Educational Activities

Education Work

The Coast Project has had an excellent response from two schools in the catchment area of Hendon, Grangetown and Ryhope who are keen to help with the project’s conservation and educational aims. St Paul’s CE Primary in Ryhope are currently working on a long-term project involving the restoration of a locally extinct butterfly, while Valley Road Academy in Hendon are working on promoting awareness of our existing rarities with an art project.

Miss A. Wadge and her Year 4 class from St Paul’s are attempting to bring back to the area one of our iconic butterfly’s, the Northern Brown Argus, known locally as the Durham Argus butterfly. This butterfly was once found on the Ryhope cliff tops, but sadly, it has not been recorded for some time now. Year 4 have successfully been growing Rock Rose plants from seeds; Rock Rose is the food plant of the Durham Argus Caterpillar.

The Coast Ranger will also be taking cuttings from existing plants and Year 4 will take care of them until they are ready to be planted out. The children have already planted out some Rock Rose on the cliff tops above Ryhope Village Dene, they also planted Wild Thyme, which is another favourite food plant of the Durham Argus Butterfly. We have received great support with this project, as the plants were kindly donated by our friends from the National Trust, and the residents closest to Ryhope Village Dene have allowed watering cans to be filled to keep the newly planted Rock Rose hydrated. This project will hopefully be rolled out along the whole of the North-east coastline, with support from the Butterfly Conservation.