Hardwick Park Visitor Centre

The Parks and Countryside Service offers a broad programme of educational activities that inspire an understanding of the natural world and local heritage, encourage physical activity, stimulate the imagination and bring learning to life.

Our learning programme is designed to encourage children to engage with the natural world, develop their understanding of seasonal change, explore environmental issues and how to protect our wild spaces. Our key focus is igniting curiosity, imagination and bringing learning to life through hands on practical activities that weave into the curriculum.

Our school workshops take place at our destination parks of Hardwick Park in Sedgefield and Wharton Park in Durham City. We can also offer outreach workshops in your school grounds and at some of the many Countryside sites that we look after. Hardwick and Wharton Park have rich regional history and a range of natural environments in which to explore many themes.

Both Hardwick and Wharton Park hold the Learning Outside the Classroom Quality Badge. This means you can be assured that our provision meets a certain set of standards, in terms of both content and delivery and what you can expect from a visit with us.

Hardwick Park is a great place to visit. Stroll through the historic parkland, admiring the natural beauty of the lake, woodland and wildlife. Families can also enjoy our play area.

In the 18th century, John Burdon set about transforming the Hardwick Estate into his own pleasure grounds. To help him achieve his vision he employed James Paine, a leading architect of the time. Their grand plan was to create a garden that, although heavily engineered, was meant to look completely natural. The buildings and structures in Hardwick Park were designed to be experienced from a circuit walk, set around a lake and an artificial river.

John Burdon died in 1792, and by the late 19th century the Hardwick estate had fallen on hard times. The buildings decayed, the lake silted up and the magical views became overgrown with trees and undergrowth until 1999 when we embarked on a project to return the grounds to their former glory.

The project came about thanks to a £4.1m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the reconstruction and restoration of the Lake, Serpentine River and Cascade, the classical Temple of Minerva, the Gothic Ruin, the Gothic Seat and the Bono Retiro began.

Work was completed in 2010.