Bringing nature to life at the home of Rolls-Royce

Over the intervening years, we have seen changes in approaches to conservation, notably the emphasis on ‘rewilding’ and we wanted to enhance our own project in line with these developments. We also felt it was important to respond to people’s renewed engagement with and concern for local environment, prompted by the pandemic by enhancing the Wildlife Garden’s features and habitats. 

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We believe it is absolutely appropriate to involve children in this endeavour. Preserving wildlife and habitat really matters to them because it is their future at stake. As our recent international competition to design the Rolls-Royce of the future vividly demonstrated, children see the world with exceptional clarity, imagination and openness; they bring forward ideas that we, as adults, too easily overlook, dismiss or never even consider. I am intrigued to see what they come up with!”

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Aspiring young designers and naturalists are being invited to submit their ideas for a new feature in the Wildlife Garden, at the Home of Rolls-Royce, in a United Kingdom nationwide competition launched on Thursday 25 February.

The company is asking children aged from five to 11 to suggest features that would enhance the Wildlife Garden and its habitat value to UK flora and fauna. As well as ideas to nurture wildlife, such as pollinator-friendly plants, trees and flowers, bird feeders, bug hotels and nest-boxes, children can design seats, shelters, sculpture and other items that would make the Garden more appealing to Goodwood’s human population, too.

The Wildlife Garden occupies a small, secluded area of the Goodwood site to the south of The Drive, just inside the main gates. Established as part of the original landscaping when the plant was built in the early 2000s, it provides excellent habitat for a wide variety of plants, insects, birds and animals native to the south of England. 

Other frequent visitors to the Wildlife Garden include the inhabitants of the Goodwood Apiary, a colony of around 250,000 English Honey Bees housed in six suitably palatial hives in a secluded location elsewhere on the site. The bees are responsible for producing ‘the Rolls-Royce of honey’, a rare and exquisite natural bounty reserved exclusively for the marque’s customers and VIP guests.

Rolls-Royce is working with two key partners on the project, which lies close to both the ancient cathedral city of Chichester and the boundary of the South Downs National Park.

Councillor Penny Plant, Cabinet Member for Environment and Chichester Contract Services at Chichester District Council said: “The Rolls-Royce Wildlife Garden sits within our proposed Strategic Wildlife Corridor, running east of the city, one of several connecting Chichester and Pagham Harbour with the South Downs National Park. Wildlife corridors are incredibly important for protecting biodiversity, particularly pollinators, by linking areas of habitat that have been fragmented by human activity. The Wildlife Garden forms a vital link in this chain of habitat, and will benefit honeybees, bumblebees, butterflies, and bats, among other species. We’re really proud to be supporting this project that will help to safeguard our district’s diverse wildlife – a key aim of our Strategic Wildlife Corridors project and Local Plan Review.” 

Julie Fawcett, Chair of the South Downs National Park Trust, said: “We’ve worked with Rolls-Royce for a number of years, notably on its wonderful Goodwood Apiary project. We’re delighted to support this development of the Wildlife Garden and a National Park Ranger will also be carrying out a formal wildlife survey. 

It’s inspiring to see major local companies taking a real, tangible interest in their surrounding environment, and making an important contribution to the ecological health of the wider area. Nature doesn’t recognise boundaries, so a key aspect of the National Park’s Nature Recovery Strategy is to help create a network of wildlife havens right across the South East. This Wildlife Garden is nature recovery in action and it’s great to see people collaborating to boost biodiversity.”

Gillian Keegan, Member of Parliament for Chichester, said, “I encourage everyone locally to get involved in this exciting project. This is a great opportunity for children to make a lasting contribution to our area and provide a space to benefit nature. The next generation is hugely aware of the challenges facing our environment and I look forward to seeing the wonderful ideas that come from the competition to improve our natural habitat.”For more details of the Rolls-Royce Wildlife Garden Competition please visit: www.rolls-roycewildlifegarden.com