Green Flag Awards: Double success for North Norfolk

Sadler’s Wood joins Holt Country Park by winning award

North Norfolk has won a second Green Flag for its prime woodlands, improving on the single Green Flag it has held for several years.

The Green Flag has been awarded for the first time to Sadler’s Wood, a mixed woodland on the edge of North Walsham, half a mile from the town centre.

Holt Country Park has again won a Green Flag, for the eighth year running. This is a notable achievement because individual sites need to demonstrate continuous improvement in order to maintain their Green Flag status.

Both woodlands are managed by North Norfolk District Council.

Green Flags recognise and reward the best green spaces in the country and are much sought after by local authorities and local communities.

Sadler's Wood consists of a small woodland made up of mainly larch and pine planted in the 1960s and 70s with older broadleaves such as sweet chestnut, beech, holly, sycamore and English oak around the margins.
It is home to a wide variety of flowers including wood anemones and bluebells. Great spotted woodpeckers are seen and heard in the wood, alongside blue tits and great tits, grey herons and tawny owls. There is a wide range of insects and butterflies in and around the woodland.

Volunteers from The Friends of Sadler’s Wood have played a key role in encouraging the positive use of the woodland.

Events at Sadler’s Wood include an outdoor activity day of shelter building, mini beast hunts, sculpture building, arty wildlife and lots more. The day is on July 30, 10.30am to 1pm. Cost is £2 per child, free entry for those aged under three.

Holt Country Park, just south of Holt on the B1149, is a 100-acre wood owned and managed by NNDC. It hosts a programme of family and educational activities throughout the year, as well as offering way-marked trails for walkers, sculptures around the wood and a children’s playground.

Cllr. John Lee, Cabinet Member for Tourism and Leisure at North Norfolk District Council said: “This is a double success for the district and should make all those involved in the management and care of these two wonderful open spaces very proud.
“A huge amount of work has been put in at Sadler’s Wood over many years to bring it up to the high standard required to win a Green Flag.
“It is yet further evidence that North Norfolk is a leading tourist destination in so many different ways.”

Paul Todd, Green Flag Award Scheme Manager, said: “We are thrilled to announce yet another record-breaking year for Green Flag Award parks and green spaces.
“A Green Flag Award provides national recognition for the achievements of all those whose hard work and dedication has helped to create these fantastic places for all to enjoy.

ENDS

Editors’ Note: The Green Flag Award Scheme is managed in the UK by a consortium, comprising Keep Britain Tidy, The Conservation Volunteers and GreenSpace. Known collectively as the Green Flag Plus Partnership, the consortium manages the scheme in England on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Green Flag Award recognises well-managed, high-quality green spaces. Any green space in the UK is eligible to win this award providing it is freely accessible to the public. Previous winners include parks managed by local authorities as well as those run by community groups and trusts. The scheme was set up in 1996.

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