The BTCV Volunteers have done some sterling work in the dale at Barnstondale Centre. Their biggest project was undoubtedly the restoration of the pond and building a dipping platform!

You can see how the pond looks now in our little video above and while the water level may be a little low at the moment a typical British summer should sort that out. We’re sure you’ll agree its looking great now, it didn’t look so good before the BTCV came to help. We can’t thank them enough. You can see photos of them working on the pond below.

Once the pond has properly re-established and nature moved back in fully groups will be able to use the dipping platform during their visits. A great new addition to the wide range of activities available for groups at Barnstondale Centre.

Barnstondale Centre has many volunteers with a long service record and we were delighted to see some of those volunteers being honoured only last week at the “Volunteering Wirral Volunteer Awards” Presentation.

The event, held at the Life Centre, Bebington, saw 3 Barnstondale Centre volunteers receive gold award medallions for volunteering long service from Wirral Mayor Andrew Hodson. Stephen Hyde (pictured left with Julia from the Autistic Society), Clayton Thorpe and Paul Earl (pictured receiving his award from the mayor) have been at Barnstondale Centre for 12 years.

Hail, rain, sleet or snow, these 3 guys have been at the centre week in, week out throughout that time, giving a vital contribution to the centre with their efforts. Stephen, Clayton, Paul - you have our congratulations and our thanks for your work. Your awards are richly deserved.

On a much sadder note, however, we have to announce the death of another long service volunteer at Barnstondale Centre. John Osborne, who had also been at the centre for 12 years, died suddenly this week from a heart attack.

All at the centre were shocked and saddened by this news and we are sure that all who knew John through the centre - many of you will have spoken to him on the phone if not met him in person -  will feel the same. John Osborne was a familiar statuesque figure at Barnstondale almost every week for those 12 years, striding onto site twice a week to provide essential volunteering support. Not only will his practical contribution to the centre be missed, but also his personality and willingness to muck in.

John is survived by a brother and I am sure you will all join us in sending him our heartfelt condolences at this time.  He will be very sadly missed indeed.

For your many years of sterling service, John, we thank you.

Never let it be said that Barnstondale Centre is an island!

Hopefully some of you will have already visited us elsewhere online, on our Flickr photostream or our YouTube channel, but now we’re spreading our wings even further!

We’re now officially launching ourselves out on Facebook today! You can click here to view our page and become a fan, or why not search Facebook for Barnstondale Centre and become our friend? We’ve already got a great group up there already so come on, the more the merrier, why not be our friend?

We’re not just going to be on Facebook, however. We’re also launching our MySpace page too, so if Facebook isn’t your thing, or you don’t want to leave behind all those MySpace friends, then you can find us on there too at www.myspace.com/barnstondale

Not enough social networking for you? Oh, alright then! You want some twitter too? You got it, except its twitter with a difference! Many of you who know Barnstondale Centre will also know how much of a feature the animals are, particularly Bess the Dog and the many squirrels that call the woods home. Well they want to have their say about Barnstondale too, so we’re letting them loose on Twitter! Follow @barnstondale on Twitter for a whole new way of viewing Barnstondale Centre…..

Wherever you make your home online, we’re really looking forward to seeing you there and being your friend!

Last month representatives from Barnstondale Centre were invited to attend The Radio City community gift awards evening at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. Run in conjunction with Barclaycard and the charity “Cash for Kids”, Barnstondale was invited to attend to see who would walk away with a share of the £30,000 fund that was being made available!

The evening was a sumptuous affair in the historic surroundings of Aintree and with a delicious 3 course dinner to enjoy and new friends to make among the many charities attending the evening was already a great success before the awards were announced.

Once the awards were announced, however, we were absolutely delighted to be awarded a fantastic £2945, in order to improve access for those with mobility problems to areas of the Barnstondale site. With over £11,000 raised towards the work, the award on the night was all we needed to complete the work!

Barnstondale centre would like to thank all involved from Radio City, Barclaycard and Cash for Kids for running the evening and the wonderful award we received, enabling us to complete the access works and serve those in need.

Our friends from Norman Pannell School in Netherly, Liverpool visited us recently and enjoyed their visit so much they made up a song about it!

