Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre

The Future of the Visitor Centre

True to the tradition of Robin Hood, Nottinghamshire County Council has proposed plans for an exciting new visitors centre at Sherwood Forest which will be free admission for all to visit.

If approved by the Council’s Cabinet on 26 November and subject to funding approvals from partners the £10.5m new centre is planned to open in 2010 and hopes to attract an extra 25% of visitors which will help the region by generating £7.5m of additional annual income and support around 310 new jobs.

The 32-year old existing visitors’ centre which currently attracts 400,000 visitors a year needs to be relocated due to an agreement made in 2002 between Natural England and Nottinghamshire County Council which designated Sherwood Forest as a National Nature Reserve.

The iconic new centre which is being designed and project managed by Nottinghamshire County Council will include the following zones:

• Welcome - providing gathering / waiting space and a tourist information point
• Catering - including café and restaurant for up to 180 people, with an external terrace
• Retail - selling a range of products which are different from local traders, in order to enhance and not duplicate existing trade
• Learning - classrooms to educate school children and adults on conservation and the special ecology of Sherwood
• Space - for conferences, weddings, functions or corporate use.

The main attraction inside the centre will be a visitor experience, which takes visitors on a journey through a series of areas which educate and entertain.  The main show is a circular 360 degree film presentation telling the history of the forest through the eyes of one of its oldest inhabitants - the Major Oak.

Land for the new site has been purchased by the County Council from Thoresby Estates.  Know locally as “Naish‘s Field“ the site is east of the B6034 and in easy walking distance to the Major Oak and the other veteran oaks but is outside of the National Nature Reserve boundary.

Outdoor features of the site will include:

Car parking for up to 750 vehicles

• Picnic area and children’s play area
• Bridge linking visitors from the visitor centre to the National Nature Reserve
• Bus stop and provision for bicycles to encourage sustainable travel methods

Five facts about the new Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre

Why do we need it?

In 2005, Sherwood Forest became a National Nature Reserve. Natural England (www.natural-england.gov.uk) and Nottinghamshire County Council together signed an agreement to work together towards better management of this very special place.  The current visitor centre, built nearly 30 years ago, is located amongst some of the most ancient oaks of the forest.  In order to better conserve the forest for the future, we need to remove the old centre and its car parks, and relocate to a new site outside the National Nature Reseve boundary. The agreed target date for this is 2010. It's not an option. Nottinghamshire County Council has a legal duty to work towards this.

The current centre has served us well, but visitor surveys show that many tourists and centre users feel it is now "tired".  Sherwood Forest is arguably the most famous forest in the world. The area deserves a more up to date and energy efficient visitor centre to tell the story of our famous forest and Robin Hood, its best known hero.

Where will the new centre be?

The County Council has purchased land from Thoresby Estates to the east of the B6034 not far from the current site but outside the National Nature Reserve boundary.  This is the land known locally as "Naish's Field".  Here is an aerial view of the new site [PDF 789KB]

Consultation with local people and other stakeholders showed that this was the most practical and least problematical of seven sites identified in the 2004 feasibility study.  It is close enough to the ancient forest to allow people to walk into the ancient forest, but far enough away to keep buildings and car parks out of the most ecologically sensitive woodland.

What will the new centre look like?

The tall "Tree" design proposed for the Living Landmarks bid has now been abandoned.  The design we are now proposing is a low, single storey curved building, which will sit unobtrusively in the landscape.  The site is sloping, and earth banking and tree planting will help the building follow the contours of the landscape.  As soon as we have an artists' impression of the new building, we will add it to this page.

Will you close the B6034?

The only real problem of the new site is that it is located on the opposite side of the road (the B6034) from the ancient woodland. The Living Landmarks proposals looked at the feasibility of closing the road. This proved very unpopular with local people.  So it has been dropped. There is now NO intention to seek closure of the B6034. The new designs include a bridge to get visitors safely across into the woodland.

How Many Visitors Will The New Centre Aim to Attract?

The present Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre attracts 400,000 visitors per year. This is a decline from higher figures in past years. For example, in the year the Kevin Costner "Prince of Thieves" movie was released, we estimate that around 750,000 visitors used the centre.  

The Living Landmarks proposal aimed at 1M visitors.  But the current, smaller scale scheme for a new Sherwood Forest Visitor Center will be designed to service roughly 500,000 visitors per year.  We believe that this lower and more modest increase will avoid causing inconvenience for local residents by overloading local roads and services.  

We also aim to give visiting tourists more and better information about what to see and do in the wider Sherwood Forest area. By this means we hope to "spread the load" and avoid too heavy a concentration of visitors in honeypot areas. There are plenty of great attractions in North Nottinghamshire, from family farm parks to cycle hire centres, and a new visitor centre can better promote these.

And Finally.....

If you are a Nottinghamshire resident interested in plans for the new Sherwood Forest send your email address and we will keep you updated on progress. You may even want to join on online forum to help guide our plans. If so, please e-mail: linda.hardy@nottscc.gov.uk with your contact details.