News Item (13-05-2010)

Her Royal Highness, the Princess Royal was present at the opening of a Biffaward funded project earlier this week.

Princess Anne officially opened the new facilities at the Suffolk Punch Trust, who recently expanded their site with the development of a new educational suite, thanks to a £50,000 grant from Biffaward.

The funding provided by Biffaward allowed the Suffolk Punch Trust to create a site that would provide indoor and outdoor learning/training facilities to enhance the experience of visitors to the site.

The new site, which is set to benefit over 25,000 people, was officially opened by Princess Anne during the morning of Wednesday 12th May. Arriving by helicopter, the Princess was given a tour of the site, meeting all individuals involved with the project, and finally ending up in the main reception were she gave a speech and announced the centre officially open.

Chairman Philip Ryder-Davies said:

“We were delighted to have the Princess Royal officially open the new centre. She has given her full support to the work we do and it was an honour to be able to welcome her back to Suffolk Punch Trust again.”

The Suffolk Punch Trust purchased the 200 acre farm in 2006 from HM Prison Services. The site was created in order to protect and expand the rare Suffolk Punch breed, and also make the horses more accessible to the public. It is also a celebration of the County of Suffolk, showing the other breeds of Suffolk farm animals, Red Poll cattle, Suffolk sheep and Large Black pigs. The farm has been put down to permanent grass and hedges are being re-instated to create an environment of small fields, a rare type in Suffolk. The site also includes a large collection of horse drawn vehicles and implements, all in working condition, and an Exhibition Hall illustrating aspects of Suffolk rural life. The Education Centre has two fully equipped lecture rooms.