The Hawthorns Braintree Walk on the Wild Side

The sun was shining on Saturday 16th June when we opened our building and gardens at The Hawthorns Braintree for our Wildlife Open Day!

We had a fantastic range of stalls and experiences for our residents and local community to enjoy, all as we supported Great Ormond Street Hospital, our Charity of the Year.

Imperial Birds of Prey from Billericay joined us to give a real hands-on experience, talking about the birds and even the opportunity to hold these amazing creatures. One of our residents, Jean Stagg, thoroughly enjoyed petting one of the owls!

Alex Bass, a very knowledgeable, regular wildlife speaker here at The Hawthorns, had everybody fascinated talking about the wildlife on the River Colne, a river local to Braintree.

Another resident, Pat Bradbury, had a display of the amazing photographs of the garden and our wildlife for all to enjoy. Pat is a very keen photographer and we are very fortunate to regularly see her stunning wildlife photographs.

Local photographer Waldo Ferris hosted a stall displaying some incredible wildlife photography, all taken locally, and Rebecca Perrin, a talented local artist from Rebecca Daphne Art, sold artwork including greetings cards.

We held a wildlife quiz, the prize being a chocolate hedgehog cake won by resident Barry Osborne who graciously shared it with fellow residents.

This is our second Wildlife Open Day and something we’ll be repeating every year in the summer as the residents thoroughly enjoyed it and we are also raising vital funds for our Charity of the Year. A huge thank you goes to everyone who got involved, as we have raised a fantastic £115.15 from this event alone.

We have lots of complimentary events held at The Hawthorns Braintree on a regular basis so please do visit our Facebook page or telephone us on 01376 335500 to find out more.