Hedgehog Charity | Prickle Lodge

Our story

Our story began many years ago when we moved into our house in Hook, Hampshire. The couple that we purchased our house from told us that they had hedgehogs visiting their garden and asked if we'd continue to leave food and fresh water out for them. We were excited there were hedgehogs in the area as we hadn't seen one for years, so we were more than happy to do this.

For years we knew we had hedgehogs visiting (they would leave a poo or two for us!) but, with hedgehogs being nocturnal, we never really got to enjoy watching them.

One Christmas my husband brought me a wildlife trail camera. Wow what a fantastic present that turned out to be. Every morning we would eagerly download the footage from the night before and had great fun watching the previous evening’s activity which was both fascinating and enlightening.

Wildlife cameras are excellent for two reasons, not only for the fascinating insight they give, but also for being able to identify if you have any concerns regarding the visiting wildlife. This is when we started to notice that some of our visiting hedgehogs were sick or injured and needed help.

This is when we first met Pauly, who runs a hedgehog rescue in Hartley Wintney, just a short distance from our home, called ‘Hedgehog Cabin’. Over the years Pauly treated numerous sick, or injured hedgehogs that we took to her, but more often than not she was full to capacity. This was the same situation with many other rescues within a 50-mile radius of our home.

This broke our hearts and is also when we decided we wanted to do more ourselves to help the plight of these very special and endangered mammals.

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team PRICKLE LODGE

Prickle Lodge is a husband-and-wife team, occasionally we need help and fortunately we have some very willing and supportive friends and neighbours.

In 2020, when Covid hit us all, I was made redundant after working 33 years for the same company. I knew I wanted to do something different, and I knew I wanted to make a difference. This is when my husband suggested we get more involved and hands on in supporting the desperate plight of this very precious and endangered species.

We discussed this with Pauly and following many more conversations with Pauly spelling out the ongoing commitment required, not only in our time, but financially and emotionally, we knew this was not going to be easy, but we remained fully committed.

Moving on and following many months of hands-on training with Pauly supporting our every move, we agreed that we were ready, and it was time to get more actively involved at home.

We first converted one of our bedrooms into a small hospital with space to house 3 patients and we started by taking in our local / garden hedgehogs that needed treatment. We agreed with Pauly that all treatment plans and medications etc. would be managed and overseen by her and in July 2021 we admitted our very first patient.

We soon realised we needed more space and after converting another bedroom and making a temporary pen in our bathroom, my husband said that we needed to create something more permanent. So, we identified a section of our garden where we could create a bespoke hospital to serve the hedgehogs in our community.

We both felt so passionate about what we were doing and this is when Prickle Lodge Hedgehog Rescue became our dream and thankfully, now, a reality.

what we do

Helping to SAVE BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE MAMMAL

Our story

team PRICKLE LODGE

Got any questions?

Helping to SAVE BRITAIN'S FAVOURITE MAMMAL

Our story

team PRICKLE LODGE

Got any questions?

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