Mendip Hills Fund

2021 Grants Awarded

A Patch Wilder – Tools for scything in a wildlife area £460

Axbridge Action Group – contribution to the Axbridge Heritage Trail £1000

Bleadon Parish Council – contribution towards the “A tree for each child Jubilee project” £1000

Burrington Parish Council – Contribution to keep public toilets open £1000

Cheddar Community Partnership CIC – Visitor information Centre in Cheddar Gorge £500

Draycott and Rodney Stoke First School PTA – creating a forest school area for children to be able to learn new skills and develop a love of outdoor learning £2000

Litton Village Hall – Audio Visual installation £500

PCC of East Harptree with West Harptree and Hinton Blewett – Contribution Project Newton, a renewal project for the church and community of East Harptree £500

Shipham First School – litter pickers, books about nature, maps of the local area and nature reserves and funding to join the RSPB and SWT £653

Somerset Earth Science Centre – design and production of a site interpretation board for visitors £900

The Food Forest Project – development of a small permaculture market garden £1000

Wells and Mendip Museum – funding for a community archaeology meeting £165

Windrose Rural Media Trust – creation of an event to celebrate the Mendip Hills through archive films and song £1000

Windsor Hill Wood – Combines woodland nature conservation with restoration support for the mental health of adults through nature connection in  therapeutic woodland setting £600

For a full list of grants awarded since 2014 click here. (PDF Download 137KB)

2019 Grants Awarded

Ashwick & Oakhill Village Hall & Recreational Ground Committee – to create a community wildlife area and avenue of trees. £1200
Blagdon Parish Council – for landscape enhancement and maintenance for the benefit of the community and visitors. £2000
Chewton Mendip V A Primary School – for fencing to enable community use of the play area. £3111
Draycott Community Shop Ltd – for heating system and air-conditioning for a village community shop. £2000
East Harptree Environment Group – for surveying, monitoring and encouraging wildlife in the Parish. £962
Oakhill Church School (Bath & Wells Multi Academy Trust) – to create a woodland and pond area to enrich education. £1000
Rodney Stoke Parish Council – for improvements to a children’s play area. £1500
Wells and Mendip Museum – to develop a community archaeology and history forum. £150

2018 Grants Awarded

Stoke St. Michael War Memorial Hall – to make a redundant piece of land more environmentally friendly. £1768
Osprey Outdoors – to teach vocational skills through conservation work to long term unemployed. £100
Mendip Mountain Bikers group – to improve trail signage in Rowberrow Forest. £1000
Darshill & Bowlish Conservation Society – for their local heritage project. £500
Cheddar Community Partnership – for an interpretation panel by the Island Beds in the gorge. £800
Cheddar First School – for improvements to their forest school. £2000
Chewton Mendip Primary – for equipment to improve and maintain the school outside space. £548
Priddy & St Lawrence Schools – to develop their forest school sites. £2000
Strawberry Line East group – to by scythes for maintaining wildlife areas. £732
Rickford Community Association – for buying new fruit trees. £619

Strawberry Line East

Thanks to a grant from the Mendip Hills Fund, the Strawberry Line East group have been able to purchase five scythes to mow some of the meadowed areas around the Dulcote path. Scything is a traditional, environmentally friendly (it’s carbon-neutral and doesn’t liquidise insects the way a strimmer does), and good for you (it’s excellent exercise). We are absolutely thrilled to explore maintaining the wildlife areas around the Dulcote path in this progressive yet ancient way.

Stoke St. Michael War Memorial Hall

The War Memorial Hall in Stoke St. Michael had an area of waste ground at the back of the hall with old sheds taking up lots of space. With a little help from the Mendip Hills Fund the area is being transformed for people and wildlife. Seating areas will let people sit next to a pond, bug friendly walls with lots of nooks and crannies to live in and pollinator-friendly plants in the beds. When complete this will be an accessible community space for all to enjoy.

Osprey Outdoors

Osprey Outdoors is a people focused organisation who use the natural environment and outdoor skills to engage people, to help them learn and develop and to gain confidence as an individual and in a team. The Mendip Hills Fund grant enables them to access the National Landscape to carry out vocational skills through environmental conservation in the area.

Mendip Mountain Bikers

The Mendip Hills Fund panel were keen to fund this project to ensure that all users of the forest have an enjoyable, shared experience.  The new trail signage is now installed and illustrates the designated trail routes.

Rickford Community Association

The villagers of Rickford, near Burrington, have been nurturing a community orchard for nearly 20 years. To improve the fruit orchard and the associated sheep grazing activities that are in keeping with local traditions of the area the villagers applied for funds to plant more trees in gaps.

Specifically the £600 grant was to maintain the orchard, replant and add fruit trees, secure the grazing perimeter more effectively. They sourced all items locally and planted local native tree species wherever possible to help to maintain the wider local economy, environment and maintain traditional species wherever possible.

Lots of local people have been involved in this lovely orchard over the years that acts as such a focal point running down through the village.

Cheddar Community Partnership

Cheddar Community Partnership have commissioned and installed a helpful information panel to support the redevelopment of the Island Beds on the River Yeo in Cheddar Gorge thanks to the Mendip Hills Fund together with a number of other sponsors. Take a look next time you visit Cheddar.

Darshill & Bowlish Heritage Project

The Darshill and Bowlish Conservation Society is delving into the lost history of the three west Shepton Mallet hamlets of Darshill, Ham and Bowlish. The hamlets were centres of farming and cloth production from medieval times until the turn of the 20th century and made a vital contribution to the local economy.

For the next two years, the heritage project aims to study and understand the physical remains, both the historic and present day environment, and to try and revive something of the lives of the people involved.

The initially the project will look at the documentary evidence and carry out surveys of the architectural, archaeological and environmental heritage. During year two, a two-part major outreach programme is planned taking the results of the project into participating local schools to support their curriculum, and into the wider Somerset community through a series of public events.

The National Lottery Heritage Lottery Fund has provided the bulk of the project budget but needed match funding, the Mendip Hills Fund awarded them a grant of £500. Click here to find out more about this great project visit.