Dorset County Council has re-opened its Community Innovation fund

Dorset County Council has re-opened its Community Innovation fund to back inventive community projects that can help improve local people’s lives.

There is a total of £75,000 available to Dorset-based community organisations that can show how their project would help achieve the outcomes for local people set out in the county council’s corporate plan.

These are grouped into four key outcomes: making sure people in Dorset are safe, healthy, independent and have a prosperous economy.

The fund aims to support community groups to deliver services that meet local people’s needs.  Successful projects will be those that target people with the greatest needs and reduce demand for the council’s services by giving people the support they need early on.
Groups are invited to bid for grants of up to £8,000. There is also a ‘Micro’ grants fund for smaller amounts of up to £2,000 as the council wants the fund to be able to reach all parts of Dorset’s communities.

Cllr Rebecca Knox, Dorset County Council leader, said
“We want to support community projects that can demonstrate how they support the council’s top priorities for local people.

“For example, as part of our aim to ensure people in Dorset are healthy we want to make sure people adopt healthy lifestyles and lead active lives.

“The important element is that the projects must be resident-driven with evidence of the benefits for people and the contribution they will make to helping improve the lives of people in Dorset.”

Apply for a grant through the Community Innovation Fund, view the application guidance and support materials.
This round of the grant will close on Friday 21 September.
http://d4u.org.uk/XCRNH

The Stepping Stones Project

The Stepping Stones Project was initiated in 2012 by Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) that surrounds Chilmark, North Wessex Downs AONB and Wiltshire Wildlife Trust working together. We wanted to deliver some of the landscape scale benefits envisaged in a programme of nature restoration called ‘Big Chalk’. An application was made to Natural England, the government’s nature conservation body, for £105,658.41 over three years.

The aims of the project were:

•  To connect areas of high quality chalk grassland habitat around Salisbury Plain by creating ‘stepping stones’ between them, allowing animals like butterflies and beetles to successfully colonise new areas.
• To enhance areas adjacent to high quality sites: buffering valuable habitat so that populations of chalk grassland insects and plants can grow.
• To include and involve a large number of local volunteers in growing and planting plug plants to enhance species-poor areas.

We carried out an innovative piece of mapping that showed us where we should prioritise our efforts. We worked with twenty-eight farmers on the Pewsey Downs and West Wiltshire Downs, creating or improving 344 hectares of chalk grassland. The project levered in about £60,000 of cash and in-kind support. Voluntary participants included school children from Pewsey Primary and the WildlifeTrust’s Wellbeing Group.

See the Stepping Stones Priority Area Map PDF.

Recently, the Cranborne Chase AONB has provided £1,500 to the Chilmark Horticultural Society to carry on this work in South Wiltshire. With the help of chalk grassland expert Catherine Hosie and lots of voluntary help, we will use the polytunnel at Manora (thanks to the generosity of Patrick and Jane Middleton) to produce a large number of chalk grassland plants that can be planted out in the spring of 2016.

You can easily get involved in sowing seeds, potting on plants and looking after them. In particular, we need people to help water the plants over the summer. Can you help us? Also, we need some big watering cans with rose sprinklers and as many 4” and 3” plastic plants pots as we can get our hands on. Can you donate or lend them to us?

The first volunteer days for sowing seeds will be Sunday 29th March and Sunday 12th April. We will meet at the Polytunnel, at 10 am and we will be finished at about 12.00 pm, but you do not have to stay for the whole 2 hours. For more details, contact:

David Blake
davidblake@cranbornechase.org.uk
Tel: 01725 517417

Martin Down NNR nominated as Nature Reserve of Year

Martin Down National Nature Reserve, jewel in the crown of the Cranborne Chase AONB has been nominated as Nature Reserve of Year in BBC Countryfile Magazine Award.

We would love to get the recognition that this site deserves, and you can help by adding your vote!

 Vote here: http://www.countryfile.com/awards2014-15

About Martin Down

Martin Down is one of the largest areas of chalk grassland in the country, supporting a wide variety of downland flowers, plus butterflies and birds, including the Skylark.  The down is rich in archaeology, dating from the Neolithic Bokerley Ditch to the Rifle Range used during the Second World War.

Wildflowers at Martin Down - Tracy Adams

It covers some 336 hectares and jointly owned and managed by Natural England and the Hampshire County Council.

Location: The reserve is 14 km south west of Salisbury, 1 km west of Martin village. The northern part of the site is crossed by the A354. By car, access to the site is via the A354 and minor roads leading from it. There is a car park on the A354 and another at the end of Sillens Lane, a minor road from the village of Martin, 1 km east of the reserve. 

More pics and location map:

http://www.lymington.org/placestovisit/martindown.html

Reaching for the Stars!

The Cranborne Chase AONB Partnership is keen to work closely with everyone in and around the AONB to attain ‘Dark Night Sky Reserve’ status.

To that end, the AONB team is holding a seminar on lighting issues and how to help reduce light pollution in and around the AONB on November 6th at The New Remembrance Hall, Charlton, nr Shaftesbury, SP7 0PL - Link to Map

National experts will be on hand with presentations and to guide attendees through informal workshops looking at lighting - good, bad and ugly!

