Grant to help Sadler's Wood stand out

A community group has won £6440 from the Big Lottery to help put Sadler's Wood, near North Walsham, on the map.

Sadler's Wood Action Group, which helps to manage the woodland and wild open area (which lies just five minutes' walk from North Walsham town centre), has been awarded the money through the Breathing Places programme to put up signage and information boards to raise the wood's profile in the community, and for new benches and planting at the entrance.

Children from North Walsham Junior School will be involved in designing and making an information board and leaflet (they have already got to know the wood through their studies, including collecting tree seeds for planting on the school grounds).

Fingerpost signs will be put up from the town centre to help people find the wood, community events will be led by local artists to create signage for the approaches to the wood, events will also be run to create new furniture out of fallen trees to supplement the existing benches and to help create a meeting space on the site. There will also be opportunities for the community to plant of a new native hedge at the entrance to replace a chainlink fence and make the woodland more welcoming.

North Norfolk District Council, which owns the wood, intends to help the community carry out this improvement project by the spring of 2009.

ENDS