We feel so lucky to live and work here in the Surrey Hills. A beautiful landscape, an area of outstanding natural beauty. With this in mind we were keen to find a way to help our local environment and re-use the materials we work with.
Ella from Shere Kitchens & Lucy Letley from Albury Vineyard decided to collaborate in conservation by making a bug hotel for creepy crawlies, possibly the most 5-star, luxurious accommodation that any bug, bee or beetle could ever desire.
Children from the Hedgehog cohort at Shere C of E Infant School were invited to help & enthusiastically put the finishing touches to the de-luxe bug hotel at its grand opening. They inserted hollow bamboo canes and gathered sticks, grass and wood to make a ground-floor nesting site for small animals as well as bugs. There was great excitement when the first creepy crawlies found in the undergrowth were introduced to their new home. Thank you, Year 1 at Shere C of E Infant School! You bought bucket-loads of enthusiasm and asked lots of fantastic questions. They really got into the spirit of the afternoon, making pillows for the bugs with moss, creating crowns from goose-grass & thinking about how important it is to re-use materials.
“I love the bug house because we got to help make it,” said one of the boys.
Vineyard owner Nick Wenman explained, “More than 80% of EU crops rely on a severely declining bug population for pollination. We are delighted to be working with Shere Kitchens to improve the bug population here at Albury and the Bug Hotel is a great way to help educate local school children on the importance of pollinators to the environment. We very much welcome anyone who is interested to come and visit us, enjoy a glass of our organic wine and visit the Bug Hotel.”
Our apprentice Tomas Baker created the bug hotel from wood off-cuts left over from making our bespoke kitchens. He made such fantastic job if it, we are so proud of him developing his wood working skills.
Our kitchens celebrate the beauty of wood and now our off-cuts have made a beautiful home for bugs - we’re really pleased to be able to do something so positive for our environment and community.
Being members of the Surrey Hills Enterprises is a key inspiration for our conservation efforts. We hope the lucky bugs at Albury Vineyard will thrive in our bug hotel & we’re looking forward to making more from off-cuts in 2020 across the Surrey Hills.