Friends of Quantock have been working hard as lead partners in the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme, the AONB Service’s Bid for lottery funding. Yesterday we had this announcement from the QLPS:
A £2.6m boost for the Quantocks
After four years of development the Quantock Landscape Partnership Scheme (QLPS) has been awarded a £1.8m National Lottery grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. With match funding from the National Trust, Friends of Quantock, the Quantock Hills AONB and EDF Energy the award will allow the £2.6m, five-year scheme to begin delivery to enhance the landscape, natural environment and provide more opportunities for people to engage and enjoy the 200km2 scheme area.
The Quantock Hills are a special place. Their designation in 1956 as England’s first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty was not only for their particular qualities as a natural environment, but also for their remarkable story of human interaction with nature reaching back many thousands of years
The scheme, developed by the Quantock Hills AONB Service in partnership with South West Heritage Trust, Friends of Quantock and many others, aims to inspire the local communities to learn from the centuries of landscape development on the Quantock Hills and undertake a wide range of projects providing resilience and protection of the landscape into the future.
The scheme will deliver a number of projects which aim to work together to:
- Inspire – engage people in understanding the landscape, its cultural influence and work with communities to understand the pressures and opportunities into the future.
- Live – undertake physical works to conserve and enhance the landscape and heritage assets of the Quantock Hills.
- Learn – increase knowledge of the Quantock Hills and the role of the estates in the formation of its landscapes.
