A team from Edwinstowe-based Robert Woodhead Ltd is helping to create the village’s new £5m Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre.

Due to open in 2018, the centre will include information about the legendary tales of Robin Hood, and the local environment and wildlife.

The centre has been made possible thanks to a consortium led by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council, which currently manages the site, and has invested £4 million.

As well as the council and the RSPB, the consortium also includes Continuum Attractions, The Sherwood Forest Trust, the Woodland Trust and Thoresby Estates, which own the land. The project was procured through Scape Venture, which helped to drive the collaborative process.

The new centre will be based in Forest Corner, just outside the village of Edwinstowe. It will include a shop and café, with a terrace and amphitheatre outside. Future plans feature the addition of a brand new play area.

This centre has been supported by a number of other organisations, including the D2N2 Local Enterprise Partnership, which has pledged £500,000 towards the cost of the new centre. Garfield Weston Foundation has invested £200,000 and the Supporting Local Communities fund has granted £40,000 to the project.

Woodhead site manager for the new centre, Andy Stamford, said: “Work is well under way on site, we’ve got the foundations in and we’ve been working on the Glulam frame, which forms the structure of this unique building.

“There’s a lot of interest in the site from the thousands of visitors that come here – it’s going to look fantastic when it’s completed. We have a strong project team here, working closely with the RSPB to ensure everything goes to plan. We’re very pleased with progress so far and the collaborative approach between the partners.”

The consortium running the project will also manage the stunning ancient woodland within Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve (NNR), including the famous Major Oak, once the new centre is open.

Ross Frazer, the RSPB’s project manager, said “We’ve reached a really exciting phase of the build, now the wooden framework of the building is starting to go up. We can’t wait to see the completed centre and begin to start welcoming people to this fantastic landscape”.

To find out more about the project, how the concept developed, and to see what happened when the project was launched – alongside Robin Hood and some local school children – watch Woodhead’s first project video here.