Community Grants
Community -created woodland at King's Cliffe
Grants for community groups
The National Lottery Heritage Fund is providing generous funds for the Building the Links for Rockingham Forest project. Part of that funding is providing small grants to community groups who are working to deliver environmental projects.
What are the grants for?
The scheme was designed to support volunteers and community-led organisations to deliver projects in the Rockingham Forest area. These projects will enhance habitats and/or connect a wide range of people to nature.
Applications closed in September 2023 and six funded projects are now underway
What funding was made available
We received 11 applications, which totalled more than double the available grant budget. Grants of between £2000 and £6000 were made available to six of the groups who are now working to develop their projects. There are details in the boxes below and there will be pictures and reports of progress as the projects develop.
The five other project groups that applied will still be able to get some support. We have offered to help them in other ways from our budgets, including purchasing materials for them or covering transport costs.
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We are we funding
tools, interpretation boards, trees and plants, Forest Schools' equipment and site preparation, access improvements, etc
For further information please contact
Cottingham Parish Council
Cottingham’s Friends of Green Spaces Group (FroGS) is undertaking a programme of projects to preserve, safeguard and improve several areas owned by the Parish Council. This funding will help transform a third-acre area, part of a pastureland called the Dale, located at the junction of three much-used footpaths, into an accessible space for people to relax, rest, enjoy, meet etc. FroGS plan to supplement the existing extensive flora, effect some structural change to achieve an internal path, and install two bench seats. Information boards and nest boxes will promote engagement with this natural haven.
Transition King's Cliffe (Wildplaces)
Their funding will go towards installing a tree ID trail in Millennium Wood, and new signage around the Kings' Cliffe greenspaces for the community and visitors. This includes waymarking, and a new information board at ‘Meadow Junction’, the site of the recently demolished bridge that used to cross the Kings Cliffe Railway Path. They will also be able to expand the community Adder monitoring activities, and improve signage to notify and advise visitors and the community of their vulnerability, and how to behave near them. It will enable a radio-tracking project in the spring to establish whether the male adders are interacting with the much larger Fineshade population.
Our Lady of Walsingham Primary School
The funds will be used to help set up a new Forest School area on the school grounds. An area needs to be cleared and a gate installed. In addition, equipment will be purchased to support outdoor learning opportunities by creating learning trails, installing a pond and purchasing tools for children to use as they grow produce throughout the year. A woodland management plan is bring produced and staff undergoing training in running a Forest School.
(See also this blog article by Sami Scott.)
Gretton Parish Council
Working with Gretton Primary Academy the Parish Council will be using the grant to help rejuvenate Pick's Playing Field, a peaceful area outside the village where members of the community can enjoy picnics and relaxation. During COVID the field was not in use and fell into disrepair but now the plan is to manage the surroundng hedges and establish wildlife habitats suitable for Forest School activities. The site will be open to residents of the village and a notice board will have information on the history of the field, along with changing information about the habitat, flora and fauna in the location.
Hazel Leys Academy
Staff at the academy are training to be Forest School leaders and the funding is being used to develop an area of the site that the children will be able to access. They will be buying suitable clothing (making access to nature possible year round), tarps to use as shelter, tools including bow saws, palm drills, mallets, loppers and secateurs, a fire kit including a fire bowl and flints and steels, ropes, and books to help identify flora and fauna. Essentially the grant will supply everything they need to set up a Forest School. Two of Hazel Ley's teaching assistants are also training to become Level 3 Forest School Leaders.
Weldon Parish Council
At Weldon the funding is being used to buy maintenance equipment for use in the Pocket Park and The Leys. These are being re-wlded to form a wildlife corridor through the central part of the village, either side of the banks of the southern arm of the Willowbrook. To maintain the longer grass and bramble areas a brushwood mower and hay rakes are being bought for use by the team of volunteers who have been managing the site for the last few years.