Wilder Woods » Funding

CSOLP is now signed up for Local Giving

Deb Millar — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 08:50:21 +0000

CSOLP is now signed up for Local Giving through Somerset Community Foundation. Over the years Somerset Community Foundation has supported our work with children and families in woodlands. They gave us our very first grant in 2007 which helped us get started. They also provided valuable advice about the management of a voluntary run group. Many thanks to Somerset Community Foundation, an organization which empowers communities to help themselves.
http://localgiving.com/charity/csolp-wilderwoods

Grants and donations and update on planning at Hallr Wood

Deb Millar — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:26:46 +0000

We are very grateful to SSDC Community Fund, the Charlton Mackrell Parish Council and the Charlton’s panto group CHADS who have all recently given grants and donations towards our access/planning conditions costs at Hallr Wood.

We are really pleased that the new Parish Council is supportive of our work in the community and thank them for their donation of £40 towards the costs of fullfilling our planning conditions at Hallr Wood. This money will be spent on landscaping the access and on hedging, helping us to minimize negative visual affect which is hard to avoid with highways insistence on a 5m access onto a 3m lane.

It was also especially wonderful that CHADs chose to support us, donating £500 from the proceeds of their recent, hilarious production ‘Inspector Drake’s Last Case’. A big thank you to them and all the villagers who attended the play.

We are still struggling with all the bureaucracy attached to meeting our planning conditions and are disappointed we are not yet in a position to proceed with the work. The tree surgeon has begun work around the access – removing a few damanged Norwegian maple trees. This work is fully covered by our Forestry Commission felling licence. The trees in our tree nursery are doing well and are ready to be planted in the hedge when the work is complete.

Anyone who wants to help with the planting or other jobs associated with this work – do get in touch.

Hallr Wood Open Day 19/6/2011

Deb Millar — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:41:11 +0000

We welcomed a steady stream of people – old friends and new faces to our Open Day at Hallr Wood on 19th June. Thankfully we dodged the showers and the afternoon was dry and even sunny at times. The wood looked enchanting and there was loads to do. There were woodland trails, chances to try out shave horses and spring pole lathe, a hammock challenge, crafty activities and plenty to eat from our beautiful Woodland cafe. We had a comfy seating area under our enormous cargo parachute and people could go and sit there and hear wonderful stories from Amanda and also Mark playing several tunes on his hammered dulcimer. Our raffle had attracted some great prizes – Sarah won the rocket stove (and can’t wait to try it out on their next camping trip to Exmoor) Azharah won the elm spoon, Jo Blunt won the lovely etching donated fron Nina Gronw- Lewis, Andy the chocs from Heather Barnes (healthy chocolate!) and Cherry won the bottles from Somerset Food Direct. Richard won the hammock challenge. We have raised nearly £200 towards the costs of our planning permision (works required). Big thank you to all our helpers- Ian & Torin, Azharah, Marty, Sarah, Jane, Lynda, Ed, Andy, Martyn, Amanda and her helpers, Juliet Lawn, our Wwoofers Ian, Colline and Matt and also those who came and ate cakes and strawberries. Do look at Ian’s photos which can be accessed via our Hallr Wood facebook page. Hopefully we will have some on our gallery soon too.

Awards for All grant

Deb Millar — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 07:51:47 +0000

We are delighted to announce that we have received another Awards for All grant. Thank you Lottery!
This grant is for our environmental volunteering which we intend to make more inclusive at our sites. Volunteering outside can improve well being and also be a useful stepping stone to paid employment. We will support a wider range of volunteers, provide a variety of skills training and run more frequent volunteering days. Do get in touch with our Volunteer Co-ordinator Jane Wilson (01458 446799) if you would like more information.

February Funding update

Deb Millar — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 09:24:58 +0000

We are always very grateful for grants which help us to achieve a huge amount through our group.
Recent successful applications include;
A partnership project between our local Forest Education Initiative group and CSOLP to deliver to teenagers. We combined a portion of our SCC youth grant for 2009-2010 with an FEI partnership fund and a Grass Roots grant organized by Heather to deliver a Woodland Toys project due to take place in Drayton, Swanmead School and King Alfred’s in Highbridge in March.
We are delighted to have been awarded a further year of funding for 2010-2011 from SCC towards our youth provision which will enable us to take youth groups for evening sessions this summer and to continue our youth volunteering.
We have been successful in obtaining Funding from SCC (Short Breaks) for working with Disabled children! The Application is to work with Fiveways School Support Staff to provide 5 Holiday Activity days from Easter to Autumn Half term 2010.
Thank you to all those who have supported us.

Grass Roots Grant

CSOLP — Tue, 05 May 2009 14:01:20 +0000

Sessions for families with young children will soon resume in Charlton Mackrell and begin in Drayton with help from a Grass Roots Grant. We are very pleased as we have missed the lovely Wednesday afternoon sessions with mums, dads, grannies and young children.

Please look at the calendar for dates.

SCC Aggregates Levy Fund Spring 2009

CSOLP — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:01:56 +0000

We will be able to repair our storm damaged craft shelter area and improve parking at Hallr Wood, thanks to another grant from SCC Aggregates Levy who have supported our summer playschemes for the last two years.

Somerset County Council Youth Grants for 13-19 year olds

CSOLP — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 14:02:34 +0000

We are ideally placed to offer interesting courses for this age group; bushcraft and bow making, conservation skills and woodland crafts. We are so pleased to hear that Somerset County Council’s Youth grants will help us offer subsidized courses and we are now busy planning a programme for 2009-10.

Do get in touch if you are interested and within this age group or work with a group that is.

Living History Project

CSOLP — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 14:03:42 +0000

We were thrilled to be awarded funding from the Field Studies Council in the summer of 2007 to develop and trial a living history resource for KS2 to be used in woodlands. The project was conducted on behalf of the Yeovil and Dorset Forest Education Initiative Cluster group who we work closely with.

The object of the resource is to make children more aware of the history of woodlands and the importance of conserving them for the future. It also aims to give children a new insight into the past through a combination of practical experience and drama.

We have run Viking Days for schools and home education groups in woods and in school grounds. We made Viiking barley bread on an open fire and ate it with stinging nettles (everyone liked them) or with honey on wooden plates; we told sagas and discussed daily life in Viking times; we held ‘things’ and got very carried away with all the role play so much so that we almost believed the look outs when they reported seeing wolves and Saxons approaching…

As a result of our sessions, we have produced a booklet with activity plans so that schools and groups can run their own ‘Viking Days’. We hope it will encourage more schools to get out into their woodlands for learning.

We ran a training day for teachers wanting to run their own Viking Days in November 2008. The booklet ‘How to run your own Viking Day’ is free to download from the FEI web site (see links). We will be running more Viking Days for children in school holidays and can also assist schools should they wish to host a day.

in the woods

Westland Helicopters

CSOLP — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:44:09 +0000

The Subscriptions and Donations Committee of Westland have generously agreed to support our project.

We are most grateful to them for £250 which we are planning to spend on a shed in which to store our tools and other bits and pieces in our new wood.