This is certainly not about reducing safety - in fact exactly the opposite: how to improve security and safety whilst saving on energy costs, improving our own health and well-being, offering an increasingly rare opportunity for education, an enhanced experience for visitors, together with an improved environment for our nocturnal wildlife....not to mention the wondrous, amazing views to be had on dark, starry nights......

A CPD certificate is available and the fee is £35 to include an information pack, refreshments and a hearty, local lunch

Note:
The AONB team acknowledges that parish councils are not well funded and would therefore like to offer the opportunity to attend this seminar at a reduced rate of £10 (rather than the full rate of £35). Those parishes already booked will of course only be charged £10 per person accordingly.

The AONB team looks forward to working closely with all 108 parishes within and around the AONB and the team hopes the reduced rate may enable many more parish representatives to attend. We look forward to seeing you on the 6th November at The New Remembrance hall, Charlton, nr Shaftesbury.

For more details and to book your place please go to: http://tiny.cc/3nx2nx. Any queries please email shirleymerrick@cranbornechase.org.uk


With best wishes,
Linda & team

Linda Nunn
Director
Cranborne Chase Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Shears Building  •  Stone Lane Industrial Estate  •  Wimborne   •  Dorset  •  BH21 1HD
Tel: 01725 517417

Woodcutts Traditional Fingerpost

A tale of a great community effort that resulted in something really rewarding.

By Pearl James, Dean, Woodcutts.

 As usual it was local farmer & parish councillor Simon Meaden that encouraged me to run this project – he has definitely got a habit of “volunteering” me for things!

 The story starts with the council announcing that they would no longer be able to renovate these charming old Dorset Signposts. Simon adopted and renovated the sign post at Minchington and my husband Alec and I just happened along our lane as he was taking some photos with the press. “Why don’t you do the one at Woodcutts” he cried – and the project was born!

Our post (as we now call it) was looking very sad and forlorn. It definitely needed some TLC. There is a process to go through with the Dorset AONB to “adopt” a post, which I duly completed. Once they had confirmed it was officially our post it was time for the hard work to start. Alec agreed to do the work and Carol and David Cross agreed to join us.

Carol designed a great mail shot and we delivered these to all the houses in Dean and Woodcutts. People were extremely generous and soon very nice envelopes came popping through my door! In total we raised £354.00 but needed more. The roundel alone came to £285.00 and then there was paint, many letters at £2.50 each, screws, bolts, wood for the fingers, etc. Luckily Linda Nunn at the Cranborne Chase AONB came to the rescue and we applied for a grant to complete the work. This was generously given and we pressed on, identifying suppliers, ordering letters and getting those shot blasted & painted; ordering the roundel, screws, bolts, the list seemed endless, but it was great fun and very rewarding at every stage!

Some lovely local people also did lots of the work and donated materials. Rupert and Jeannie Brown donated the wood and Rupert made a lovely job of preparing it, to match the old fingers perfectly. David Cross painted them beautifully. Adrian Harris from Woodcutts restored the old post leg that was in the ground and certainly wasn’t going to be removed easily, so he did it in situ and made a great job of it. Alec and I spent many an hour becoming the Two Ronnies – “How many O’s have we got?” and eventually we had the right letters and Alec sprayed them and fixed them to the wooden arms with great patience.

The big day came and we went and bolted the new arms on. By chance the man who had led me down this path stopped by, Simon of course! It was very rewarding indeed to be there and see how magnificent the post looked once completed.

We had an absolutely great time doing this project, and the bonus is that every time one drives by there is a great sense of pride. So I would like to say thank you to everyone who worked with us and donated so generously for “our post”. You are all wonderful neighbours and it was our privilege to work with you all. Thank you indeed. If anyone wants any help or advice in how to renovate their own community post then please feel free to call me on 01725 552834.

Pearl James, Dean, Woodcutts.

Great Dorset Steam Fair

The Great Dorset Steam Fair at Tarrant Hinton near Blandford starts today.  Despite the recent wet weather, the event looks to build on the enormous sucesses of previous years, welcoming many visitors into the Cranborne Chase AONB.

The steam fair has attracted thousands over the years in what is reputedly the largest collection of steam and vintage equipment to be seen anywhere in the world.

The show regularly attracts around 200,000 visitors, becoming the fifth largest population centre in Dorset.  What these visitors will see as they travel to the show is one of the most stunning historic landscapes of the Cranborne Chase.

Neolithic Long Barrow on Bokerley Down
Copyright Jim Champion

History

The road from Salisbury features wide ranging views as well as numerous neolithic remains.  Long Barrows are some of the earliest monumental features forming communal burial places for often disarticulated bone from multiple individuals. There are 39 long barrows known within the AONB.

You will also pass The Dorset Cursus as you travel along the A354.  With a date of around 3,300 BC, it is a nationally important Neolithic monument consisting of a of a pair of parallel banks (1.5 m tall) running about 82 m apart, with external ditches.

