North Walsham Times 541 by Eric Hayton

Family Fun day to celebrate Norfolk Wildlife

Trust’s newest reserve at Pigney’s Wood, a local nature reserve within walking distance of North Walsham, has just joined the Norfolk Wildlife Trust ‘family’.

To celebrate, the Trust is holding an Open Day with fun for all ages on Sunday 29 April, 11am – 3pm. Attractions include a storyteller, guided walks, minibeast hunting and woodland craft demonstrations. All are welcome and it’s completely free.

Despite the name this site is much more than a wood. It has a reed bed and several ponds, as well as lovely open, grassy meadows, and benches with one of the best views in Norfolk! This is a place that owes its existence to the local community, having been bought by a group of local people

who formed the North Norfolk Community Woodland Trust and planted over 20,000 trees. 24 years later it has now been handed over to Norfolk Wildlife Trust to secure its future for everyone to enjoy.

The site has a number of special wildlife features for everyone to enjoy, including an impressive 450-year-old ancient oak tree ‘the Old Oak’ which is next to a small woodland area which boasts a carpet of bluebells in spring. Pigneys Wood provides an important wildlife refuge for many birds such as the goldcrest, nuthatch and Cetti’s Warbler, butterflies such as red admiral, peacock and holly blue and dragonflies such as the emperor, migrant

New Information & Heritage Centre Opens

For 40 years or more various groups in North Walsham have dreamt of opening a Heritage Centre to enable the town’s rich history to be displayed to inform residents and visitors alike. Last year saw the North Walsham Heritage Group’s ‘Big Society’ funded temporary exhibition in St Nicholas Church. This was very well received and inspired the group

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hawker, blacktailed skimmer and Norfolk hawker. Mark Webster, Norfolk Wildlife Trust Project Officer, said “We are looking forward to welcoming everyone to Pigneys on 29 April and we hope that people will come and enjoy this site on other days too.”

Pigneys Wood can be found by taking Bacton Road out of North Walsham and then turning left towards Knapton onto Hall Lane (OS Map Reference TG 296321, nearest postcode NR28 0SH). The site is open from dawn till dusk, every day, all year round.

Anyone wanting further information or a programme of upcoming activities at Pigneys Wood should contact Mark on 07843 069 567 or via markw@norfolkwildlifetrust.org.uk

to seek the next step, a permanent home. At the same time the Town Council were themselves seeking a permanent home for their Information Centre and they decided to lease the Saddlers Rooms on Vicarage Street which included the former meeting room that could be sub-leased to become the Heritage Centre.

North Walsham Heritage Group was extremely grateful to have been awarded a grant in March, from the Wensum and Coast Local Action Group under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Their grant of £4,767 will provide cabinets and other display equipment to improve the presentation of North Walsham’s 2,000 year history. The Heritage Centre and Information Centre will together form ‘Mi North Walsham’ and be run entirely by volunteers. This opened its doors on Monday 16 April and initially between 10am and 2pm Monday to Friday.

The Heritage Centre is a record of the local community and will be developed over the coming months. The team is keen to receive donations of local items that can help describe the town’s history. Documents and photos can tell the story but physical objects can help make that history much more accessible, especially to younger generations. If you have any suitable objects then the North Walsham Heritage Group would love to hear from you. You can contact them on info@northwalshamheritage.org.uk

The Information Centre will provide details of local facilities, attractions, events, travel and anything else related to North Walsham too. Please do let them know about your future events. This is linked to the ‘M.i. North Walsham’ Facebook page and the team can be contacted on reception@northwalsham-town.co.uk

If you’d like to get involved as a volunteer with either part of Mi North Walsham, they’d love to hear from you too.

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North Walsham Times 541 April 28th 2018