Giving people a chance to meet and chat to Purbeck environmental organisations all in one place, the Sustainable Wareham Nature and Wildlife Fair is back by popular demand.
Now established as an annual event, the fair will be held between 10 am and 12 noon on Saturday 26th April 2025 at the town hall in Wareham, Dorset.
The Wareham town crier Jacquie Hall opened the fair in 2024
Children’s activity table
For the first time there will be activities for children including creating bug hotels, to make the event easier for parents to attend and have the time to browse the stalls. And
For the first time, the environmental group Sustainable Wareham will have an activity table where the young (and even not so young!) can build and paint bug hotels while parents wander round the stalls, drink tea and coffee, and eat homemade cakes.
Find out more about the environmental group Sustainable Wareham
Carey’s Secret Garden near Wareham is less secret now that it is such a popular place to visit!
Beavers, ospreys and bats!
Among the exhibitors will be the National Trust with updates about its new beaver residents at Studland, while Birds of Poole Harbour will be showing its live webcam of the local osprey nest.
A new exhibitor is the East Dorset Bat Rescue and Rehabilitation group whose members will be able to talk about their work and what to do if you find an injured bat.
There will also be organisations attending like Nature Buddies and Shaftsbury Millie College at Holton Lee, who aim to make the Purbeck countryside as accessible as possible for everyone.
Forsetry England is responsible for the management of Wareham Forest
The Swift group is a wing of Sustainable Wareham!
Exhibitors
- National Trust (Purbeck Heaths)
- East Dorset Bat Rescue and Rehabilitation
- Forestry England (Wareham Forest)
- Purbeck Safari
- Birds of Poole Harbour
- Purbeck Swift Group
- Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT)
- DWT Wild Seas Centre Kimmeridge
- Planet Purbeck
- Holton Lee (Shaftsbury Millie College)
- Purbeck Natural History Forum
- Nature Buddies (Dorset National Landscape)
- Sustainable Wareham
Exploring Purbeck in a 4×4 is a great way to see the best views in a day
Raffle prizes
All the organisations participating in the fair have donated prizes for a raffle, which includes family tickets for activities like a Birds of Poole Harbour boat trip.
There’s also a second raffle with the chance to win an original artwork by local artist David Cole who has donated his painting of the Wild Seas Centre in Kimmeridge to Sustainable Wareham for the event.
It will be on display on the Dorset Wildlife Trust table with tickets at £1 each.
Spotted on the webcam – the first osprey egg of 2025 has been laid in time for Easter
“Return of the ospreys”
Chair of Sustainable Wareham, Vicky Charles said:
“The whole point of the fair is to encourage the people of Purbeck to experience all the amazing nature on their doorstep. There’s much more to the area than the seaside!
“We’ve got the return of the ospreys to their favourite nest nearby and already the first egg laid. Hopefully there will be more eggs by the time of the fair. Plus the swifts are starting to drift back for the summer.
“There’s plenty to discover at the fair and lots to chat about including the latest on the new beavers at Studland.
“Hopefully the addition of the children’s activities table will give parents enough of a chance to chat and enjoy themselves!”
All proceeds from the fair go towards the work of Sustainable Wareham, supporting nature and wildlife in the Wareham area and enhancing access for all to the local environment.
Further details
- Sustainable Wareham Nature and Wildlife Fair, 10 am to 12 noon on Saturday 26th April 2025 at Wareham Town Hall, East Street, Wareham, Dorset BH20 4NS
- More about Sustainable Wareham
- Watch the Birds of Poole Harbour osprey webcams
