National Lottery Grants for Heritage – £250,000 to £5million
Our £2.1million funding is helping Doddington Hall Conservation Charity transform the 770 hectare site near Lincoln, which is on a 100-year rewilding journey. Wilder Connections will embrace people-powered nature recovery and create ways to welcome and include a diverse variety of people.
The Wilder Connections team will work closely with local and national partners including Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust, Field Studies Council, Hill Holt Wood CIC and the University of Lincoln on carefully curated programmes for under-served communities. The programmes will explore the importance of nature’s recovery and the varied health benefits from time spent outdoors.
Volunteering, learning and skills-development for people of all ages and abilities will be offered on themes including habitat restoration, bird and insect population monitoring and river and soil health.
Wilder Connections will also help upskill people from a diverse range of backgrounds to work in environmentally-focused careers, helping to address a growing skills shortage in the UK’s nature-based economy.
The project will also construct a Passivhaus Premium building (which produces more energy than it uses) as an accessible hub for activities.
Claire Birch, CEO of Doddington Farms and Chair of the Doddington Hall Conservation Charity, said: “We believe that community, learning and engagement must sit at the heart of efforts to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises, and that nature has huge power to transform people’s lives for the better.
“Over the next four years, Wilder Connections will use this National Lottery funding to demonstrate the value of nature recovery for our local community and create exciting opportunities for people to play their part.”
The Doddington Hall Conservation Charity was awarded two National Lottery Heritage Fund grants totalling £2,169,977: a development award of £184,264 in March 2022 and a delivery award of £1,980,758 in September 2023.