Karen Makuch is an Associate Professor in the Centre for Environmental Policy. She shares what a day is like for her on the leafy campus of Silwood Park.
Silwood Park campus, a gem in the Berkshire countryside, a place steeped in Georgian history, has long been home to many staff members in the Centre for Environmental Policy (CEP), as well as our esteemed colleagues in the Department of Life Sciences (including Dame EJ Milner Gulland and the late Dame Georgina Mace).
Fittingly, as an ecology campus, ‘Silwood’ (as it is affectionately known) offers 77 hectares of glorious woodland, grasses, trees, flora and fauna and a pond and is literally the university’s outdoor laboratory. Working in the environmental field, I am one of CEP’s staff to have been privileged to spend their time between Silwood Park and South Kensington campuses. Many CEP staff began their CEP journey at Silwood Park as PhD or MSc students.
A day in the life of Silwood will vary somewhat, depending on who you are. Many students live on campus (what a great place to wake up, surrounded by the morning mist and rousing dawn chorus!) or may bike in or drive (through the wonders of Windsor Great Park – watch out for the dodgy bend as you enter Sunninghill).
If you’re early you might catch the deer running across the field, or you might go for a run and use the obstacle course. You can even play tennis on the newly refurbished tennis court (Silwood is entering its glow up phase!) or have a quick workout in the gym, followed by a coffee and bacon sandwich at the Cabin (formerly the Refectory) – awaiting the new-build Silwood Community Hub, which promises to be a vibrant meeting place.
Silwood has always been a friendly, intimate campus, where staff from all job roles regularly interact and know each other well. There has always been an emphasis on community and to many this has been so important, not only for staff, to enjoy their work, but for students, many of whom are from overseas, to feel welcome, ‘at home’ and not alone. There is a weekly coffee morning in the Hamilton building (cakes are optional!) and most students make connections for life.
Staff put in such considerable welfare and pastoral support for students, from accommodation, to socials and counselling and to fixing things.
Silwood Park’s centrepiece for many years was the glorious Victorian Manor House with its fantastic orangery, ballroom and balconies. This used to be the perfect venue for Christmas parties, including those for partners and children, with food, drinks the singing of carols often followed by a visit from Santa (I suspect this might have been Professor Andy Purvis during our time, but don’t tell the kids).
For those students whose perceptions of England are based on the England portrayed in the works of John Constable or J.M. W. Turner, Silwood and its surrounding locale is probably one of the closest places you can get to the nostalgia of years gone by.
By using the campus we are not only keeping it alive, we are conserving and preserving an ecology site and also a slice of English landscape and history. A gem in the English countryside – a huge contributor on the global conservation scale.
This article first appeared in the Faculty of Natural Sciences’ Faculty Magazine 2026.