Field Studies Council - Preston Montford

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FSC Preston Montford has 13 dormitory rooms with wash hand basins and separate bath/shower/toilet facilities. These can provide a total of 62 beds.

FSC Preston Montford has three single rooms, one of which is en-suite, 16 twin bedded rooms on the ground floor with wash hand basins and neighbouring shower/bath/toilet facilities – suitable for the less mobile and 16 twin bedded rooms with en-suite facilities,one of which is on the ground floor and suitable for wheelchair access.

The Main Queen Anne House is a self contained unit with its own common room and can be completely separated off from other buildings, making group management much easier. The Wenlock and Darwin blocks can also be provided as separate yet adjoining units. All buildings are in close proximity which helps to accommodate large or separate groups.

The centre has 6 workrooms in all with adjoining small soils laboratory and well stocked library. Three of the rooms are good sized field laboratory type space and can be converted to lecture rooms for larger groups. All have projection and computer facilities, flexible seating and power point availability. At present one has an interactive whiteboard.

The other three rooms are smaller, suitable for up to 25 with computer and projection facilities, whiteboards and seating for groups in islands or rows as appropriate. Workspaces can be arranged so that groups can have small interview rooms, library space, groups rooms and plenary rooms in addition to the more formal lab and lecture spaces. The centre also has an outdoor willow classroom and comfortable outdoor seating areas, some under canopy cover.

There are two common rooms with TV and DVD facilities, and a small visiting staff room. The centre workspaces are multi-use and include large screen projection of DVDs, a pool and table football room and the hire of many groups games available from the Centre shop or via our duty staff system to help people wind down from the day's work. There are student pantry areas for the provision of afternoon cake, teas, coffees and cold drinks.

The Queen Anne House has open fires and reception rooms, with the upper floors accessed via a 1700s oak staircase. The more modern Darwin and Wenlock buildings form the courtyard around the pond with some buildings looking over towards the centre's met plot and Rothamsted moth trap. The centre is also a monitoring station for the government acid rain monitoring scheme. The centre is routinely used by taxonomic and identification specialists for national recording schemes and identification courses.

There are two drying rooms and wellington boots and waterproof clothing to hire. We can also provide small day sacks and drinks bottles, vacuum flasks. The centre has well stocked field and laboratory equipment stores with items ranging from GPS to oxygen probes, surveying levels to quadrats, microscopes to mammal traps. We have a wireless network and computing facilities for student groups.

The centre also has a shop selling field guides, hand lenses and confectionary with a bar well supplied with local beers from Shropshire brewers and Hereford cider producers for adult groups and visiting staff members.

Within Preston Montford's 11 hectare estate are picnic tables and an outdoor shelter, orienteering courses, a small 5-a-side football area, a sensory garden and willow classroom, ponds, woodlands, grasslands and the Wetland Ecosystem Treatment (WET) System. The River Severn runs through the grounds and forms the borders of a geomorphological Site of Special Scientific Interest surrounded by woodland with several ancient woodland indicator species. The grasslands are mostly grazed with beef cattle as part of a Higher Level Stewardship farming scheme with the Centre's neighbour. The post glacial landscape is depositional, with underlying sands and gravels mixed with boulder clay to give an undulating landscape with damp hollows, some of which hold the Centres ponds giving many different ecosystems including a willow/reed bed. Parkland trees, meadow and rough grassland are features of the Estate with classic views across the Shropshire Cheshire plain into the Welsh foothills. Proximity to the River has enabled excellent teaching of the flooding issue, aided by the construction of storm simulation plots for geography teaching and biologists regularly use all the ecosystems on the estate, especially the willow treatment system and the ponds.

Preston Montford has a professional kitchen well used to providing high quality home cooked meals for groups of all ages. The centre's caterers are used to providing special diets, large numbers of meals simultaneously. The kitchen staff are trained to be allergy aware and are happy to talk to anyone anxious about their diet. The centre has a policy of sourcing local wherever possible and using free range eggs and favouring freedom foods. It's normal routine is to provide packed lunches for field groups, full English breakfast, afternoon tea cake and a three course evening meal.

The centre has a duty member of staff on call 24 hours a day to answer queries and to respond in an emergency. Each group is assigned their own dedicated tutor, either as their formal tutor or to support the course through assisting with enquiries from medical emergencies to photocopying. The centre's flexible office staff also help to support the courses. All field tutors are rigorously trained in group safety, first aid, incident management and customer care in line with the Learning outside the Classroom guidelines.