Traditional Boundaries, Traditional Skills
Park Protector Award winner 2011

The Campaign for National Parks' 2011 Park Protector Award was awarded to Traditional Boundaries, Traditional Skills.  

The project

The Northumberland National Park is a landscape 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. There had been many reports and a large amount of discussion about the lack of skills and training in the heritage sector; however, despite this earnest debate there had been few initiatives to address the issue.

The Northumberland National Park Authority’s primary aim was to take action. It 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.

Find out more about the award winning project and all the award nominations