"For any of you who watched Spring Watch 2006 on BBC1 with Bill Oddie and Kate Humble you may recall the launch of the, 'Breathing Places' Project.

The Big Lottery Fund made grants available to local groups who could improve wildlife habitats whilst also making them accessible to the community.

Womaston made a successful application and we are thrilled to be in receipt of a £9,400 grant.

Our project is named, 'Grounds for living' and will involve volunteers from our local Wildlife Trust, Scouts groups and pupils from neighbouring schools as well as students from Womaston in its creation.

The grant will be used to install animal and bird sculptures around the nature trail; giving us the opportunity to work with local chainsaw sculptor, Harry Thomas.

We will also be building a reptile dwelling, insect boxes, a bug hotel and putting up bird feeding stations and nest boxes.

Interpretation panels will be installed as well as trail posts. We have an ancient yew hedged area which we'll reclaim from the wilderness and set it up as an outdoor story group meeting place.

The yew area will also serve and the start and finish of our nature trail tours which will be run for the community groups mentioned above by students and staff from Womaston.

We are very lucky to have a small lake on site and we are installing a floating gangway for pond dipping or just quietly gazing into the water.

The project was successfully launched with a visit from Kington Primary School to the school site to witness a wonderful woodcarving event.

The school aims to encourage visits from local schools in Mid Wales and Herefordshire to take advantage of the amazing new resources.

Our next community event will take place during May when we will be building a 'bug hotel.' This event will be closely supported by Radnorshire Wildlife Trust who's People and Wildlife Officer will guide us through its construction.

For further information or to plan a visit please contact Theresa McGinley or Martin Bertulis through the website listed to the right of this page."

Article by Theresa McGinley