Valence-Nature-Trail

Spring 2006 update

It’s been a while since this site has been updated, mostly because I couldn’t remember how to.

During the past year the Friends of Valence School worked very hard raising money to go fund the project, including 4 Marathon runners, several donations and the proceeds from the Golf Day. Fund raising is continuing this year, we have another Marathon runner and Golf Day.

We are now in a position to begin work. A survey of the route for the trail has been carried out and after some slight adjustments we are able to present our scheme for approval to the authorities. This work is being for us done by members of the Golf Day committee.

Sadly our association with Greenwich University, which had been so promising has been put on hold this year because of the commitments of their staff and students, we hope that it will resume in the future when we work on the second stage of the project, the design of the stopping places along the route.

. After receiving quite a lot of publicity following the Cash for Schools competition (even though we didn't win anything) we received several donations and quite a lot of interest in helping with the construction. Bromley Scouts have chosen the trail as their charity for their St George's Day parade and are very keen to provide working parties and the Biggin Hill and Westerham Lions have given us a very generous contribution.

Greenwich University Landscape Architecture department have taken on the challenge of designing the trail. Staff and students have made preliminary visits prior to carrying out a detailed land survey. This is a major piece of work and the students are being supported by the Tribal Partnership a firm of professional surveyors. A group of students studying Landscape Conservation are joining the project and hope to be able to tell some of the story of the Valence estate with displays along the trail.

The School

About the trail

Valence School is a local authority special boarding school for about 100 children and young people with physical disabilities from all over the county. The school is set in beautiful countryside with meadows, lakes and woodland near Westerham, Kent.

The project is to create a nature trail that will enable our students to enjoy the outdoors in a way most children are able to take for granted. We want to make a network of level paths, safe areas beside the water and woodland tracks. This is to be a facility that our young people can share with children from other schools for Science, Art, Sport and recreation.

We have a wonderful opportunity to create an enriching, social and educational place that will be of lasting benefit.

The Nature Trail is expected to cost about £60,000. We have started a fund which stands at £10,000 from donations, collections, our Summer Fete and next year we hope to have a charity golf day with the proceeds going towards it. The project has been adopted by some local youth groups, who are running fundraising events and we will have some runners in next year's London Marathon. We will also be looking for matched funding from businesses in Kent and the South East.