employing full time staff. Careful planning was done to develop as many natural habitats as possible, including woodland, ponds and meadow.

When council funding was withdrawn in 2002, the Friends of Barnet Environment Centre (FoBEC) took the site over and have run it since then as an educational facility and nature reserve. A qualified science teacher is employed and the centre currently welcomes around 2,500 young people every year from more than 30 local schools and colleges to work on national curriculum, GCSE, A level and BTEC courses as well as Scouting and Guiding badges.

The site was sold to Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in 2007 but an agreement was made for environmental education to continue. A new centre building was opened in 2016; this environmentally friendly wooden building has classrooms, toilets, a kitchen and a board room. FoBEC shares the building with Noah’s Ark and the friends maintain the nature reserve and work with the teacher to prepare for educational visits and events throughout the school year.

At the event on Sunday, 18th May, members, volunteers, Dan Tomlinson MP, councillors and many people who have been involved with the centre over the last 50 years listened as I outlined the history and current work of the centre and explained how important it is to prepare young people to explore and understand nature so that they can value it and can help protect our world in the future.

I thanked all the members and volunteers for their constant efforts in maintaining both the nature reserve and in preparing for school visits, and thanked donors whose generous contributions make the work possible.

Tomlinson expressed his admiration for the centre and its work and commented how important this is for environmental understanding and that we should “cherish a nature reserve like this”. He was then very pleased to cut the 50th birthday cake baked by one of the trustees.

The guests enjoyed the refreshments and took the opportunity to both meet old friends and to explore the reserve. New paths, which are wheelchair friendly, were laid in 2021 as part of an improved access project, funded by the Hadley Trust, which also included the creation of a sensory trail with pause and ponder points along the way, an improved tree trail and re-landscaping of the garden ponds.

The site is open to visitors each Monday afternoon from 2pm-3.30 pm and on the first Sunday of each month from 10.30am-12pm, when volunteers are present.

Bernard Johnson is vice chair of The Friends of Barnet Environment Centre. To find out more about the centre go to: https://www.fobec.org.uk/

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