Sustainable Heritage at SHARP
We are fundraising!
We are applying for a grant from the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) fund for our sustainability project. They briefly visited SHARP back in 2021, after seeing a sign on the road, and suggested that we look at a funded project with them as SHARP fulfils many of their criteria, in terms of green energy, community project, heritage and also being a site with heavy links to faming both currently and in the past. They visited again this season, where we discussed our plans which they were very supportive of. This fund would help pay for many of the facilities required but we need to match fund a proportion of the bid and the money must be spent by the end of this financial year.
It is an amazing opportunity and will allow us to spend other income from bookings and donations on further improvements to the site with the ultimate aim of making SHARP fully sustainable. We have therefore now launched the Sustainable Heritage at SHARP fundraiser.
The Farming and Protected Landscape Programme (FiPL) is for farmers, land managers, and people in National Parks and National Landscapes. It has a pot of money that is available to carry out projects that support the natural environment, mitigate the impacts of climate change, provide public access opportunities, or support nature-friendly, sustainable farm businesses. Heritage, community and sustainability are three of the main features of this grant and all three of these also fit into our plans for SHARP and the local environment.
We are putting in a bid to construct onsite power, toilets, and ultimately shower blocks. This will mean fewer walks down the track, but more importantly it will dramatically cut the costs of our hire which is our largest expense at SHARP. It will reduce the problems with delivering facilities to site and thus cutting on emissions to do so. It will also mean SHARP is more independent going forward and will reduce the reliance on external funding sources.
The plan would be to use the money saved on annual hire costs to maintain our site, make other improvements (such as better archive facilities), and put money back into the archaeology and post-excavation processes. This will reduce the burden on paying volunteers so we can provide more bursaries and keep costs low. It is hoped that it will provide future opportunities for SHARP to do even more public engagement and out of season activities.
However we need your help with this project. While the grant from FiPL will take us a long way towards making this dream into a reality, it will not cover the whole cost. We therefore need to raise a further £13,000 in order to make it possible.
We are incredibly grateful to the Sedgeford Hall Estate and the Campbell family who have very kindly offered to match fund the first £4,000 raised. This means if we can fundraise just £9,000, we can make this project happen!
If you are able to donate, you can do so at the fundraiser here. Every penny counts so we would be grateful for whatever you feel able to give.
Please be aware that the website asks for a donation for itself, automatically set at 20%, but this is optional and can be reduced or removed entirely by clicking the ‘enter custom amount’ text underneath the slider and entering the value you wish to donate to the website (or indeed set this to £0).
The SHARP team would like to thank you in advance for any help or donations for this project.
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