Ep. 048: Wilder Purbeck - Connecting a Community to the "Super National Nature Reserve"

·1 hr 8 min·4 clips

Tom says 40% of children in Swanage start school without ever having been to the beach.

1. Wilder Podcast episode 48 focuses on Tom Clark and Alex Brocklesby at the National Trust in Purbeck and their work connecting local people to the landscape. 2. Tom Clark is the Senior Volunteering and Community Manager, and Alex Brocklesby leads children and young people work plus access work, both after about seven and a half years in Purbeck. 3. The episode asks why one of the UK’s most biodiverse places still needs deliberate community organising to build nature connection. 4. Tom describes Purbeck as a place shaped by Poole Harbour, Studland, the chalk ridge, the Purbeck Heaths, and the South Purbeck Limestone Cliffs. 5. Alex adds that the area includes the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and the National Trust owns about 15% of the Isle of Purbeck, roughly 4,000 hectares. 6. The conversation places Purbeck within the “Super National Nature Reserve,” a 3,500-hectare landscape formed from former national nature reserve pockets. 7. Tom says the landscape also includes private land such as the Remston Estate, led by Doug Ryder, inside the protected area. 8. The episode argues that habitat protection alone did not automatically create local participation or everyday nature access. 9. Tom says the conservation sector focused on protecting heathlands from building, conifers, and farmland in the 1960s and 1970s. 10. Alex says the community now includes seasonal work, hospitality, tourism, and high levels of second homes, which changes daily life. 11. Tom recalls being six years old in Corfe Castle, seeing foxes on Corfe Common and seabirds at Durlston Country Park, which shaped his path. 12. Alex describes childhood nature in southeast London, family visits to Bournemouth, and later years in Ghana climbing mango trees and rowing near crocodiles. 13. Tom says his turning point came while managing Camley Street Natural Park in King’s Cross, where nature affected both company directors and local children. 14. Alex says his move into a community enterprise in North Bournemouth, in a place with life expectancy about ten years below the national average, linked nature to public health. 15. Tom states that 40% of children in Swanage start school without ever having been to the beach. 16. Alex says that statistic is sobering because local children are not benefiting from Purbeck in the way outsiders imagine. 17. Tom describes the National Trust as a response to the Industrial Revolution that once aimed to give urban people access to nature, beauty, history, the sky, sunset, space, and nature. 18. Both speakers present their current role as convening, facilitating, supporting, and championing a community response rather than simply running more activities. 19. The episode will appeal to people interested in community-led conservation, access to nature, and local education partnerships. 20. The episode may be less useful for listeners seeking a short scenic travel guide with no policy or community focus.

As heard by us

A hopeful, grounded look at how nature recovery has to bring people with it.

Wilder's pre-Christmas episode 48 offers a hopeful story from Purbeck, where Tom Clark and Alex Brocklesby of the National Trust are trying to connect a community with one of the most biodiverse landscapes in the UK. It is not framed as a tidy win.

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Why you'd press play

You want a hopeful, place-rooted listen about Purbeck, community connection, and the people trying to meet systemic challenges with nature.

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