Pop in for a cuppa, and help repair the Blickling Estate at the same time

Aylsham students made a working model of Blickling's heat pump. Pictures: Paula McGeachie/ National Trust. (Image: Archant)

And visitors to the estate, near Aylsham, are being urged to bring a coin with them on their trip, pop it into the model, and see what happens.

Sue Price, the trust's visitor experience and programming officer, said; 'With the pump up and running and now heating the house and west wing, we felt we needed to talk about and celebrate the project with our visitors and we wanted to involve the community in how we could do this.

'Every penny helps take care of this special place and we are very grateful to the Aylsham High students for helping us raise funds in such a fun and creative way. We're thrilled with how the model has turned out and are looking forward to seeing our visitors enjoying it too.'.

The lake at Blickling boasts the largest heat pump in the National Trust and heats the house and offices, reducing Blickling's carbon emissions by 69 tonnes a year.

Danny Sweatman, the head of nurture at Aylsham High, said: 'It was great fun to be involved. The engineering and art and design students loved seeing behind the scenes at Blickling, how the lake source heat pump worked and then letting their creativity run wild with their designs.'

Once the students were happy with the design, they presented it to staff at Blickling and model maker, Paul Wells of Vernacular Miniatures, Cambridgeshire.

He was pleased to be involved with the project, and said: 'The design the students came up with was brilliantly entertaining and innovative and with a few changes to the materials needed and the shape of the model, I was able to turn their ideas into reality.'

With lights, sound and movement, visitors can now see how it works.

The donations will help Blickling fundraise for ongoing conservation projects such as the walled garden restoration and the library conservation project.