Grounds open to visitors at Staffordshire Wildlife Trust's Wolseley Centre

The Wolseley Centre, the trust’s headquarters near Rugeley, is visited by thousands of people each week, including families, schools and groups.

The centre closed its doors in March following the outbreak of coronavirus, but reopened them on Wednesday.

The charity has been ensuring the site is Covid-19 safe – and wants visitors to be vigilant and adhere to social distancing guidelines when spending time at Wolseley.

The centre itself, including the shop and toilets, will not be open, however portaloos will be provided on Park Bank. The grounds and gates will close at 4pm.

The grounds will reopen at 9am for visitors, and the car park will be open as normal. The Kingfisher Café will open at 10am, with a limited takeaway menu on offer including hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and ice creams.

The queue for the café, which will close at 3pm, will be at the rear of the building and people are being encouraged to adhere to the signage. No tables will be put out initially.

A one-way system will be in force on the centre’s boardwalk by the river.

Julian Woolford, chief executive for Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, said: “We’re very much looking forward to welcoming people back to Wolseley, and hope they enjoy their visit. It’s a very different time we’re living in now, and we’ve been working hard to make sure we can reopen Wolseley in a safe manner.

“We’ll be providing plenty of Covid related signage around the site to keep people safe. We’d also encourage people to be extremely vigilant when visiting and not take any unnecessary risks. We are expecting the site to be busy, so if there are too many people on site, we may have to close the gates earlier than usual.

“We’d like to say thank you to everyone who has shown their support while we’ve been closed through kind comments and patience. We realise Wolseley is a special place for so many, but want to make sure people are safe when they do visit.”

The grounds will be open between 9am and 4pm and the café 10am-3pm, seven days a week.