The Duchess of Bedford supports release of hedgehogs at Woburn Abbey
Today, 28 hedgehogs were released back into the wild at Woburn Abbey Gardens. The founder, Trustees and volunteers from Andrew’s Hedgehog Hospital released the animals, with the support of The Duchess of Bedford, patron for the charity.
From left to right; Jan Fennell (Trustee), The Duchess of Bedford (Patron),Frank Tett (Founder)
Andrew’s Hedgehog Hospital was founded by Mrs & Mrs Tett in 1993, who started to look after 3 hedgehogs in their house and expanded the fantastic charity from there. Between April and December last year, 576 hedgehogs came through the hospital where the team worked tirelessly to nurse them back to health before they are ready to return to their natural habitat.
Woburn Abbey Gardens is one of 5 release sites and according to Andrew’s Hedgehog Hospital Trustee Jan Fennell; ‘Woburn offers the best release site, everybody is on board, everybody does what they can and the Family support is exceptional’
This is the second release at Woburn Abbey and before the release last year there were no hedgehogs in the Woburn Abbey Gardens. It’s important to repopulate areas like this with hedgehogs as numbers have dwindled over the last few years.
The Abbey Gardens is a particularly suitable environment for hedgehogs to thrive, there is a large expanse of garden to roam in and it’s fully fenced off keeping out natural predators such as badgers. The hedgehogs enjoy lots of natural cover and hibernation spaces, there’s also plenty of food available to them in the gardens.
Andrew Grout, Head of Gardens at Woburn Abbey said; “We are proud to be working with Andrew’s Hedgehog Hospital and to have facilitated another successful release today. Our Gardeners work hard to ensure we protect and encourage the wildlife in our gardens and releasing these little ones today is part of our overall commitment to ensure we protect a balanced biodiverse environment.”
Woburn Abbey and Gardens are open to visitors daily until 1st September, for further information visit www.woburnabbey.co.uk
Photo: Andrew Grout, Head of Gardens at Woburn Abbey
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Woburn Abbey and Gardens
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- Given to the Russell family by Henry VIII in 1547, Woburn Abbey has been the family home of the Earls and Dukes of Bedford since the early 17th century. Today it is home to the 15th Duke of Bedford and his family.
- Over 500 years the Russell family have created a fascinating cultural, social and political history, at the forefront of our national heritage.
- Woburn Abbey is open to the public daily until 1st September 2019.
- The Woburn Abbey Collection includes important works by artists such as Rembrandt, Claude Lorrain, Aelbert Cuyp, Sir Anthony vanDyck, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and 24 views of Venice by Canaletto.
- Woburn Abbey is the home of afternoon tea; the quintessential English tradition popularised in the 1840s by Duchess Anna Maria, wife of the 7th Duke of Bedford.
- In 1804 Humphry Repton created the designs for Woburn Park and Gardens. Today his designs can be enjoyed within 28 acres of award-winning, beautiful and historic gardens, which have been extensively restored based on his original plans.
- Woburn Abbey’s Deer Park covers 3,000 acres and is home to nine species of deer making it one of the largest private conservation parks in Europe.
- The present Duke and Duchess of Bedford have been managing the estates since 2002.
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