THE Quantock Hills has received support for its £1.9 million ‘Reimagining the Manor’ scheme.

The project, developed by the Quantock Hills AONB Team in partnership with South West Heritage Trust, Friends of Quantock and others, has received £91,300 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The scheme aims to inspire local communities to learn from the centuries of landscape development on the Quantock Hills and undertake a range of projects providing resilience to the landscape into the future.

The ‘Reimagining the Manor’ scheme is made up of over 26 separate projects which aim to work together to engage people in understanding the landscape, its pressures and opportunities, and to undertake physical works to conserve and enhance the landscape and heritage assets of the Quantock Hills.

The Quantock Hills landscape is based on a ring of historic estates. However a number of these estates are experiencing changes such as breaking up into smaller farm units, leading to an increasingly fragmented approach to land management.

The scheme will increase interpretation of the Quantock Hills, including historic figures such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Andrew Crosse by linking with local schools, leading walks and village events.

Also there will be training available for young people, landowners and local communities in the skills required to enhance the landscape and manage land and assets into the future.

There will be a focus on those features that make up the special qualities of the Quantock Hills area such as orchards, hedgerows and parkland trees as well as follies and other built features.

Iain Porter project officer at the Quantock Hills AONB said: “We can’t wait to get the ball rolling with the Reimagining the Manor project. The Quantocks are a living and working landscape and always have been.

“Although the way we live and manage the land is constantly changing, with this project we want to give people knowledge and skills to move forward and enhance this special landscape and historic environment for future generations.”