Fens Peatland project gets £8m Lottery funding

A major experiment in wet farming in the Fens is to recieve more than £8 million of funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund .

The 'Peatland Progress' project is run by The WildlifeTrust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire, it involves keeping carbon locked in the peat soils to improve water quality and help wildlife.

It's one of five projects in the country to share in the £50 million Heritage Horizons fund.

As well as helping combat climate change and biodiversity loss the project aims to help the anxieties of the next generation head-on through the purchase of a parcel of land, bringing together the north and south 'halves' of the Great Fen.

The partnership project will work to develop a model of agricultural production that inspires and changes farming practice on peat soils across the UK.

The Lottery Fund has also announced cash for Great Yarmouth's Winter Gardens which will be restored and brought back into a new, reimagined, use.

The fund says the grants will back big ideas and unlock enormous possibilities, following a year in which the have been focused on supporting heritage through the COVID emergency