Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve The Current Sculthorpe Reserve

Sculthorpe Moor Nature Reserve

The Current Sculthorpe Reserve September 2001 the Trust acquired a long lease on the 29 acres of land known as Sculthorpe Moor from the local village trust, Francis Berkham. Over the last 15 years hides and accessible board walks have been added to make the reserve what it is today.

The site is designated a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) and Special area of Conservation (SAC) On either side of the reserve are 2 parcels of land. The Hawk and Owl Trust since 2007 has acted as agents for the landowners – Wayware Ltd. Sculthorpe Plantation 53 acre Sculthorpe Fen 100 acre

The Current HLS management agreement comes to and ends in November 2017, the Trust has been invited to enter Sculthorpe Moor into the new Countryside Stewardship (CS) scheme in 2018 by Natural England include the land on the western and eastern boundaries. The current scheme as is, relies heavily on a point scoring criteria. The Sculthorpe Moor parcel on its own would not qualify for higher tier, according to Natural England (there is evidence of this happening further down the Wensum valley when a local landowner & Pensthorpe was refused higher Tier Countryside stewardship on a small SSSI on his farm). The situation would also be the same for the Wayware land on either side, but all the parcels together would be in a favourable position to secure an agreement.

Natural England will only consider this new agreement if it held and managed by the Hawk and Owl Trust, with some of the payments then being reimbursed by the Trust to Wayware Ltd through special agreements between both parties. It’s because of this, and the fact that negotiations over the past 10 years have stagnated, that a new approach has been made to see if a more secure tenure could be made either in the form of a long term lease (an approach was made unsuccessfully in 2007) or a freehold purchase.

After much hard work by several staff and trustees we have finally been able to fix a price for the land. (This will not be disclosed due to a confidentiality agreement with the owners). This offers us the opportunity to secure the land for the Trust for the future and prevent it being offered on the open market – a move that would likely result in it being sold for shooting – a devastating outcome for the existing reserve.

On Tuesday 16 th May We launched an appeal to raise £ 1. 7 m to secure the land for the future and to develop it further and open up more for public access.

How will this money be raised? • Half, £ 850, 000 will be raised through a public appeal and • the other half of this amount is being targeted with a Heritage Lottery application, the first stage of two will be submitted in July of this year.

The Plans 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. New Entrance New Hides Walks More Scrapes Animal building Plantation Moor The Fen

Questions? More Information?