Author Archives: Lauren St Hilaire
We’re delighted to announce our brand new corporate partnership, as The Alnwick Garden teams up with locally loved, family-run firm Blueline Taxis.
The team at Blueline Taxis, are committed to making your journey comfortable, convenient, stress-free and, with shared goals, values and a community focus, they are the perfect pairing as the latest travel partner to come ‘on board’ with us.
Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be running joint offers, competitions and collaborations but for now, here’s a little more insight into why Blueline are the peoples choice when it comes to local private travel.
Driving a greener future
An alignment of goals, values and beliefs are essential in any successful partnerships and, just like The Alnwick Garden, Blueline are committed to reducing their environmental impact and promoting sustainability within their operations. The Blueline Green Policy reflects their dedication to a greener future and outlines the steps they take to ensure our services are eco-friendly.
Each year, Blueline serve over 10,608,000 passengers throughout the region, boasting an exceptional 99.7% satisfaction rating.
Their fleet of modern, eco-friendly vehicles ensures every journey is safe, comfortable, and efficient and we can’t wait to be teaming up with their 800 drivers to ensure visitors get to and from The Garden and Lilidorei.
For the community
The Alnwick Garden is more than a garden and Blueline is more than just a transportation service; like us, they’re deeply ingrained in our community. They proudly support and collaborate with local charities, working together to make a positive impact in the lives of those they serve. Blueline’s commitment to diversity and inclusion extends to their strong track record in supporting LGBT and disability rights – causes that are close to our hearts at The Garden too and integral to our company values.
“As North East England’s leading taxi firm, we’re incredibly proud to become an official transport partner for The Alnwick Garden,” said Tom Shanks, Director at Blueline Taxis. “This partnership aligns perfectly with our shared values – from our growing fleet of low-emission vehicles matching their sustainability goals, to our mutual focus on accessibility and creating welcoming experiences for all visitors. Whether it’s families enjoying a day out or tourists exploring the region, we’re committed to providing reliable, environmentally-conscious transport that complements the Garden’s world-class offering.”
Thank you so much to the team at Blueline Taxis, we’re excited to see where our partnership takes us!
Friday 28th March will be written into The Alnwick Garden history books as the day that the incredible Annasley Park completed her 3000 mile solo, and completely unaided row across the Atlantic Ocean, to raise a huge amount of money for our charity.
Annasley was first introduced to us at The Alnwick Garden back in March 2024, exactly a year before she would become only the 9th female in history to complete the incredibly gruelling challenge. The crossing from Gran Canaria to Barbados was completed valiantly by Annasley in nearly 55 days as she battled extreme weather, dangerous animals, a capsize, sleep deprivation and the hardest physical and mental obstacles of her life.
Just as the endeavour served as a metaphor of life’s highs and lows, she invited us and the world to share on her journey of how to embrace the waves of uncharted waters. The challenge was not about getting from A to B. Instead, it is about how the journey starts today, what is experienced along the way and how reflection of each ebb and flow will create change for tomorrow.
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Annasley set out with one main goal in mind, alongside raising as much money as she could for four chosen charities, including The Alnwick Garden Trust. “To inspire and educate a generational shift in resilience, one explorer, one documentary, one ocean at a time!”
After a herculean final day on the water, Annasley battled her way into Port St. Charles, and finished her phenomenal solo Atlantic ocean row today.
It was incredibly emotional, it was seriously nail biting, it was absolutely wonderful.
Annasley’s twin sister Georgia took these photos, before she launched, and after she landed – and the difference is fascinating. Whilst her skin is more weather-beaten, and her collar bones are more prominent from the weight loss, the real difference is in those eyes.These eyes have seen things that we simply won’t ever see. And they’re portals to a mind that dug deeper than Annasley ever thought possible. One glance at Annasley, and it’s immediately noticeable. This is a woman that has been pushed to her limits, and then beyond…but she’s survived to tell her story, and she has wisdom beyond her years. What an expedition this has been, what an incredible human this is.
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To read more about the challenge and to donate please follow this link: oceansurvivoar.com
There is lots more to come, but for now we’ll leave Annasley to find her land legs, thank her a million times over and mark the 28th March 2025 in our history books as the day Annasley Park took on the Atlantic and won!
More than £30,000 has been raised for The Alnwick Garden charitable trust from The Winter Light Trail’s amazing partner sponsors.
Now in its sixth year, The Alnwick Garden Lights Trail will return from November 18th to January 1st, with brand new installations, more lights, and new soundtracks and visuals. With only 40 days to go until launch, The Alnwick Garden is delighted to be working alongside some of the most loved local and national brands including WorldPay, Arnold Clark, Ad Gefrin, Eldon Square, Northern Powergrid, Fusion Spaces, Northern Stage, Utilita Arena and Sage Wealth Management.
