Professor David Bellamy has opened a new visitor attraction in Spalding, Lincolnshire designed to promote the Fens.

Created by York-based Continuum Group, the £1.2m, 341sq m, interactive attraction, Fenscape, interprets the history and development of the Fens – the area of land which extends inland from the Wash through Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.

Fenscape was designed and built by Past Forward, Continuum’s design and management division, on behalf of Fens Tourism and uses audio visual displays, sculptures, games and theatrical sets; including folklore stories read by actor Jim Broadbent and an explanation of malaria in the Fens featuring a giant fibre-glass mosquito.

There is even a courtroom in which a debate on drainage is underway where visitors can vote on their preferred course of action.

Continuum Group will also be completing the design and interpretation of six sites of interest around the Fens in an associated project. The first three, the Pinchbeck Engine, software interpreting landscape development at Long Sutton and a town interpretation trail around the village of Swineshead will be completed by the end of the year. The next three will be Moulton Mill, Donnington Village Centre, Freiston Shore.

Projects director for Continuum Lorna Ewan said: “As visitor centres go, Fenscape is like no other. It’s quirky and unexpected and offers visitors a fun and unusual insight into this unique region.”

The company designed and built the project in just six months.

Fens Tourism, for whom David Bellamy is honorary president, hopes to attract around 50,000 people a year to Fenscape.