4 days Ago By [email protected] (Maddy Baillie)
A volunteer group dedicated to making green spaces accessible to all is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Wildplaces, part of Transition King's Cliffe , has achieved a lot since it was created in 2015. From reopening the disused King’s Cliffe railway as a 1.
5 mile walking route to planting a wildflower meadow, the aim for the group has always been to encourage villagers to get outdoors and appreciate wildlife. Wildplaces was created by Charles Tomalin, a former IT consultant who moved to the village from Bedford just over a decade ago. The 65-year-old said: “I very quickly realised there is magical biodiversity in the village which people were unaware of or took for granted.
“After taking early retirement I was looking for something to do. “I’d always been interested in wildlife so started mapping out what there was and noticed there wasn’t fantastic access to places.” He enlisted the help of a few people he’d met since moving to the village and held the first work party clearing the railway path - a project which was completed four years later.
Quickly the campaign began to gather pace with many more people putting down their names to help open up green spaces to the community. More than 5,000 volunteer hours have been clocked up by a team of more than 150 and a work party is held monthly at one of the green spaces in the village. Charles said: “Initially I thought it would give me something to do but a lot of people showed interest and it’s grown further than I was thinking.
“It’s a brilliant village. People do want to get involved.” Marking their anniversary in Wildplaces-style, dozens of volunteers helped to create a footpath and tidy up an area known locally as the horsewater near the village church.
This was followed by celebratory drinks in The Cross Keys pub..
