Team 3 Graduates have partnered with Hill Close Gardens (HCG) as their charity to upgrade the gardens in terms of technology, sustainability, and community wellbeing.
Based in Warwick, HCG, is a rare survival of Victorian gardens once used by locals living above their business to escape from the crowded town. In recent years, the gardens are now nationally recognised after being lovingly restored, ever since its establishment in 1845.
The Project Team
- Tom Clark, Graduate Project Manager – Rail
- Georgia Abbott, Graduate Project Manager – Rail
- Alice Cleaver, Graduate Engineer – Network Services
- Tim Smith, Graduate Engineer - Transport
- Sheraz Rafique, Graduate Engineer - Transport
- Jacob Buckley, Graduate Software Developing Engineer – Group Engineering
- Jack Irving, Graduate Engineer - Rail
- Mohamud’hanif Natha, Graduate Engineer - Transport
The Background
HCG was used as a pleasure garden in the 1800’s, as many houses in Warwick did not have gardens of their own. The 16 plots were used as a representation of their owners’ wealth and their careers. Therefore, each plot has a depth of history and culture behind it, which HCG have restored and maintained. Hill Close still encompasses the original spirit of the Victorian gardens through the support of loyal volunteers who have brought it all back to life and have maintained the original ethos to attract visitors.
However, organisers and volunteers commented that the main challenge presented by the Covid lockdowns, and coming out of the pandemic, was a difficulty in connecting with regular members of HCG. The support team recognised that certain individuals within the local community were particularly at risk of isolation, which had a profound impact on various community groups.
This included the elderly and those with disabilities, for whom limited interaction took a toll on both their physical and mental wellbeing. These individuals had previously frequently visited the gardens to foster social interactions and support wellbeing. If they couldn’t attend in person, it would be beneficial if the gardens had a greater online presence so they could still access the resources at HCG.
In addition to this, the centre manager expressed a desire to engage with more young people who were more likely to be reached through an online presence and would benefit from internet access within the garden. The presence of internet access would also provide scope for any future projects that HCG had in mind, including developing a mobile app to learn more about the plants and animals in the gardens and using the technology to their advantage to promote horticulture.
In support of this initiative, Team 3 visited the gardens and engaged with organisers and volunteers to better understand the project’s scope, challenges, and opportunities for the advancement of community services. This collaborative effort aimed to tailor the initial ideas to truly meet the garden’s challenges.
The Project
Team 3 set about looking at the technology services Telent offers to identify resources that could benefit services users at the gardens. The project compliments the ‘One Telent’ and ‘People Development’ strategic priorities, and is aligned to all four of Telent’s Values.
Improving the visitor experience by enhancing the garden’s digital network
The team delivered this action by upgrading and extending the Wi-Fi network across HCG. This enhancement of extending coverage across the entire garden also lays the groundwork for future interactive information services that gardens wish to implement. Install days at the gardens consisted of 5 full days throughout October with Telent engineers from civils, electrical and installation. Before the Wi-Fi could be extended, Team 3 organised winchable columns to be installed to maximise coverage of the APs around the garden.
- Day 1 required Telent engineers, Ashby engineers and Trackside engineering civil personnel excavate the bases for both plot 17 and 19 at HCG. Subduct was installed connecting to the summerhouses and prepped for the concrete pour.
- Day 2 consisted of the concrete pour on both plots, leaving them for 7 days to cure. Bases were prepped for columns once cured.
- Day 3 required all hands-on deck for the installation of the columns in each plot. Following on from the placement of columns, tarmacking and brickworks were reinstated on plots 17 and 19 respectively.
- Day 4 reuse of Telent APs attached to winchable columns and to the visitor’s centre. Testing and Commissioning of the APs to the networks at Hill Close was also accomplished.
- Day 5 was clean up day in the gardens - General garden clean up after installation into skip, taking extra materials off site (or moving to areas of the gardens for Hill Close’s future use), flattening and distributing spoil among the gardening beds to reduce green waste. Distributing the loose stones across the entire of Plot 17’s porch to fit in with aesthetic of area near the column.
Our thanks go to all those that helped with the surveys, designs, installation of the columns and donation of the APs from the Radio Team.
Special shout outs to the following on our install days:
- Ross Jewess, Telent Installation Manager
- Ray Edes, Telent Technical Delivery Manager
- Hayden Hope, Marcus Lindsay, Thomas Monteith, Finn Whitehouse (supervised on site by Ross Jewess and Ray Edes, Telent Apprentices
- Gareth and Nathan, Ashby’s Electrical Team
- Jake Doran-Hughes, Trackside Engineering – contracted by Ashby’s for Civils Works
- Leon Pelling and Khizer Ahmed, Telent Civils Design Team
- Joel Deas, Telent Assistant Electrical Design Engineer
Introducing live stream cameras to increase accessibility
As part of the project, the team has tried to introduce new features to foster a closer connection between visitors and the wildlife that inhabits HCG. They have installed birdboxes for nesting and specifically designed hedgehog boxes for feeding, to enhance the experience for both visitors, nature enthusiasts and the HCG volunteers. These boxes are equipped with cameras that capture motion of the wildlife and that content will soon be available online for members of the public to view.
This benefits HCG by attracting members of the public to the site where they can view clips of the wildlife and create more charitable revenue from encouraging non-members to sign-up, donate or visit the site. The boxes are home to some wonderful birds and to a few rescue hedgehogs that came out of hibernation in March.
However, live streaming will be available once snagging issues with the network are complete.
Upgrading the weather station to enhance the management of the grounds and future projects
The team also focused on upgrading the existing weather station, a pivotal advancement set to transform ground management and prepare for future projects that the gardens wish to do. This upgrade involved a comprehensive renewal of the weather station software for an upfront two-year period.
By investing in this improvement, we are not only simplifying the process of weather monitoring but also optimising the allocation of man hours required. This upgraded software ensures accessibility to real-time weather data, benefiting HCG volunteers and streamlining decision-making processes. The successful procurement, integration, and upload of the upgraded software to HCG weather station has already been accomplished and effectively implemented.
In response to the needs of the Head Gardener, the team will be contributing to a brand-new shredder in the form of a charitable donation, further enhancing the site’s operations and reducing the green-waste issue that they have been experiencing on site.
The sustainability of the HCG project is rooted in a strategy that uses solar energy through the on-site solar panels. This innovative approach not only highlights the team's dedication to environmental responsibility but also guarantees a dependable and environmentally reliable energy source for the project’s activities.
These solar panels convert solar power to a clean and renewable energy source to power various electrical components at HCG, specifically for the project’s Wi-Fi network extension.
The team have re-used and recycled technology and parts from other Telent projects that would have otherwise gone to waste, such as the access points for the network extension. Wherever possible, the team has worked to follow ‘reduce, re-use, recycle’ in the project.
This is further supported by the team re-using the picnic table from the refurbishment in Warwick’s Point 3 garden. The team dismantled the table and organised delivery with the help of Telent’s Fleet team and reassembled the table on site at HCG. This was a quick win for the team in the early days of their project back in December 2022.
"The project has been a great learning experience as we consider all the elements to managing the delivery of a project for the customer. Working our way through the requirements has helped us to develop our understanding of safety and procedures that must be set in place on projects and managing relationships with customers."
Community benefits
Through the enhancements identified, Team 3 is confident the improvements will bring great benefits to the community space, improving accessibility, health and wellbeing for service users and increase memberships through driving interest in horticulture, wildlife and the historical gardens.
The new technology will support the community, raise awareness of the importance of conservation, drive inclusivity, and provide the charity with an opportunity to enhance its future projects.