Bolton by Bowland Heritage Trail
The village of Bolton by Bowland have recently been busy putting together a new Heritage Trail booklet for the area. Champion Bowland was pleased to be able to offer a small grant of £750 towards the costs of designing and printing 1500 copies of the booklet which is now on sale locally for just £3, and all proceeds will go towards the costs of future re printing.
The booklet includes a map and directions to sites of interest around the village, describing the history and environment. The whole route is age and wheelchair friendly. The project also included the production of a new interpretation panel for the village information centre.
Lancashire Best Kept Village
The organisers of this competition received a grant to purchase a digital projector and screen which they will use to assist in the training of their judges and when showcasing the decisions at the annual awards ceremony. Until recently they were still using old 35mm slides and a conventional projector!
The aim of the annual Lancashire Best Kept Village competition is to encourage community effort in keeping Lancashire villages and their facilities tidy and well maintained. By striving to be the best village in their class, each village does more to improve its appearance than it would otherwise achieve. By providing constructive feed-back to villages participating in the Lancashire Best Kept Village Competition they assist the parish councils in formulating plans and projects, not least in respect of the conserving of important landscapes and habitats, along with emphasising the vital role played by village volunteers.
Bleasdale Bird Hide
The bird hide near Bleasdale Cottages was originally built ten years ago with support from the AONB's sustainable development fund. Owners Robert and Anne Gardner have looked after the hide well, even leaving the door open for the swallows who like to nest indoors, but the roof was beginning to leak and look shabby. A small grant of just £110 from Champion Bowland, and helping hands from the Friends of Bowland have repaired the roof so it is once again watertight and ready for use by the birds and the watchers!
Lancaster Beekeepers have been busy creating pollinator patches around the villages of Caton and Hornby, and at the Crook of Lune.
Built to celebrate the Queen's Jubilee at this village in the heart of her kingdom, is now open!
The Church Goes Wild project
The Church Goes Wild project at St John's church in Hurst Green has bought a moth trap with funds from Champion Bowland.
The Congregational Church in Knowle Green have refurbished this attractive gateway feature to Bowland.
The Friends are establishing a wildflower meadow close to the Bowland Visitor Centre and they have been working with the HayTime project to grow plants from locally collected seeds.
The Friends of Bentham Station approached Champion Bowland for a grant to help re run a project cataloguing life in Bentham using public photographers.
Champion Bowland has supported a local walker to review, expand and re print his book of Chipping Walks. With a small grant to create illustrations, and a loan of £500 to help with printing costs, Graham Wilkinson has published an excellent guide to the area.
Bowland HayTime project
Over the last three years the Bowland HayTime project has been restoring wildflower meadows in the AONB. This year the AONB's sustainable development fund has supported a new project run by Ribblesdale Rotary which is working with 5 primary schools to get them more involved in their local environment.
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Ballads of the Beast of Bowland
Outdoor theatre run by Spot On in partnership with local families.
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Bowland Scrapbook
A project to collect and record memories in the Forest of Bowland since 1964 when it was formally designated as an "Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty" (AONB).
This project will ask both visitors and residents about their experiences of rural life over the last 50 years and publish these in a souvenir Scrapbook. For full details visit the Bowland Scrapbook Page
Scorton Flower Festival
Champion Bowland gave a grant to help to set up a new Flower Festival in St. Peters' Church, Scorton as part of the village's "Bikes and Barrows" weekend May 4/6th 2013.
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Bowland Electric Bicycle Network
The Bowland Electric Bicycle Network offers visitors a brand new way of discovering the beauty of the Forest of Bowland countryside. Hire electric bikes from the hire-stations with the option to recharge the battery at one of the Charge Points.
Click here for details of the Electric Bicycle Network
Champion Bowland contributed match funding to a Forest of Bowland Sustainable Development Fund grant to produce promotional and marketing materials for the network.
Bowland Tramper Project
The Three Fishes at Mitton raised £8500 from their customers. The money was given to Champion Bowland to be used to support the Bowland Tramper Project.
Click here for details of the Tramper Project
Chipping In Bloom
‘Chipping in Bloom’ began in 2008 and its main objective is to create lasting improvements to the village for the benefit of residents, workers and visitors.
Contributed £500 towards the completion of the Wildlife Meadow project which was officially opened on June 23rd 2012.
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AONB/RSPB Schools' Outreach Project
During the school year 2010-11, skilled teachers from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds have delivered a project for 11 primary schools in the AONB
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Cobbled pavement Dunsop Bridge
The Post Office, Shop and Café in Dunsop Bridge – Puddleducks – needed to repair the broken cobbled pavement outside
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Scorton village Playground
In 1926 Peter Ormerod of Wyresdale Park donated land to Scorton village a playing field. The local community raised the funds to refurbish the children's playground and wanted to celebrate the wildlife of the area. Awarded a grant of £500 towards the cost of this carving by local sculptor Geoff Whitley who had worked with the children from the school to create a large totem pole of animals of the Forest of Bowland.
Educational workshop for schools
Blaize Theatre Group put on SWARD, a musical play about the history of Hay Meadows in local villages in May 2011. The company also offered an educational workshop for schools. Thorneyholme Primary School in Dunsop Bridge wanted to take this up for their Key Stage 2 heritage studies but had no funding available. A grant of £160 was given to allow this to go ahead for the 22 children involved.
