Funding Wins for Scarborough's Raincliffe Woods

Exciting things are happening this spring at Scarborough’s ancient woodland and National Nature Reserve, Raincliffe and Forge Valley Woods.

Raincliffe Woods are to benefit from a hundred thousand pounds of investment after the community enterprise which looks after the woodland won two funding grants.

Community Woodland Manager at Raincliffe Wood Community Enterprise, Paul Thompson, says the money will be used for two different projects.

Thanks to £50k of funding from the North York Moors National Park Authority and HEY Smile Foundation the community woodland will launch its Working Woodland Heritage project which aims to support people through green social prescribing.  Social prescribing connects people with activities that benefit their wellbeing; activities such as coppicing, traditional heritage crafts, green woodworking and woodland walks, beginning this April.

The Raincliffe Wood Community Enterprise is also one of 93 organisations across the country to be awarded funding from the Platinum Jubilee Fund, which has been launched by The National Lottery Community Fund to celebrate 70 years of Her Majesty The Queen’s reign, by providing impactful grants to projects across the UK that are helping to bring communities together.

Paul Thompson says that project is also bringing £50k to the woodland which will be used to create a new event programme starting on the jubilee weekend.

The community woodland will use its grant to deliver an exciting programme of celebratory events that bring all parts of the community together and inspire them to care for and take action for this valuable ancient woodland.  Events will include guided walks, star gazing, heritage craft workshops, mapping sessions, bushcraft events and food festivals.  Working with local schools and youth groups the project will also upskill and empower a group of young ambassadors to help protect and enhance the community woodland, and create digital resources to take the woodland out to those with accessibility needs.

The ’Scarborough’s Wonderful Woodlands’ project will launch with a mass participation walk ‘The Big Raincliffe Ramble’ at 11am on Sunday the 5th of June starting at Raincliffe Gate car park.

Paul Thompson, said:

“It’s such a special site with so much hidden heritage, and once formed part of Yorkshire’s largest Royal Hunting Forest the Forest of Pickering in the 13th Century, so it’s really fitting to be chosen to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations 800 years later. We’d like to say a huge thank you to National Lottery players for making this happen.”

To mark this momentous year of celebration, The National Lottery Community Fund launched the £3.5 million Platinum Jubilee Fund in November last year, providing grants of up to £50,000 to 70 impactful community projects across the UK to build connections and create a fitting and lasting legacy for their communities.

Blondel Cluff CBE, Chair of The National Lottery Community Fund, said:

“We are proud to play a key role in this momentous year of celebration across the United Kingdom. Thanks to National Lottery players, we are supporting organisations up and down the country that are making a great difference and bringing purpose and pride to their communities. It is these community groups that perfectly encapsulate the spirit of this Platinum Jubilee year, by creating a legacy of positive change that allows people to prosper and thrive.”