Traditional Boundaries, Traditional Skills
Northumberland National Park’s 1,000 km2 are landscapes where past cultures and traditions of 400 generations remain visible but fragile environmental assets. A survey in 2004 showed that within Northumberland National Park over 50% of the 10,000kms of dry stone walls and 75% of the hedges were in poor condition. The NNPA’s primary aim was to take action. They developed a five year pilot, “Traditional Boundaries, Traditional Skills”, a rural skills traineeship scheme which trained people in the management and repair of traditional boundaries and associated features such as gates, stiles and fences.
A rural skills project on this scale had never been tried before but the programme attracted trainees from both genders with ages ranging from 16-57 and recruitment was four times oversubscribed. Trainees developed sufficient skills during their one year traineeship to be able to start micro-businesses after leaving the project, and thus play a vital role in the economic development and regeneration of the Northumberland uplands. A follow up project is planned, working with local schools and universities to provide vocational placements for students and create career pathways to roles which support natural heritage.
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