Nature Features

The Ted Hughes Poetry Trail takes in the lake

There is much to celebrate at Stover Country Park from the fact that it's home to 21 species of dragonfly to the Ted Hughes Poetry Trail but in April 2009 the site is also marking a special anniversary.

The park - which has an intriguing rags-to-riches history - is celebrating 30 years of being owned and managed by Devon County Council.

The modern park owes much to Exeter orphan James Templer, who left the country at 14 to make his fortune in India where he helped to build Madras docks.

On his return he bought a rundown estate in 1765 - which stretched from Hay Tor to Newton Abbot and had Stover Country Park in the middle of it.

Templer replaced the old house, Stoford Lodge, and in 1777 built himself a large mansion house in the Palladian style which he named Stover House - now a private school.

He also undertook a landscaping scheme including the construction of the 12-acre lake - which only the hardiest visitors were able to access when the county council originally bought the site in 1979 from the Forestry Commission.

Photographs of the park's past will be on show

Back then it was "pretty overgrown and impenetrable," according to ranger Laura Whitehouse.

"When the county council bought it a team came and built the paths and bridges to make it accessible and it was for informal recreation - there weren't any toilets or a cafe.

"And when I started in 1993 there was a Portakabin in the car park which doubled as an office and interpretation centre and the computer - when we got one - was at my boss' house in Kingsteignton."

The tools were also kept in a store at Kingsteignton.

"You had to be very organised - if you needed a screwdriver it would be quite a drive to get what you needed."

In 1996 an office was built and in 2000 a Visitor's Centre.

"That's made a big difference, the number of schools visiting has rocketed since then," says Laura.

Ron Champion volunteers at Stover Country Park

And as well as the 50 or so school groups who come each year and make use of the outdoor classroom, more than 200,000 other people visit.

They can explore the 114-acre Site of Special Scientific Interest, use the aerial walkway opened in 2003 or follow the Ted Hughes Poetry Trail - which opened in 2006.

The park boasts six main habitat types:  freshwater, marshland, coniferous plantation, mixed broadleaved woodland, lowland heath and grassland and is home to a substantial variety of wildlife including nightjars and dormice.

A new photographic exhibition charting the past 30 years of the park will also be on show at the visitor's centre until the end of September.

Stover is collaborating with BBC Breathing Places

The park is also using the anniversary to launch a collaboration with the BBC's Breathing Places campaign to raise public awareness of nature and wildlife.

As well as the site's four permanent staff a number of volunteers devote their time to helping at Stover.

The latest project they have completed is a new bird hide to mark the 30th anniversary celebrations - supported financially by donations from the Stover Country Park Association and Devon Bird Watching and Preservation Society.

One volunteer, Ron Champion, says the job has been a very challenging but enjoyable project.

"I feel I'm just simply putting something back into the park," he said.