The café at Essex Wildlife Trust’s Chafford Gorges Nature Discovery Centre reopened on Friday 6 November, with a fantastic response from visitors over its first weekend. 

Reopening the café marks an important step in bringing the Centre back to life as a welcoming space for the local community. 

Theresa Frappell, Project Manager at Essex Wildlife Trust, says: “It’s been fantastic to see such a positive response to the café reopening. It’s lovely to see people coming back through the doors and enjoying Chafford Gorges again.”

The reopening follows on from a series of local engagement events, including a Community Open Day held in September, where local community members were invited to feed into the vision of the site to help create its future.

Well-behaved dogs on leads are welcome in the Centre and a selection of coffee, tea and cakes are available, with views overlooking Warren Gorge.

Theresa continues, “This is about much more than coffee and cake. We want the Centre to become a welcoming community space where people can discover the incredible wildlife and heritage on their doorstep, connect with nature and find ways to get involved. The café is an important first step, and we’re really excited about what comes next.”

Chafford Gorges features a network of pathways around lakes, meadows and woodland in amongst the backdrop of the iconic chalk cliffs from its industrial past. The reserve is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to its importance for wildlife, including an array of native orchid species, rare invertebrates and an abundance of wildfowl on the lakes.

Essex Wildlife Trust are now developing a programme of events, activities, workshops and opportunities to get involved in wildlife and conservation.