Today Tuesday 14th November Groundwork North Wales is joining thousands of people across the UK to say a big thank you to National Lottery players for making our heritage projects possible.

We are joining thousands of people in posting crossed finger selfies on social platforms Twitter and Instagram to acknowledge and celebrate our Heritage Fund grant projects and make some collective noise about the fantastic, good causes that The National Lottery funds.

Groundwork North Wales and partner charity Wild Ground have benefitted from the Heritage Fund grant on several projects.

The reopening of Minera Lead Mines in 2018 and the activity programme for the local community was funded by the Heritage Lottery fund.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has continued to support the redevelopment and improvements of the Minera Lead Mines site which include a whole rejuvenation of the interpretation centre and reconfiguration of the toilet facilities to include a community room and facilitate the opening of the site for the local community and visitors.

Wild Ground has benefited from the fund when it supported the Meet the Amphibians project in 2019. Based on their nature reserves across North East Wales the project engaged a wide range of people with the aim of increasing their understanding and support for amphibians and nature and aimed to improve conditions for amphibians across their North East Wales reserves.

More recently the fund has supported Wild Ground’s Newt Network project. The project focuses on their Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) and Special Areas of Conservation sites (SAC) which include Stryt Las, Aberderfyn and Brandie Brook in Johnstown Wrexham, Lane End Spon Green in Buckley, Maes y Grug in Alltami, and Glascoed in St Asaph (sites that are designated for their great crested newt (GCN) populations).

The project delivers activity across these sites and neighbouring partners’ sites to increase the resilience of this protected network of sites.

A wide range of enjoyable, accessible engagement activities to suit varied interests, abilities, and access needs is being delivered by this project to engage the communities local to these sites with the aim of increasing their understanding of newts and their habitats.

Richard Aram, Head of Contracts and Project Delivery at Groundwork North Wales wants to thank all the National Lottery Players

“We would like to thank all the National Lottery Players for their support. The support allows us to deliver valuable projects for the communities of North Wales. These projects allow us to engage more people with their local heritage.”

To find out more about Groundwork North Wales and Wild Ground projects you can visit www.groundworknorthwales.org.uk and www.wild-ground.org.uk