Bird boxes provide safe refuge for wildlife at Handforth Station

Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) have teamed up with Barnies Community Hub to instal bird boxes and various other animal homes.

The hub provides activities for people with many types of disability within the local community.

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Barry Burkhill, a much missed FoHS committee member who died in November 2022, nominated the charity.

Volunteers made bird boxes and other animal homes in a workshop.

Friends of Handforth Station and Barnies Community Hub with the bird boxes (Image: Friends of Handforth Station)

To celebrate the installation of the handmade wooden boxes, members of Barnies were invited to a tour of the station and its artworks. Northern Trains community officer Becky Styles joined the group.

The party then enjoyed tea, coffee and cakes in The Railway pub next to Handforth Station.

Volunteers instal a hedgehog box (Image: Friends of Handforth Station)

The refreshments were provided free of charge by the landlady as ‘a service for the local community’.

Volunteers installing one of the bird boxes (Image: Friends of Handforth Station)

Lesley Christiansen, from Barnies Community Garden woodcraft team, said: “We were very pleased to be able to support the work of Friends of Handforth Station.

Volunteers installing bird boxes at Handforth Station (Image: Friends of Handforth Station)

“We have provided a number of bird boxes, hedgehog homes and bat boxes, to encourage and protect the wildlife that lives around Handforth Station.”

Birds now have a safe home at Handforth Station (Image: Friends of Handforth Station)

Ian Ball, treasurer of FoHS, said: “People often forget that the large number of trees and bushes around a small station like Handforth attracts not only birds but other wildlife.

“We hope that the constructs provided by Barnies will encourage their proliferation.”