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We have now
been in our current hospital building since 2001. If you are along term
supporter of Vale Wildlife
you will remember that we desperately needed a new hospital
building, and had been trying for some time to raise the money to have one
built. Although we have been in the building for some time we have left these
pages available to give some background to its history.
When the new building
was completed we were all pretty excited about it.
First and foremost, of course, this is because it will allowed us to continue to
treat, and hopefully improve the treatment of, the ever increasing numbers of
injured and sick wildlife that will undoubtedly be brought to us in the coming
years. But the building itself is quite exciting in its own right, and its
construction has a number of unusual aspects to it – you may have noticed the
grass and wild flower roof in the picture above!
Construction
The whole building is designed to be as environmentally-friendly as possible,
using Scandinavian standards of insulation throughout. It rests on conventional
foundations and damp-proof courses. But there the similarity with a conventional
building ends! The walls are timber-framed with a damp-proofing membrane on both
the inside and outside faces of the frame, and a 140mm thick layer of insulation
between.
On the
exterior surfaces there is a two-inch air gap, which further aids insulation,
followed by timber cladding using tanalised timber from a source which plants
more trees than are felled. This results in a building which blends in with its
natural surroundings – it will start off a light brown/green colour but will
mellow over time to a silverish/grayish colour. The fact that the building is
only a single storey with a flat roof also aids in this respect.
The interior
surfaces are lined with a material called Fermacell. This is a sheet material a
little like plasterboard in appearance, but tough (it will be painted directly
with a special easy-clean paint), strong (cupboards and shelves can be hung on
it), highly insulating of both noise and heat, fire retardant, and capable of
withstanding the occasional liquid spill. Fermacell is a relatively new material
in this country, but has been extensively used in mainland Europe for many
years.
The windows
and doors are triple-glazed which again provides very high levels of heat and
noise insulation. In fact the building far exceeds the most stringent of
insulation regulations in this country – a fact which will not only reduce our
heating costs to 1/3 of those of our current building (we hope!), but which is
also beneficial to the patients within – throughout spring and summer we look
after many babies which need to be kept warm, and all our wildlife patients
benefit from as much peace and quiet as possible to reduce stress.
The roof is
again based on a timber frame, but with double-glazed skylights over the
corridors to make use of as much natural light as possible. The remainder of the
roof is covered in several layers which support the growing of grass and
wildflowers without causing problems (soil would be far too heavy). The first
layer is a very tough rubber-like layer which provides basic waterproofing.
Above this is a corrugated layer which provides channels for water to run to the
guttering at the eaves. To prevent the channels being clogged by soil, leaves
etc. this is topped by a fibrous membrane which lets water through but blocks
particles of anything else that finds its way up there. Finally there is a layer
several inches thick of a horticultural-grade rockwool-like material which will
be planted with grass and wild flower seeds.
Layout
Please click on the thumbnail of the plan to view it in detail. Please note that
it may take a few seconds to download.
At the heart
of our day-to-day activities is the kitchen. This is where, every day, hundreds
of portions of food are prepared, mountains of washing up get done, and piles of
towels get washed. So at the heart of the new hospital is an expanded kitchen
and laundry room designed to be easily accessible not only from the outside but
also from the main animal wards. The wards too are larger than our current
rooms, which frequently operate at greater-than-capacity during our busy summer
months!
We are often
asked if it is possible to look round the inside of the hospital, and it is with
great regret that we always have to refuse. This is because one of the greatest
sources of stress to wildlife is close human contact, and we would be doing the
patients more harm than good if there was a continuous stream of people nearby
(birds, for example, can even die from such stress). And where baby animals are
being looked after, it is of paramount importance that they do not become used
to human company if they are to be released successfully.
So to allow
visitors to be able to see what goes on inside without compromising the care we
give to the patients, our two main wards, the small mammal ward and the bird
ward, will be fitted with one-way glass in the main windows. Doors lead from the
public reception/educational display area to these windows. We also hope
eventually to be able to have closed-circuit television displays in the display
area.
Anyone who
has called Vale Wildlife after hours will know that we provide round-the-clock
emergency cover every day of the year. Currently this is provided by those
members of staff who live nearby or on-site, and who have to work a full day,
provide night-time cover, and then work a full day the next day, often with
rings around the eyes! To enable this workload to be shared more, the new
building has an overnight room available to those who do not live quite so
close.
To better
cope with a large influx of oiled sea birds, which we have had trouble dealing
with in the past due to shear numbers, the birds of prey room also doubles as a
bird washing room. Most of the floor area is sunken, with a drain in the middle.
This will allow us to get very wet indeed!
Money
Many thanks to everyone who sent in donations for the hospital fund. Although the
building is complete we are always pleased to receive new donations as we have
the ongoing maintenance of the building to consider as well as the ever
increasing number of injured and orphaned patients we deal with - and we are
also keen to develop new facilities.such as the education centre. If you wish to
donate please click on this link to find out how.
Building Work
Click on this link to take you to a page with
snapshots showing the history of the building work!
Vale Wildlife Rescue
Registered charity No. 702888
email
info@vwr.org.uk
telephone - 01386 882288 (treatment & rehabilitation)
Last updated
19 May, 2008
Please note that all photos and articles
on this site are copyright Vale Wildlife Rescue
Please do not copy or use any material
from this site without seeking our approval
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