Making Sense

Sensory Trust, the move to Cornwall

Jane Stoneham, Sensory Trust

A visit to the Sensory Trust takes you to Watering Lane, the Eden Project’s nursery site near Pentewan. It has been home to the Sensory Trust since we moved to Cornwall in 2001. Inside the wooden building we’re easy to spot – the bunch in the corner with a clear fondness for the colour orange - which we claim is the most sensory colour as the only one to share its name with an object that treats all your primary senses, well maybe with the exception of hearing (though oranges have been known to squeal when you peel them).

The Trust has been around as a staffed organisation since 1996, but the move to Cornwall in 2001 was the start of a new phase of life. The crucial ingredient was funding. Locking me in a dark room to write funding bids turned out to be a good strategy and resulted in £550,000 for a new three year programme. The grants were a huge vote of confidence from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, DEFRA, Community Fund, Lloyds TSB Foundation and Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. Crucially, the funds supported a new team of eightpeople, who brought experience and enthusiasm from backgrounds including the arts, healthcare, community, landscape architecture, communications, operations and education.

The Sensory Trust works to open up the environment to the widest audience, with a particular focus on disabled and elderly people. Our work is diverse and we get involved in public greenspace and gardens, healthcare settings, residential developments, schools, zoos and prisons, and sometimes buildings. The inclusive design project is all to do with planning environments in a way that opens them up to the widest audience. We work with organisations and projects throughout the country, such as the Eden Project, National Trust, LEAF, Cornwall Care, Forestry Commission and a wide range of specific projects. We develop technical access criteria and involve disabled people in the process of decision making and review.

Information is also a key aspect of our work. Lack of accessible information is a major barrier to disabled people, as well as to people who don’t speak English or who are illiterate. We’ve developed this accessible web site and have expertise in how other forms of communication, such as guide books, leaflets and signs, can be delivered in alternative forms, for example audio, tactile maps, Braille and intuitive design.

Part of our work focuses on site access – we know that many disabled and older visitors find the Eden Project physically challenging and we’re exploring ways of making things easier through transport and site modifications. For example, a whole range of site improvements have been made and further ambitions are coming on line, such as the plan to introduce bus stops with high kerbs in all the car parks so the easy-access park and ride buses can be used by all visitors, including wheelchair users, in any of the car parks.

What we do is all about improving the quality of experience for visitors. Therefore we’re also interested in how we interpret the world through our senses, and what that means in terms of enriching our connection with the environment. It may be particularly important to think about this for people with sensory impairments, but we’re also convinced of the value of this approach for people in general. For example, at Eden one of the most important qualities that visitors associate with the Warm Temperate Biome is the palette of aromas. In the Humid Tropics, the experience of the waterfall is brought to life by standing at the bridge and feeling the sheer force of the water.

“ A story that makes sense is one that stirs the senses from their slumber, one that opens the eyes and the ears to their real surroundings, tuning the tongue to the actual tastes in the air and sending chills of recognition along the surface of the skin”. (The Spell of the Sensuous, David Abram, Vintage Books).