Completed community grants
St Mary's Church, Edwinstowe
St Mary’s Church formed a community art/woodwork group (comprising of church and non-church goers) to preserve, relocate and create 2D life-size Robin Hood figures to be displayed outside the church to engage the local and wider community within the rich local history and village heritage.
The group successfully negotiated the last year of restrictions and worked with a local artist to complete 9 figures from Robin Hood and some of the characters from the Ballard Piers the Ploughman.
With the successful completion of the project the church is now seen as ‘a place that is enhanced and has become more interesting for visitors’.
These figures are now on display outside of the church.
Mine2Minds
Mine2Minds highlighted the heritage and history in the former Notts coalfields, helping to raise the profile of the former industrial communities in the Sherwood Forest region through a series of workshops primarily featuring the Notts mining banners.
Due to lockdown restrictions the focus of the project became online and the team produced an online learning resource as well as a booklet that was distributed to libraries, media and local organisations. The team also appeared at the 2021 virtual Nottinghamshire Local History Fair.
The team are hoping that the legacy of the project means that the remaining mining banners in the former Nottinghamshire coalfield will be restored and put on static display at community venues throughout the county.
For more information about the group, please visit their website.
The Sherwood Forest Trust
The Sherwood Forest Trust, ran a project to enable The Greenman and a children’s environmental artist to perform within the Major Oak Woodland Festival (MOWF).
MOWF was the first time the Sherwood Forest Trust had delivered a visitor event of this nature, allowing the general public to engage with arts, culture and heritage. It also allowed new members of staff within the Sherwood Forest Trust to gain experience of being involved within an event, giving them great confidence to continue and build on this for future events.
The project played a part in making the event a success and when asked of their enjoyment, visitor’s replies were very positive.
Edwinstowe Parish Council
Edwinstowe Parish Council held the Newark Book Festival on tour event and funding went towards a number of activities at the event to include:- authors, illustrators, story telling, crafts, literacy & heritage based talk, writing workshops for budding authors, guest poet fees, commission festival map and a license for a film showing.
The on tour event was such a success, that the Edwinstowe Parish Council have now budgeted for a Edwinstowe Book Festival this year on September 3rd 2022. Again working with Newark Book Festival Organisers, but also partnering up with other
organisations such as the RSPB.
Birklands Ringing Group
This project was to engage people with surveying the local bird population and to also provide bird ringing kit and equipment for the group.
An event was held with the Notts Wildlife Trust youth group who undertook environmental work such as helping to plant a hedgerow/create a scrub area. The group then joined the Birklands Ringing group to ring birds, allowing the youth group to learn about field work and data collection, whilst handling the birds, something they would not have been able to do without this funding.
The grant will also allow the Birklands Ringing Group to continue their work, surveying and collecting environmental data and to continue to encourage local people in become involved with bird ringing.
Bilsthorpe Heritage Museum
Oral histories were recorded of the ex miners to be shown at the museum and also shared with local schools.
A day was spent at the museum, recording and videoing the ex miners to preserve the fast disappearing memories of working at the local collieries and have been well received by visitors.
The museum only previously had static displays. This has given the ex-miners the opportunity to be involved in a project to bring their experiences to life and for visitors to hear stories told by them. The museum is also able to take their stories to a wider audience when exhibiting at indoor venues.
The project has ensured that memories of pit life will not be lost but will be available for future generations. Visitors have gone away with a better understanding of life at the Pit.
Social Action Hub
Social Action Hub, a community action group, ran a week long project focusing on understanding and caring about nature and Sherwood Forest during their Summer play scheme.
The Hub ran a series of 5 sessions as follows:-
• learning about butterflies
• creating a wildflower garden
• creating a bee and insect hotel
• creating a hedgehog hideaway and planting a wildlife garden
• Mini beast junk modelling and evaluation
Activities included researching butterflies and identifying the significant impact on pollination, nature walks, designing a wildflower garden, collecting items to help build a bug hotel and planting seeds and bulbs in the garden.
‘This project has made it possible for many people to enjoy a resource – in this case a small plot for gardening, encouraging wildlife and creating an enjoyable space for all ages – that they couldn’t afford or wouldn't have felt they had the skills to do on their own. However, it’s not just the children themselves who gained from the project – the benefits extend to the rest of their family and other volunteers from the community got involved.’