Gosling Sike Farm is not one of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s largest sites. And it is not as valuable a conservation area as some of the wetlands or woods that the trusts looks after.

But it's valuable for the work it allows them to do. And it is set to become its headquarters in northern Cumbria.

At the moment there’s only a portable building on the site. But the trust are about to submit plans for a proper, permanent building there. “It’s going to have offices to work from, proper classrooms for school groups and storage for tools,” explains conservation manager David Harpley.

“We’re hoping it will be open from the late spring or early summer next year, if all goes according to plan.”

The new, permanent base in Houghton will become the HQ from where north Cumbrian sites like Drumburgh Moss, Eycott Hill, Orton Moss and Wreay Woods will be managed. And it will prove much handier than their other base, in Kendal.

“It will allow us to do more,” David says. “When we have to head up to somewhere in the north of the county it can take almost half a day to get there and another half to come back.

“It will completely transform what we can do.”

The trust have owned the 36-acre site in Houghton since 2012, when it was given to them by organic farmer Susan Aglionby, and have turned it into an important area for nature.

Rare Longhorn cattle graze there, spreading wildflower seeds as they go and so helping encourage butterflies. Ponds have been created, bringing in dragonflies and damson flies and birds such as snipe, herons, lapwings, curlews, moorhens and coots.

Another important job there has been to introduce more bends and meanders into Gosling Sike, the stream through the land.

Varying currents help the fish and longer banks encourage insects and their predators. “The creatures that live in and around water depend on the edges,” David says. “So the longer we make them the better.”