The United Parish of East Harptree with West Harptree and Hinton Blewett has received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant of £294,900 for an exciting heritage project (Project Newton) in East Harptree.

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project focuses onworks of conservation to St Laurence East Harptree as well as improvements to its churchyard and activities with East Harptree

Primary School, East Harptree Environment Group and Harptrees History Society and a range of other community groups and a school (Learning Partnership West) in south Bristol for disadvantaged young people.

The conservation works will start in April 2022 and be completed by the end of 2022. The Activities will last until 2025. Supported through The National Lottery Heritage Fund, the project will:

• Improve the curriculum of East Harptree Primary School through a partnership with Bristol Museum and create a new learning space in St Laurence churchyard for the Primary School

• Support the Natural World by new planting in the churchyard and spaces for bats, swifts and owls and smaller mammals

• Enable the digitisation of the significant archive of the Harptrees History Society

• Provide opportunities to see close up the work of specialist conservation experts, including visits to their workshops

• Enable disadvantaged young people from south Bristol to come to this lovely area, enjoy the natural world, learn about local heritage and inspire them to new educational and career opportunities

• Improve access to St

Laurence and its churchyard.

There will be many opportunities for volunteers and the development of new skills including

• Research into the history of St Laurence and the local area to support the new websites for St Laurence and the Harptrees History Society and the improved interpretation telling the stories about St Laurence and its fine features and the people involved with it over the centuries.

• The creation of banners for St Laurence

• Planting in the churchyard

• The staging of theatrical performances to celebrate local history and people.

East Harptree is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

St Laurence is a 12C 2* listed Church with stained glass of national importance and high quality Victorian and rare Medieval wall paintings which will be fully revealed by the project. It has a fine 15C Tower which will be fully restored as part of the proposed works. The overall project budget is £750k so this award is a major contribution to our fundraising.

More information about the project can be found at: https://eharptreechurch.co.uk

Commenting on the award, St Laurence churchwardens, Guy Stobart and Mary Cookson, said: “We are thrilled and grateful to have received this support and are confident the project will improve the lives of young people locally and in south Bristol, contribute to the community spirit and well being in East Harptree, as well as preserving and making more accessible important local heritage.”