I was impressed with the display of fantastic OXFORDSHIRE GROWN flowers at the wedding yesteray at Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre.
The wedding flowers were provided by the brilliant Green and Gorgeous.
Locally grown flowers fit perfectly with the ethos of the venue, of course. The family also collected wild ivy from the farm to adorn the Oak Room, doorways and arches. The place looked great!
Jason Ball
We are now able to show you a film about the Food for Life Partnership Awards Ceremony 2009, which was hosted here at Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre.
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall believes strongly in the value of the Food for Life programme, which encourages children and school staff to rediscover food. With the FFL programme’s emphasis on sustainable, healthy food, the Eco Conference Centre was an ideal setting.
Hugh said, “It’s impossible to exaggerate how important it is to feed our kids well when they’re at school. Their physical, mental and even emotional development depends on us getting it exactly right.”
He presented silver and gold awards to those who made the most outstanding impact on their local and school food culture. The star pupils took part in cookery workshops on FFL’s Cooking Bus and enjoyed a tour of Sheepdrove Organic Farm.
One of our clients today was WREN – Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd – who brought their local network to Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre for farm tours and lunch.
A tractor and trailer took everyone around the organic farm enterprise, guided by agriculture expert Faye. Spring lambs, piglets, chickens and cattle all looked wonderful in the warm sunshine. They followed the Organic Farm Tour with a Reedbed Ramble, led by our resident naturalist Jason Ball. Everyone was impressed with the reedbed, which treats all our waste water and is packed with life – today’s springtime stars being the frogs gathered to breed at the wildflife pond.
Lunch today was organic Shepherd’s Pie, or Gardener’s Pie for vegetarians, with seasonal roast root vegetables and spring leaf salad. Dessert was Lemon Pudding with cream.
What is WREN?
Advisory members, with knowledge of the the area’s environmental needs, participate in the WREN network to help ensure the best allocation of local grants. WREN receives the majority of its funding from the landfill tax levied by Waste Recycling Group.
“the best visit we have ever done” – Peter Trentham
Go to any exhibition on ‘eco building’, and you soon notice that more and more companies are trying to sell their goods and services by using a big ‘environment friendly’ message. Everything from PVC to concrete. But not all eco materials are born equal!
Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre, with its Douglas Fir timber frame, Cedar shingles and weatherboards, re-used foundations, and rammed chalk wall, is an outstanding example of eco architecture. The SECC won a special award for its sustainable design in the 2005 Civic Trust Awards, for its efficiency in energy and water use, as well as the eco-friendly materials used in the unique construction, interior and furniture.
Juliet and Peter Kindersley had a strong ethical vision for the building, and a sense of the cultural atmosphere that the conference centre should have when it came to life. As a result of the creative input from Juliet and Peter, there are many beautiful touches to the interior design, some of which draw attention to the eco-friendly materials around you.
The grand, white wall of chalk is reused material, originally being dug out to clear the way for the west wing of the building. The bathrooms are adorned with panels made out of recycled shampoo bottles and toothpaste tubes – and the sinks sparkle with thousands of fragments from recycled CDs! The green credentials of the toilets are completed with the water-saving taps and loos, and even the paints are environment-friendly and water-based.
Our recycled plastic sinks and loo panels were supplied by Smile Plastics (www.smile-plastics.co.uk) whose products also feature in the Kitchens of Recycled Content (www.milestone.uk.net/eco/recycledkitchen.htm). How brilliant that these products are now more available than ever to mainstream consumers! To any green-minded kitchen makers and interior designers, Revolve-UK’s coasters made of recycled yoghurt pots might be of interest too.
The construction industry might soon use recycled plastic shuttering made by 2k Manufacturing. Why would that be better than wooden shuttering? The key to a green star for this EcoSheet is that, if broken, it can be reconstituted and used again. The special processes employed by 2k Manufacturing means that the shuttering would not be thrown away – as happens with the marine plywood on most building sites.
Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre 
