Alan Titchmarsh walks on the living roof at Rolls-Royce manufacturing plant

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars this week welcomed Alan Titchmarsh to their environmentally friendly manufacturing plant and head office at Goodwood in Chichester. Filming a new TV series, ‘Nature of Britain’, the broadcaster and writer walked the eight acre (22,500 square metres) ‘living roof’ where a number of breeding pairs of skylarks are nesting.

Situated in the heart of the West Sussex countryside the manufacturing plant has been designed to blend into the environment. The sedum ‘living roof’, the largest in the UK, makes it difficult to detect where the boundaries lie between the buildings and their surroundings. The effect is further enhanced by sustainably sourced cedar wood cladding on the buildings.

In addition to skylarks, other birds feeding on the roof have included linnet, meadow pipit and pied wagtail. A lake at the main entrance to the courtyard is a key part of the water-management system as well as a striking feature and attracts a wide variety of aquatic birds. Species that have been seen here include grey heron, mallard, coot, moorhen, Canada goose, mute swan, yellow hammer, corn bunting, whitethroat, blackbird, song thrush, green woodpecker and grey partridge.

Over 400,000 trees and shrubs have been planted to screen the buildings and encourage a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna species into the area.