Three Owls Fact-sheet

The Three Owls Bird Sanctuary and Reserve...

was founded in 1962 when a young girl called Helen took a baby Sparrow to Mrs Eileen Watkinson. She reared this and the following week the little girl brought another "A friend for the first" Little did Mrs Watkinson realise, but from this small beginning would grow a Sanctuary which now has Subscribers world-wide.

In 1991 she was awarded the MBE for her work with the birds - something she openly shared with all the helpers at the Sanctuary. Sadly Mrs Watkinson passed away in March 1995 following a long illness. She is buried on the Reserve in line with her wishes amongst all the birds she loved and cared for over the years. Eileen Watkinson's Autobiography

The work at the Sanctuary was taken over by Nigel Fowler, who had worked on a one to one basis with her since 1978 and was the only person prepared to take on the 24 hour day, seven-day week task which running the Sanctuary entails. He was awarded the much coveted ''Volunteer of the Year Award'' in June 2000 for his work at the Sanctuary. The Sanctuary is both a Registered Charity and Charitable Trust.

The aims of the Sanctuary were to take in any wild bird in distress, to rehabilitate it and return it to the wild. Where this is not possible, due to illness or injury, but the bird was capable of sustaining a good quality of life, we offered it sanctuary in one of our many aviaries or on our 4½ acre Reserve.

Sadly, the Sanctuary closed down in 2010, when the amount of red tape and legislation being brought against it, coupled with a year-on-year battle to raise the £10,000 per month it needed to keep going finally became to much to keep battling against. The 4 1/2 acre nature reserve is set into trust, and a wealth of wildlife live out their lives in safety therein. Any donations the Sanctuary now receive are put into a maintenance fund, in order to conserve this natural habitat as a place of safety and security for those who depend on it.

It is not only owls which were a large feature of the Sanctuary. Two disabled herons were brought to us in 1981 having both been in collision with pylon wires Their injuries were so severe that they each were left with only one 'good' wing each. In 1985 they paired up, being unable to fly, they built a nest on the ground. Three babies were reared and these then flew away when fledged. They returned the following year with wild 'friends' and built nests on the aviary roofs. The following year they then progressed into the trees in the Reserve. Each year the babies from previous years have returned to nest, and by 1993 we were told we have the largest Heronry in the Northwest. Numbers have since fallen as we expect the surrounding foodstocks have also diminished. It is worth pointing out that this instance would not have occurred, had we not given the disabled herons a chance to live their lives out at the Sanctuary.

In 2000, our derelict Grade II Listed Barn was converted into a 3-bed cottage, which is rented out to provide a sustained income for the Sanctuary, we also replaced our outside toilet block with one providing full disabled facilities.

In 2005 we built a brand new intensive care hospital, and in 2006 we upgraded 1/3 of the pathways to give full wheelchair access around the resident bird's aviaries, also built three new specialist type of bird aviaries. We built a 2nd hospital in 2007; this one being a general hospital with isolation facilities, also upgraded another 1/3 of the pathways within the Sanctuary.

In 2008 we extended the office, and constructed a storeroom to sort donated items for the Visitor Centre. This also cleared a larger working area within the barn for constructing aviary panels, and allows visitors to complete their guided tours direct into the Visitor Centre, as opposed to clashing with incoming visitors at the main entrance.

In 2010 it had been planned to upgrade the final 1/3 of the Sanctuary which included the frontage, and this would have completed the large-scale rejuvenation of Three Owls. It encompassed new stone walls, new roadside fence, two new specialist aviaries, new duckling rearing areas, and a huge new area with pond for the gulls and herons. Sadly, this was not to be - as detailed earlier, and it was during 2010 that the birds were rehoused in other sanctuaries throughout the UK, and the facilities Three Owls had built up over the years, were distributed to other needy bird welfare charities in order to give wild birds in distress elsewhere in the UK, a better chance of survival, just as they had been when treated here at our Sanctuary.

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