To find out more about the historical significance of the AONB, see the dedicated website:
www.historiclandscape.co.uk
This website provides an introduction to the history and archaeology of the fascinating landscape of the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It also provides an introduction to historic landscape characterisation and explores how the AONB is conserving and enhancing this special heritage through Historic Environment Action Plans.

Landscape

Tarrant Hinton itself is set in a Chalk River Valley, with the River Tarrant being a tributory of the Stour and Avon.  The Tarrant rises in the heart of Cranborne Chase before flowing for about ten kilometres across the chalk.

Linear villages are a feature of these tributary valleys.

Most of the valley sides are shallow and have been exploited for the cultivation of arable crops or improved pasture.  However, some of the steeper valley sides still support unimproved chalk grassland or woodland. Linear villages are a feature of these tributary valleys, containing cottages of locally distinctive materials, most notably red brick and flint with thatch.

The rest of the site of the Steam Fair is in a landscape type known as the 'Southern Downland Belt' - a large scale open landscape of broad rolling hills forming a gentle chalk dipslope.  It is a colourful landscape being rich with a range of arable crops and associated seasonal changes.  There are few settlements, with farm buildings being sacttered at low density throughout the area.

Villages of the Tarrant Valley

The eight Tarrant Valley villages all bear the name of the river:

• Tarrant Gunville: the source of the river is in the grounds of Gunville House, now demolished
• Tarrant Hinton: a village at a crossroads, with a parish church
• Tarrant Launceston: a hamlet with a 3-arched 17th-century bridge.
• Tarrant Monkton: a village with a parish church
• Tarrant Rawston: a very small settlement
• Tarrant Rushton: a village with a parish church. Near here was a World War II RAF airfield.
• Tarrant Keyneston: this is the largest village of the eight; has a parish church
• Tarrant Crawford, the final settlement, lies at the confluence of the rivers Tarrant and Stour. Here there is the church of St Mary the Virgin and Tarrant Abbey farm, where once stood a nunnery. There is also a vineyard here.

We hope that many of the visitors to the Steam Fair will enjoy travelling through the interesting and varied landscape of this part of the AONB, and perhaps visit some of the local villages and sites of interest while they are here.  The 'Discover the Area' section of our website has lots of details regarding what is on offer:
http://www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk/discover/discover.htm

The AONB Partnership aims for Dark Night Sky status

The AONB Partnership has a new and clear objective to apply for ‘dark night sky status’ by the end of 2016 (you may have spotted a clue in the cover of the newly published AONB Management Plan 2014-19).

Photo: B Mizon

The vast, dark skies twinkling with a myriad of the tiniest stars covers much of the AONB. The International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) states on its web site:

‘Once a source of wonder--and one half of the entire planet’s natural environment—the star-filled nights of just a few years ago are vanishing in a yellow haze. Human-produced light pollution not only mars our view of the stars; poor lighting threatens astronomy, disrupts ecosystems, affects human circadian rhythms, and wastes energy to the tune of $2.2 billion per year in the U.S. alone’.

In the UK, the British Astronomical Association's Campaign for Dark Skies is all about restoring our natural, starry skies by reducing inefficient lighting.

There are all manner of benefits from reducing the wasteful, ineffective and inefficient use of lighting. This initiative is certainly not about simply turning off the lights. Benefits include: 

• Improving security (not reducing it) through using better fittings that point light downwards, lighting the area to be protected rather than it straying outwards and upwards producing glare 
• Improving our health – there is much evidence that light at night can cause eyesight and various sleeping problems
• Improving the environment for wildlife – many insects, birds and mammals rely on darkness at night to function properly. Like ourselves, too much light at night disrupts our natural rhythms and behaviour
• Saving money….inefficient lighting is simply a needless waste of money
• Increased opportunities for education, enjoyment and well-being – many people, including children, have little chance of ever seeing and wondering at those star filled skies
• Conserving and enhancing part of our natural environment – as the IDA states above, with half our natural environment being made up of the sky above us, its conservation should be on a par with that at ground level!

The process for applying for dark sky status involves taking light readings, defining a ‘core area’ within the AONB with the darkest skies, a ‘buffer zone’ around that core area, developing and agreeing lighting policies with all those bodies responsible for lighting and gaining the support of AONB communities.

Look out for information on the AONB web site (www.ccwwdaonb.org.uk) in the coming months as the AONB team begins to plan the application for dark sky status.

It is vital that the application is accompanied by written support from parishes, community groups, schools, indeed any organisation that has an interest in helping to conserve the dark night skies of the AONB and bringing the many and various benefits that would follow. During the following months, the AONB team will be contacting everyone we possible can, to determine support for this initiative.

For further Information, see:

www.darksky.org
http://www.britastro.org/dark-skies/index.html

Plant Trees With Your Community or School with The Woodland Trust

The Woodland Trust have over 4,000 free tree packs to give away to schools, community and youth groups in the autumn.

They would like you to take part in a once-in-a-generation tribute to all those who gave their lives by creating a growing legacy that will stand tall for centuries to come. This is part of a larger scheme which aims to distribute three million free trees over the next four years to help communities, schools and youth groups remember their local heroes.

Click here for full details https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/plant-trees/in-your-community/