Always on
This project successfully funded on 24th January 2026, you can still support them with a donation.
Help us buy more of Shining Cliff Woods
Belper, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
£7,788
raised so far
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Aim
The new owners of Netherpark Farm, Jackass Lane have offered Grith Pioneers the chance to purchase 5 acres of Shining Cliff Woods!
I'm Michelle a trustee of Grith Pioneers, the charity who own and manage around 100 acres of Shining Cliff Woods and 8 acres of fields that we are currently rewilding to wildflower meadow, scrub and woodland next to Shining Cliff at Alderwasley near Ambergate. I've been a Grith Pioneer for 24 years and I was involved in the fundraising for the fields last year.
Grith Pioneers have been offered the opportunity of first refusal on 5 acres of Shining Cliff Woods that the new owners of Netherpark Farm acquired with the farm house at auction. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The 5 acres will be sold by auction if we can not raise the funds. They have been advised to expect at least £10,000 per acre at auction so the owners would like us to offer this amount. We have done our own research and this amount seems to be the going rate. The plot is next to the track that leads to our parking area for the hostel. It's on a sloping site leading down towards the lake with Peat Pits stream running through it. It's an area behind Netherpark Farm and designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural England.
Grith Pioneers bought our part of Shining Cliff Woods in 1932 and we became a charity a few years ago so that these beautiful woods will be protected and available to the community in perpetuity. We have a wonderful team of local people and Grith Pioneers who volunteer to maintain the woods in accordance with a long term management plan agreed with Natural England and supported by surveys and recommendations from various ecologists and organisations e.g. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust. We would include this new 5 acres in our current management plan to protect its rich habitat for the future.
If we do not raise enough money through this Crowdfunder, direct donations and grants to reach our target we will try to negotiate with the owners to buy whatever we can with the money we have.
If we can not come to an agreement to buy the land due to a significant short fall, we will use the funds raised to help us with a number of exciting projects planned in rewilding the fields we purchased last year and with on going works and surveys in Shining Cliff. We hope to:
• Plant native trees from the Woodland Trust
• Buy a shelter/wildlife hide for community groups e.g Wildlings pre school in Ambergate
• Create a wildlife pond
• Buy and install new access gates
- • Make repairs to boundaries
The funds may also be used for our existing woodlands to install bat and bird boxes as we are short of veteran tree cavities for certain species like Pied and Spotted Flycatcher, this is following advice by Derbyshire Wildlife Trust.
However our primary objective for this fundraising effort is to come to an agreement to secure this 5 acres of woodland, which has been a longstanding aim of Grith Pioneers through the generations. It is fortuitous that it has become available, as it will almost link the woods Grith Pioneers have owned since the 1930's to the nearby fields we were lucky enough to buy last year.
As always we thank Kate Tuck from Shining Cliff Centre Community Interest Company, Cate Bush from Wildlings pre-school and all our wonderful Grith members and associated groups for supporting our fundraising efforts and for volunteering to help protect and enhance the very special place that is Shining Cliff Woods.
Any contribution you can make to help us to purchase this wonderful diverse new area of woodland would be very gratefully received. Thank you. Please share the link with others that you think might be interested in helping us. 😊🤞🌱🍁🍄🦋🌼🍀🌳🌲🦉🐦⬛🪲🪳🐜🐝🐛🐞🦡🦇
Photos from the woods we hope to buy 🤞
Extra information about Grith Pioneers
The Grith Pioneers are a charity who have owned Shining Cliff Woods since 1932. Their aims are to conserve and protect the land so that the public can learn about and enjoy nature through camps and outdoor activities.
Grith Pioneers: In 1932, Grith Fyrd, a non-profit making organisation was set up to help unemployed men, acquired 100 acres of Shining Cliff woods from the Hurt family. The woods became home to a small community of men, where educational and practical activities supported self-sufficient living. In 1939, with the threat of war, unemployment fell and the community dwindled.
Some of the Grith Fyrd founders set up a small residential school in the abandoned buildings. The school flourished, taking evacuated children and a small number of refugees. Outdoor activities were also organised for local children, many of whom had never had a holiday.
From 1946 the buildings were leased to the Youth Hostels Association, and for 50 years, their members enjoyed the remote, woodland location of the hostel. Since 2009 the woodland hostel has been run as an independent hostel.
The 100 acres of woodland owned by Grith Pioneers (formerly Grith Fyrd) has been managed to provide a place for outdoor activities, especially for young people's organisations.
Grith Pioneers work to conserve and maintain the woods by, for example, gradually removing non-native trees such as sycamore and rhododendron, to allow native flora, like Oak, Holly, Hazel and Bluebells, to flourish, leaving a beautiful space for nature to thrive.
Shining Cliff Centre CIC, a non-profit company that runs Shining Cliff hostel in the woodland, Woodland Connections at Shining Cliff woods (a collaboration of self-employed individuals and Shining Cliff Centre CIC) that offers wellbeing sessions for all ages in the woods.
The conservation work is carried out through regular work parties by Grith Pioneer members and a fortnightly volunteer group managed by the hostel.
Wildlings, which is a pre-school nursery offering outdoor sessions at Shining Cliff woodland by agreement with The Grith Pioneers.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made