Turbine opens for Open House

Last Friday 21 September we finally turned on our Archimedes Screw turbine, much to the delight of Morden Hall Park's staff and volunteers who had gathered to see it.

Staff and volunteers watch the turbine being turned on (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

We then did tours of both the turbine and the stable yard for visitors coming to see us as part of Open House Weekend. Everyone seemed suitably impressed!

 Chas, volunteer tour guide, leads a tour of the turbine for Open House (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

     Visitors look inside the generator housing (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

The safety cover is now over the Screw, but it can still be seen clearly through it. We're now just finishing off the landscaping around it - installing a path so that people can get round it easily and painting the railings.

  

The cover is installed over the Screw in 3 sections (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

Gareth of Stennett Landscapes starts building a fence around the site (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

The turbine turning - with the green eel pass and frothy fish pass next to it (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

The site isn't yet open all the time, but group tours can be booked in advance or individuals can ask in the Livinggreen Exhibition in the stable yard if there is someone available to show them around.

Clocks, carriages and cheese

So we're still eagerly anticipating the turning of the turbine, but in the meantime there's always something new happening in the stable yard.

Today we finally got the stable yard clock working, after a year of getting used to it always being 11.13. There are only two people in the country who have the skills to get it working - it was disconnected for the construction works - so finally one of them was able to come here. Now visitors can stop asking why it's not working and enjoys the chimes instead.

The clock finally says 11.43 instead of 11.13 (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

The clock man from Cumbria climbs up to the clock with his head torch on (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

There's a new attraction in the middle of the stable yard too - one of the original carriages has been painted and put back in the yard. Nick, our Parks & Gardens Manager, cleverly made some planters out of an old wooden bridge, to go next to the carriage, so they're full of flowers which set it off nicely.

The carriage and flowers in front of the solar slates (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

Visitors enjoy a coffee with the new carriage and flowers (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)

Finally, if you haven't been here on a Saturday recently, you might not know that we have a farmers' market here each week - so next time you want some nice fruit, bread, fish, cheese etc, then you know where to come. It's every Saturday from 10-3.

 Visitors enjoy the new farmers' market (NTPL/Caroline Pankhurst)