We began working with the Foundation for Common Land to help them secure the match funding for a £2.7m National Lottery Heritage Funded project to support Common Land*. This was an ambitious heritage and environmental scheme, taking place in several locations, with a need for substantial match funding support from partners, trusts and foundations.
Our Common Cause, the project in question, will be a transformative programme, taking in conservation work to habitats, landscapes and monuments, projects to engage people with Common Land, and support to farmers on high nature value farming and sustainability. Funders were able to see the clear benefits of providing match funding to unlock the immense National Lottery investment.
We’re delighted that the match funding campaign was even more successful than we had all hoped, and that the project should be a reality next year.
“The Foundation for Common Land instructed Tarnside to help raise over £500K match funding for a complex multi partner pan England Heritage Fund project. Frances quickly got to grips with the project and guided us through the process with professionalism and focus. Tarnside drafted our grant bids and worked closely with us to hone bids to a range of partners and grant giving trusts.
We are delighted with the outcome having exceeded our target by a significant margin. Tarnside also provide immensely good value. We highly recommend them to others.”
Julia Aglionby, Director
*What is Common Land?
Half our countryside was once Common Land – privately owned land over which people have rights of use, mostly to graze livestock. Today just 3% of England is commons, yet these areas have immense importance to those who use them, to the wider public and to our landscape and heritage. Large sections of our most beloved landscapes, such as within the Lake District, New Forest, Yorkshire Dales and Dartmoor Fells, are Common Land.
The use of land by Commoners, as permanent pastures, protects archaeological remains, traditions unchanged for more than a thousand years, rare species and ecosystems, and the character of iconic areas. Some of our oldest pieces of legislation relate to Common Land: see here for more on this fascinating topic.
The Foundation for Common Land brings together all parties with an interest in common land, to support people and landscapes on a practical level, and to influence policy and public understanding through research and publications. The Foundation has an ever more important role to play as we approach Brexit, to ensure the survival of rural communities, fragile habitats and eco-systems beyond EU funding. Commoning is a way of life and tradition that has survived unchanged for over two-thousand years, and it is clear it needs to be understood and valued if it is to survive.