Projects we support. On this page you will find brief descriptions of the projects which have received support from funds from the Love the Broads donations since 2013.
Love the Broads has given nearly £100,000 of grants to 54 amazing projects over the past 9 years thanks to donations from visitors to the Broads, local residents, tourism businesses and Love the Broads’ Members – thank you all so much.
You will find details of these and all other projects below.
For further details on the types of Love the Broads grants available and guidelines for making an application (see above announcement regarding Covid-19), please download our Guidance notes for applicants.
For an application form, which will enable you to make an application for either our Business Sponsorship or our Small Grants scheme, please download this Application Form. It can be filled in on your computer and sent in to us electronically.
For more detailed guidance on how to complete the Application Form and the sorts of information the Trust will need in order to reach a decision on your application, please download our How to complete an Application Form notes.
For information about the terms and conditions which are likely to be attached to any of the Love the Broads grants we make, please download this document.
All Project Applications should be sent by email as well as by post, along with supporting documentation to:
Mrs. Alex Howe, Hon. Secretary
The Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Charitable Trust
2 Littlewood Lane, Hoveton, Norfolk NR12 8DZ
Email: info@broadstrust.org.uk
Telephone: 01603 783096
For further queries contact us through the link on the “contact us” page.
Carlton & Oulton Marshes Nature Reserve
The project will enable visitors and local people to enjoy the fabulous wildlife of Suffolk Wildlife Trust’s Broadland Nature Reserve at Carlton & Oulton Marshes by updating an all-weather, accessible, circular footpath around the marshes.
Maintaining a network of paths is fundamental to ensuring visitors’ enjoyment of the site for everyone.
The work planned through this project will help to maintain and improve this fantastic resource for visitors and local people. The Love the Broads grant will pay for the materials to deliver this much needed project with volunteers undertaking the work.
Grant amount: £1,500
Applicant: Suffolk Wildlife Trust
This project has a business sponsor:
The Waveney River Centre will fund this project exclusively from their Love the Broads donations
For more info: Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Barn Owl Boxes
Once a familiar site in the Broads and surrounding villages, barn owls have become an increasingly uncommon sight. This project aims to increase the number of these wonderful birds in the Broads.
Ten barn owl boxes were successfully installed in December 2013, with the remaining seven boxes fitted in February 2014, well in advance of the breeding season.
Increasing the habitat for barn owls is particularly important in order to sustain breeding pairs. We are delighted that landowners at four of the sites have agreed to undertake further habitat improvements for barn owls including the creation of rough grassland margins.
The Love the Broads grant was also used as “match funding” for a further £2,000 from the Norfolk Biodiversity Project for an education pack. The Hawk and Owl Trust will start work on the education materials in autumn 2014, with the pack ready for 2015.
Good news – two pairs of barn owls have already moved into Love the Broads funded boxes on the River Yare
The image shows Erica Murray, Broads Authority, and Nigel Middleton, Hawk & Owl Trust, just about to erect one of the new barn owl boxes funded by Love the Broads.
Grant amount: £2,000
Applicant: Broads Authority in partnership with Hawk & Owl Trust
For more info: Broads Authority
Bats in the Broads
This project brings science, nature and technology to local communities in the Broads area. It is hoped to get as many people as possible thinking about the hours of darkness in a different way and bats are a really good group to inspire interest. Through this project anyone can have the chance to borrow recording equipment to find out what species of bats are around them.
The aim of the project will be to identify the landscape use by bats and bat corridors to and from the Broads’ core wildlife area and the hinterland. The Love the Broads funding for a bat detector kit will help to achieve this.
The photograph shows a young volunteer and helper about to set up a bat detector kit.
Grant amount: £1,148
Application: British Trust for Ornithology
For more info: Bats in the Broads
Visitor information at Thurne Windmill
Thurne Windmill is situated at the end of the Staithe in the village of Thurne and is close to the Weaver’s Way. Thurne mill is one of the most iconic mills on the Norfolk Broads and it also pumps too. Built in 1820 by the millwrights England & Co of Ludham, Norfolk, it would have had common canvas sails and a scoopwheel but in 1885 the mill was hained to accommodate the new turbine pump and the patent sails. These allowed the Marshmen a little more free time.
A programme of improvements has recently been undertaken including the painting of the exterior of the mill.
Thurne Windmill, which is a not-for-profit social enterprise, is keen to enhance the visitor experience. The mill is now open twice a month from April to September and popular circular walks take place from Thurne Mill and the Wind Energy Museum at Repps along the riverbank and back through Dewbeck wood using the Weaver’s way. An annual fundraising abseil/leap of faith also takes place.
Whilst there are interior interpretation panels there are no exterior signs providing visitors with information and a warm welcome.
