Exmoor's ponies and the Stour Valley are focus of cash injection
Two historic English landscapes will be conserved thanks to a £2m cash injection from Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF).
Exmoor moorland in North Devon and West Somerset, and the Stour Valley on the border of Essex and Suffolk, are to receive just under £1m each.
Carole Souter, HLF's CEO, said: “The English countryside is famous around the world and the Stour Valley and Exmoor are some of its finest examples.
"Thanks to the Heritage Lottery Fund’s support, local groups and communities will be able to work together to make a real, long-term impact on protecting these wonderful landscapes.”
The Stour Valley – Constable Country
The £992,000 HLF award will enable professional and community groups to develop 15 individual projects delivered mainly in five clusters across the 120 km2 scheme.
A wide range of projects will aim to increase awareness of the Stour Valley’s past. These include oral histories, the use of churches as exhibition spaces, visitor centres and viewing points for the valley, archaeological activities, and the improvement of meadows, field boundaries and riverside trees.
In keeping with the artistic legacy of this landscape, new works of art exploring the heritage of the area will also be created.
Utilising Exmoor’s wild ponies
The Exmoor moorland scheme has been earmarked an HLF grant of £982,200 to conduct 23 projects across 287 km2.
Giving people the opportunity and confidence to participate in conservation is at the heart of these plans. There will be a focus on helping people to understand, get involved in and celebrate the unique past of the scenery.
Much of the scheme includes innovative approaches to restoring the condition of the moorland habitats, including the promotion of the semi-wild Exmoor Pony for grazing as an integral part of the management of the moors.