We think this song  - written to the tune of “Amarillo” - is too good to keep to ourselves, so here it is for everyone to enjoy too! I’m sure you’ll agree its great!

Show us the way to Barnstondale. Its over the Wirral.

Through the tunnel we did travel. With our friends was very nice.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la repeats 3 times.

For our tea George cooked a BBQ.

Around the campfire we did sit.

As we waited for our Disco.

With our friends was very nice.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la repeats 3 times.

On our bunk beds we did sleep.

Squirrels through the glass did peep.

Altogether it was sweet.

With our friends was very nice.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la repeats 3 times.

Oh yes we love Norman Pannell.

It is worth all the travel.

And all the teachers are so cool.

Sha-la-la-la-la-la-la.

And all the teachers are so cool.

Access to our super-tall abseiling and climbing tower is now a much easier proposition, with the completion of the path work we posted about recently.

The path is now fully tarmaced and lined, not only making access easier and more pleasant, but also making the site more attractive we feel.

With BTCV on site again at the moment, there’l be more site improvements to post about soon.

It may be a sunny scorcher out there, but nothing is going to stop work continuing apace on improving Barnstondale Centre.

With 3 days work done already and 2 more to go, the improvements to the access path to the legendary Barnstondale climbing wall are looking great!

The new wood linings will certainly add to the character of the woodland location of the climbing wall, as well as conserving it. Once the pilings are completed the path will be fully tarmaced, greatly improving access to the wall. We’ll bring you photos of that once its complete!

Speaking of conservation, the ongoing works by the BTCV volunteers are really starting to bear fruit.

You can see photos of the new (and very inviting) woodland dale path, river revetments and river access steps below.

Like industial DaVinci’s, the line painters visited us at the weekend to get the lines down on our new Multi Use Games Area (MUGA) at last.

The MUGA has already been a roaring success with our visitors and guests since it was opened and now its even better, allowing it to be used for even more exciting sporting and gaming endeavours. The line markings mean that visiting groups can now play football, basketball, mini tennis, netball and volleyball. Great fun for everyone!

Have a look at the before and after shots….what was already a great facility is now even better!

We’ll be waving goodbye to our guests from Abbots Lea school and Matthew Arnold school tomorrow, who have both had great weeks at Barnstondale Centre. There’s some very happy looking children - and tired looking teachers! - around the centre right now.

North West Pilots will be arriving on Friday evening for the weekend and they’ll be joined by The Salvation Army when they come for the day on Saturday. Once Monday rolls around we’ll be welcoming Higher Bebington Junior School for a few days. Lets hope the weather is kind to them all!

The British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (www.btcv.org) do absolutely vital work in helping to maintain areas of the British countryside, keeping it beautiful and useable. We’re delighted to have them at Barnstondale!

With a number of ongoing projects in the dale we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the weeks and months to come. The river retment work is already completed, as BTCV project manager Alison explained, with work beginning on putting in steps to a dipping platform (as you can see below in the photo slideshow). Other work to be done incudes path reinstatement, river clearing and improving the flow and creating a nature trail.

The BTCV work often goes unseen or unapplauded, but not at Barnstondale! We’re very grateful for all their hard work so far and the work that’s to come yet. We’ll be sure to post some more updates on their work soon, but in the meantime you can view a slideshow of photos of their work today, or click here to go to the flickr photoset to view individual photos.

Don’t worry, its not an emergency, but with another Bank Holiday rolling around its all go here at Barnstondale Centre.

If there was an emergency we’d be well covered this weekend, however, as we welcome St John’s Ambulance Cadets course to the centre, who’ll be sharing the site with Kingsway Fellowship from Waterloo.

Next week Foxfield School from Upton will be arriving for 4 days and Gilmour Juniors from Garston are here for 3 days. We’re sure they’ll be in for a memorable time.

We’re always happy to welcome new visitors to Barnstondale Centre, so if you’ve never been before then feel free to contact us to find out more!

Danielle Evans, a regular at Barnstondale Centre during our Adventure days, has been selected to play football for England at the forthcoming Deaflympics in Taipei.

The 21st running of this prestigious sports event runs from the 5th to the 15th September and Barnstondale Centre is very proud to be sponsoring Danielle to represent her country on the football pitch.

Everyone here wishes Danielle and the whole team every success!