Love the Broads is funding an exterior interpretation board at Thurne Windmill which will have information about the windmill and the special environment in which it is located.
Grant amount: £1,500
Applicant: Thurne Wind Energy Museum
For more info: Thurne Wind Energy Museum
Aquatic sampling and viewing equipment
The Nancy Oldfield Trust offers disabled and socially disadvantaged people excitement, freedom, adventure and provides wheelchair access to the Norfolk Broads.
This project will enable children and young adults the opportunity to access dyke rivers and broads from the Trust’s various boats to collect, handle, identify and understand the aquatic life found in these thriving natural habitats. Love the Broads will fund the equipment required to do this including nets, trays, magnifiers and bug pots and a field microscope. The equipment will also be used in a new classroom facility at the Trust’s headquarters.
Grant amount: £387.34
Applicant: Nancy Oldfield Trust
For more info: Nancy Oldfield Trust
Dyke dipping platform
Carlton & Oulton Marshes has the largest extent of wetland habitat in the Suffolk Broads. The dykes at Carlton Marshes have long been known to support large populations of rare species and a rich assemblage of plants.
This project will install a second dyke-dipping platform for school groups to use. It will now be possible to maintain the quality of this experience whilst avoiding the risk of over-dipping causing damage to the dyke fauna.
The platform will be constructed from recycled plastic ‘timber’ planks and will extend out over the dyke to enable children to dip into the deeper water safely, and ensuring every child in a larger group can participate during a day visit.
As the platform is alongside the all-weather footpath (funded by Love the Broads in 2013) it also offers a window into the dyke for visitors.
Grant amount: £2,625
Applicant: Suffolk Wildlife Trust
This project has a business sponsor:
The Waveney River Centre will fund this project exclusively from their Love the Broads donations
For more info: Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Fen Harvesting at Carlton & Oulton Marshes
Fen harvesting was required to increase biodiversity at Carlton & Oulton Marshes. The site, which benefits from a four year rotation, is now in need of cutting to improve the vegetation structure and create more edges for wildlife.
This project would allow the Suffolk Wildlife Trust to bring in a specialist fen harvester to create pioneer cuts and corridors into dense, inaccessible wet reed with circular pools at the end.
Grant amount:£2,540
Waveney River Centre will fund this project exclusively from their Love the Broads’ donations
Grant Applicant: Suffolk Wildlife Trust
For more info: Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Interpretive leaflet for How Hill’s Secret Garden
5,000 copies of an interpretive leaflet with map will be printed to support the visitor experience at the Secret Garden at How Hill. Visitors to How Hill will now be able to benefit from the major changes in the water garden which has an extended boardwalk and new planting. The new leaflet will enable visitors, including those less able, to fully enjoy the environment, trees and shrubs, supported by the information in the leaflet.
Grant Amount: £1,100
Herbert Woods will fund this project exclusively from their Love the Broads donations
For more info: How Hill Trust
Nature Explorers at Strumpshaw Fen Nature Reserve
Strumpshaw Fen nature reserve is the wild heart of the Broads with a striking landscape of reedbeds, pools, meadows and woodlands. It offers a unique, memorable and fun learning experience inspiring new generations of nature explorers and adventurers.
A new high quality covered area will enable schools and youth groups to extend the teaching season and encourage schools to come and enjoy the site earlier in the spring and later into the autumn. An all-weather tent will ensure it offers a dry and comfortable haven to retreat to even on days when children have braved the elements whilst adventuring out on the reserve.
Grant amount: £1,500
Applicant: RSPB
For more info: RSPB Strumpshaw Fen
Erection of Swift Nesting Tower at Whitlingham Country Park
A grant for this project aimed to help towards aims to secure the future of the swift. There has been a significant decline in the population and an additional 11,000 nests were estimated to be required to make up for the current declines in nesting provision in the UK. This project will help towards reducing the vulnerability of the swift population decline.
In the Whitlingham area, the swift has perfect conditions, with plentiful food and nesting opportunity in surrounding houses. New designs of nesting towers have been used in a handful of areas in the UK and Europe. These are providing opportunities for people to be inspired by wildlife whilst reducing the population decline of swifts.
To help the swifts, the Broads Authority, supported by a grant from Love the Broads, has built a tower with 20 nest chambers at Whitlingham Country Park. This is now busy welcoming swifts!
Andrea Kelly, Broads Authority Senior Ecologist, said: “One of the Authority’s duties relates to conservation and as part of this, we want to keep the sky over the Broads alive with swifts.
“At Whitlingham we are lucky to have plenty of insects in the meadows and woodland and near the water, so it’s a great place for birds such as swifts to feed and breed.”
Grant amount: Contribution of £500 towards total project cost
Applicant: Broads Authority in partnership with Whitlingham Charitable Trust
