What’s in a name?

Well quite a lot actually. Names are very important; we have named all the plants and animals here (and I don’t mean Marjorie the mallard), for example, the ‘rams horn snail’, it does exactly what is says on the tin. Naming the wildlife is really helpful because it allows us to keep accurate details of the flora and fauna in the valley; even down to the last mushroom, they all need names.  

We name landscape features like mountains and rivers, the river Tame for example runs through the nature reserve. Names give identity and familiarity to the world and it allows it to understand it better and to recall places we have been to. Not to mention the fact that you and I have names.

So what am I going on about? Well, there is a point in there somewhere. Since I started my role back in February this year, I have been on a quest to search for a name for the new visitor centre; I wanted it to be something positive and memorable; inspiring and relevant. This building means a lot to a lot of people so giving it a special name felt like the right thing to do.

The hunt was on.

We started by asking EVERYONE for their suggestions. We asked visitors, staff, volunteers, people on social media, basically anyone who came into contact with us. It was actually harder that we initially thought, coming up for a name for a building was tricky, as buildings often adopt names over time naturally anyway, but this hadn’t been built yet. The tool shed, for example, is know to staff and volunteers here as ‘the tardis’ because (you guessed it) it seems so much bigger on the inside.

After a couple of months we had gathered over 100 suggestions. Our next job was to whittle it down. We wanted to get local people to vote for their favourite, and 100 was just too many to choose from. We recruited our community forum volunteers to go through the names and choose the best two. After lots of deliberation and lots of tea and coffee (and biscuits), ‘the view’ and ‘nature’s reach’ made it to the final.

The vote was on!

You decided, the votes were counted and verified, we are happy to announce the name of the new visitor centre..................

Nature’s reach!

Nadia