Hot on the trail
… or just a constant 18-21°C, thanks to the volunteers and suppliers who have helped develop The Enterprise Centre Lodge in the heart of the Kirklees Valley trail in Bury. The Lodge is the brainchild of Alison Hornsby, who helps disadvantaged young people build capacity and confidence by providing enterprise and personal development training in the natural environment. When it’s winter though, you sometimes need to come in from the natural environment and warm up! Long story short, Alison began lobbying, bidding and cajoling and raised a total of £100,000 (including ‘goods in kind’), and a team of builders and engineers – many ‘volunteered’ by Alison – started work on the build of a well-insulated single storey Lodge. Number one on the list of must-haves was an energy-efficient boiler; Alison wanted visitors, teachers and mentors to be warm, but had to keep gas bills and carbon emissions low. Luckily advice was on hand as one of her Trustees is heating engineer Dave Wright, the proprietor of Anchor Heating based in Tottington, and an inspector and assessor of gas safety across Greater Manchester. He recommended the Intergas HRE 28/24 (which would be used with LPG), not just because of its energy-saving credentials, but because of its record of reliability. “I’ve been using Intergas for years, it’s a brand I trust, and the HRE is the perfect combi for the Lodge. I installed it in the new utility room, where its compact dimensions are a real plus. I know Intergas donate boilers to good causes all the time, but in this new facility it’s made the world of difference, and I’d like to thank intergas for not even hesitating to say ‘yes’”, said Wright.
The Lodge, which officially opened this November, has been designed to fit perfectly within with its natural surrounding and, inside, has a 15 metre training room/workshop, a small office for private coaching and one-to-one mentoring, as well as toilet and kitchen facilities. There are also four stables to house the charity’s equine therapy ponies.
The Lodge is now host to creative projects which use a combination of outdoor learning activities, enterprise skills, equine therapy, health- and well-being coaching, teamwork and confidence-building, all of which helps young people develop self-esteem and aspirations for themselves and their communities. The Lodge has a further 20 acres of woodland for delivery of The Enterprise Centre’s earth education and environmental programmes. Well done Alison. We were all happy to help.
