The South Park is one of our most important historic landscapes – a Grade II* listed parkland steeped in history and home to ancient woodland, champion trees, medieval grassland and a huge range of flora and fauna. Through our Reinventing Borde Hill project, we are working to accessibly open up this space to enable more local communities and schools to experience its beauty and reap the wellbeing benefits that come from spending time in nature.
To help share our vision, we have created a new short film that captures what makes the South Park so special and illustrates how this project will allow us to protect, restore, and celebrate it for future generations.
The film was produced by documentary filmmaker and photographer Jack Hague, whose work focuses on capturing the beauty and triumphs of both people and the natural world. Together, we’ve told the story of the South Park and the community of people who are helping to make Reinventing Borde Hill a reality.
We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported the project so far, especially the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and those individuals who have kindly appeared in this film. This includes Penny Jenkins from our local NHS Social Prescribing service who has led a monthly Wellbeing Walk to Borde Hill to help local people enjoy the great outdoors in a safe and welcoming environment since 2023.
Wildlife expert Michael Blencowe has worked with us on a number of conservation projects and nature engagement walks throughout the South Park, including our dormouse monitoring project and our very popular bat walks.
Alongside wellbeing and conservation, education is another core pillar of Reinventing Borde Hill. We are dedicated to growing the next generation of garden lovers and inspiring a young people to become stewards of the natural world. We already work with several local schools, including our neighbours at Harlands Primary School. Headteacher David McKeown-Webster very kindly appeared in the film, alongside a group of children from Harlands. Suzanne Mark who runs Treehoppers, our onsite forest school nursery, also features alongside the children in celebrating outdoor learning and discovery.
Our heartfelt thanks go to Penny, Michael, David and Suzanne, along with all the children from Harlands and Treehoppers, for helping us to tell this story – and to everyone who continues to support the future of Borde Hill.
To find out more about how you can support this generation-defining project through volunteering, gifts in-kind, donations or sponsorship click here
To see more of Jack’s work, visit: jbhague.co.uk
