Brambledown pick up National BALI Award in London

Brambledown Landscape Services Ltd picked up yet another National BALI Award in a ceremony in Park Lane London this weekend at an event hosted by the BBC’s Dan Walker. 

10 members of Brambledown, who worked on the restoration and Improvement works at Segedunum Roman Fort in Wallsend, travelled to London from Durham and Newcastle, along with clients and Landscape Architect Nick Wright from A Place on Earth, to collect the award at an event attended by over 1,000 people in the Grosvenor Hotel. 

Brambledown Landscapes secured the National BALI Award for Commercial Hard Landscape works under £300k. 

“This was an incredibly sensitive scheme with Brambledown Landscapes carrying out a number of Landscape Works to this ancient Roman Fort site to improve its visual appeal and restore its place as a hub of tourism and education for the people of the North East, and further afield” said Brambledown Director Paul Curry.  

The huge Roman Fort was built at the end of Hadrians Wall to guard the eastern end of the Wall, and housed 600 Roman soldiers. It stood for almost 300 years as a symbol of Roman rule and a bastion against barbarian attack.

Brambledowns works included the construction of a new fully accessible access way from Hadrian Cycleway route; installation of new Hard Landscape elements within the existing carpark areas to improve access for disabled visitors; a Roman themed Play Area for young pre-school children; and a new surface treatment programme across the entire excavated Fort. 

Whilst the Ceremony was a great event, what it didnt have time to show, both on screen and in the brochure was the sometimes difficult and often long backstory to the project. The hard work behind the scenes to secure funding, the process of tender and design, but then the complexities of delivering on time, to budget and within significant “on site”constraints. 

Speaking on behalf of Brambledown, Director Paul Curry said; “This is a fantastic achievement for all of those closely involved in this delicate scheme on a site which housed thousands of Roman soldiers so long ago. The operations team worked within very tight budgetary constraints to create a magnificent landscape and play scheme across an ancient and sensitive site.”

The Fort was oriinally built at the end of Hadrians Wall to guard the eastern end of the Wall, and housed 600 Roman soldiers in AD122. It stood for almost 300 years as a symbol of Roman rule and a bastion against barbarian attacks from North of the border.

Today, Segedunum Roman Fort is once again a major site on Hadrian’s Wall. It is the most excavated fort along the Wall with surviving foundations of many buildings and part of the Wall itself. There is a large interactive museum plus full-scale reconstructions of a bath house and a section of Wall. The 35 metre high viewing tower provides outstanding views across this World Heritage Site.