The Alnwick Garden is a charity and relies on visitors, donations and corporate support to deliver critical support to people in our community who need it the most. Lauren St Hilaire, Senior Partnerships Manager said: “For people across the region and beyond, the winter light trail holds a special meaning and people return year on year. It has become a staple part of The Alnwick Garden’s calendar, and we are incredibly grateful for the support and generosity of our sponsors, which will go towards continuing to fulfil our charitable objectives and overall social impact.”
“The sponsors’ values are closely aligned with our own in helping local communities so it’s brilliant to be working with such a varied, yet collaborative group of people to light up this festive season.”
What do you get when you join forces with one of the most fantastic, life saving charities in the North East? The ability to share learning, training and help each other to spread the word of our shared charitable values, helping the people in our community who need it the most.
The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) paid us a visit on 24th April for a day of training simulations on site at The Alnwick Garden. The ability to train HEMS doctors and pre-hospital emergency paramedics in such a unique environment allowed GNAAS to set up bespoke scenarios within our contemporary visitor attraction.
Both The Alnwick Garden and The Great North Air Ambulance Service are charities and rely on visitors, donations and corporate support to deliver critical services to the people of our region. GNAAS are not NHS funded and bring pioneering pre-hospital care to severely injured or ill patients every year. It costs the service £8.5m annually to keep flying and at The Alnwick Garden, we opened our doors to support the team on site with the ability to continuously develop new techniques, maintain gold standard medical practice and train in new surroundings.
Gordon Ingram, Head Of Operations and Senior HEMS Critical Care Team Paramedic, at The Great North Air Ambulance Service said “The partnership with The Alnwick Garden is important because it allows us to have ease of access to environments that would possibly catch us out when we arrive on scene. We’re incredibly thankful to the team at Alnwick Gardens and Lilidorei for letting us come along for the day, and we’re looking forward to seeing where this partnership takes us.”
Innocent Smoothies have kindly donated thousands of seeds (literally) too many to count, to be used in our Alnwick Garden Roots and Shoots programme.
Their generous donation will supply the programme with seeds for two years, ensuring that children live a healthy and happy lifestyle.
Our Roots and Shoots programme is delivered to up to 200 school children in Northumberland, with 10 different schools participating each year. It is delivered in partnership with Northumberland County Council and aims to reduce obesity levels, through educating children about healthy eating and lifestyles. Each school are given an allotment plot and learn how to grow and tend for vegetables through the various stages of growing season , with an outreach session in school to ensure there is a legacy of learning.
A huge thank you to the team at Innocent Smoothies for their generosity and helping us ensure we can educate children around the need for healthy eating for many years to come.
Our Lilidorei Education Visit is a teacher-lead initiative based in the magical kingdom that is Lilidorei at The Alnwick Garden, supported by our bespoke school Story Telling by our Story Keeper, our Lilidorei Quest Challenge and physical play on Elfwin Drin. Free Fridays are available for Northumberland’s first, primary and middle schools during term time and are being made even better by the kindness and generosity of our friends at Kelloggs and Kellanova.
Behind the scenes of the picturesque Alnwick Garden water features, Poison Garden, Labyrinth, Lilidorei slides, clan houses and many other wonderful experiences, there is a hard-working charity that seeks to support those in our community who need it most. Using the proceeds from The Garden to maintain the site, and more fundamentally to deliver on our charitable objectives, The Alnwick Garden strive to reduce social isolation, improve well-being and support our most vulnerable community members. It is therefore, so important for us to work with partners, and suppliers, who share our values and are striving to make a difference to people in the community who need it the most, cue the fabulous team at Kelloggs and Kellanova!
Kelloggs and Kellanova are kindly donating a whopping 800 breakfast cereal bars, including co-co pops, rice crispies and frosties for all of the children taking part in our free school Fridays at Lilidorei. The breakfast bars will be distributed from the first Friday after the Easter break onwards and will be a welcome treat for children who are ready to use their two most magical super powers of play and imagination.
Kellanova have also recently attended the first Grow Business Club event at The Alnwick Garden where they kindly shared their sustainability journey with attendees keen to learn best practice from a large global organisation.
Simon McLeod, Business Development Executive at Kellanova said “It’s fantastic to be involved in such a great event, The Alnwick Garden first GROW Business Club which aims to create a hub for networking, sharing ideas and promoting sustainable growth. It was great to be able to share Kellanova sustainable commitments and show some of the great work already being done with our incredible brands in reducing the carbon footprint and working towards achieving net-zero by the end of 2050.”
