Tiffey Trails project wins CPRE Norfolk award

Wymondham Arts Forum's innovative Tiffey Trails project earned one of the 2009 awards from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE Norfolk). The award was presented to representatives of the project team at a ceremony in the Assembly House, Norwich, on Thursday 19 November, 2009.

The CPRE Norfolk awards vary from year to year and may include architectural, environmental and educational projects and those which improve access to the countryside and the quality of the rural environment. The Norfolk scheme has been running for 20 years.

Tiffey Trails was Wymondham Arts Forum's first major project, and ran for three years from 2005. Its initial aim was to use the arts as a medium for protecting and promoting the attractive valley of the little River Tiffey, which runs for 5 miles through the parish of Wymondham, skirting the town and the Abbey and its river meadows. But the project soon developed in scope to embrace heritage and the environment, and to offer wider community involvement.

The project team devised a full activities programme running through 2006 and 2007. It opened up the footpath system to visitors with boardwalks and fingerposts, and added interest to a walk in the valley with wood carvings, new benches, interpretation boards and distinctive waymarkers. Two viewing towers were erected. A valley guide leaflet and map were designed and printed, and free copies are available from information points in Wymondham and in the valley.
 
Costing over £108,000, the three-year project was funded by 15 different organisations with grants ranging in size from £43,740 from the Heritage Lottery Fund down to contributions of £500 or less.

Arts Forum chair John Wood, who lead the project, said "We are proud of what our team of local volunteers has achieved. The CPRE Norfolk Award is a tribute to the many organisations which worked in partnership for more than three years to make it all happen."

A comprehensive and fully illustrated report was published when the project was completed in October 2008, and copies are available from the Secretary, Wymondham Arts Centre, Church Street, Wymondham NR18 0PH on receipt of £3 payable to Wymondham Arts Forum (postage included).