A new woodland wildlife garden is set to be created in a neglected corner of a Teesside cemetery after a four-figure grant was awarded to the project by the Yarm branch of Newcastle Building Society.

Tees Valley Wildlife Trust is working with the Friends of Linthorpe Cemetery to enhance a patch of land near the Middlesbrough cemetery's baby memorial area that is currently overgrown and covered in brambles.

The new garden will include a spring woodland border, a hedgehog house, a 'gourmet bird restaurant', minibeast homes and a summer wild flower meadow border, and will have all-weather paths in place to make it accessible to people with limited mobility or using pushchairs.

It will be designed to create a space for people to visit, and to give visitors ideas for how they can improve their own gardens, with interpretation panels being installed to explain what plants are being grown and how wildlife are benefitting from their presence

After successfully being nominated for a grant by Rachel Murtagh, a customer at Newcastle Building Society's Yarm Library partnership branch, a £1,330 grant has enabled the Trust to action its garden development plans.

Bramble clearance will begin in August, with seed planting scheduled to take place in the autumn to ensure the first flowers are blooming by next spring.

The project funding has been provided from the Newcastle Building Society Community Fund at the Community Foundation, which has been set up to provide grants to charities and community groups that are located in or around the communities served by the Society's branch network, and put forward for support by its customers.

Since its launch in 2016, the Fund has contributed £78,000 in grants to local projects, and is estimated to have had a positive impact on more than 70,000 people across the North East region so far.

Tees Valley Wildlife Trust is a registered charity that has worked for more than 30 years to protect wildlife and wild places across the region, and to educate, influence and empower people.

It currently manages 15 nature reserves, as well as helping other organisations to manage their countryside sites, and works to secure the future of habitats and species which might otherwise be lost.

Dr Sue Antrobus of Tees Valley Wildlife Trust says: “Linthorpe Cemetery is already home to a wonderful array of flora and fauna, but this area is the one part of it that wasn't fulfilling its potential and we wanted to do something about that.

"The flowers that we're planting will form a beautiful display in the spring while also offering a habitat in which local wildlife can make their homes, while the berry border will provide an ample supply of food that will hopefully attract lots of different species of bird.

"The garden's location means that we're confident it will be very well used, and we hope visitors will take away ideas that they can use in their own gardens at home.

"We couldn't have taken this project forward without Newcastle Building Society's support, and their enthusiasm for it matches that of the volunteers who are lined up to create the garden in the coming months."

Rachel Murtagh, who also works for the Trust, adds: "This project is helping to empower local people towards doing something practical to improve part of their community.

"It's great that our local Newcastle Building Society branch is helping out us in this way, and their funding is going towards creating something long-lasting and beautiful."

The Newcastle Building Society Community Fund is run in association with the Community Foundation Tyne & Wear and Northumberland.  Grant applications for a maximum of £3,000 can be made in any Society branch or via the newcastle.co.uk website by customers who wish to support their local communities.

Earlier this year, the Fund provided a £3,000 grant to Teesside autism charity Daisy Chain to enable the installation of a new canopy over its outdoor play area.

Kim Saunders, branch manager at the Society's Yarm branch, says: “The Linthorpe Cemetery project will give so much enjoyment to so many local people, and we're already looking forward to seeing the flowers bloom next spring.

“One of our aims as a mutual organisation is to support the communities in which we're based, and the excellent work of the Wildlife Trust makes it more than worthy of our backing."

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