#smithills

12/12/20

Smithills Estate

Final third of Smithills Estate protected

The Smithills team is over the moon to announce that the entire Smithills landscape in North Bolton is now in the ownership and protection of the Woodland Trust. All 1,700 acres of open countryside, streams and woodland now make up the largest site the charity owns in England.

After a recent public appeal and confirmation of a £400,000 grant from Biffa Award (part of the Landfill Communities Fund) towards buying the final part of Smithills, we’re delighted to have been able to complete the purchase of Smithills.

Smithills Estate

Heritage Lottery Fund success for Smithills

Since 2015, we have been managing the Smithills Estate on the edge of Bolton in North West England. We had a fantastic response from our initial fundraising appeal, especially from the people of Bolton.

This amazing support enabled us to purchase two thirds of the estate. A generous partner then purchased the final third, holding it for us and allowing us time to raise the funds needed to bring the entire estate in to our ownership.

Over the past two years we have carried out detailed consultation, undertaken a wide range of surveys and talked to all sorts of people to pull together an HLF funding application that would provide some of the funds needed to acquire this final third and restore the estate’s habitats, access and heritage.

Smithills Estate

The Secrets of Smithills Spiders

As the nights start drawing in and the September chills start creeping across the land, homeowners will notice some eight-legged friends sharing their homes.

Spiders are at their largest in autumn, leading to ‘spider invasion’ headlines each and every year. Although it’s much more exciting to see this as a ‘mass migration’ rather than invasion. Just as the majestic wildebeest migrate across the Serengeti, spiders migrate to us each September.