News - MillGreenAward

Villagers were celebrating success recently in a countrywide conservation competition. The Yorkshire Wildlife Trust education Officer, Gordon Scaife (pictured above) presented the development group of Northfield Millennium Green with a certificate for winning second prize in the Community Groups Category of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust / Yorkshire Electricity Conservation Awards. The prize money of Ł200 will be used to pay for teaching materials, which Riccall Community Primary school can use to study on site. Riccall Lands Charity Chairman Steve Relf said, “It has been a real community effort. The award is a big boost to the volunteers who will see their efforts rewarded.”

The green which was designed by Riccall horticulturist Penny Relf and is owned and managed by the Riccall Lands Charity, has been created from land reclaimed from an old piggery and a small adjacent arable area of derelict Field Gardens (allotments). It is one of a handful of Millennium Greens in North Yorkshire and has provided a welcome and interesting new space for the village, with a variety of native plants from within Yorkshire. A wildflower meadow full of cowslips, harebells, primroses and knapweed will make the green into a wildlife haven. Most of the trees (some 18 different species) have been sponsored by villagers - one tree was sponsored by the residents of an entire street.

If you would like to sponsor a Millennium Tree, then click here for further details.