The Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Unit says it is still keen to recruit more people for a course which involves exploring wildlife, the environment, local history and ancient monuments while also helping to promote the participants’ wellbeing, combatting isolation, and getting individuals back into work, training or education.

The ‘Monuments Matter to People’ project, which has secured funding from the European Social Fund (ESF) with the support of Community Led Local Development (CLLD), part of the Cornwall Development Company, began on April 28 and has been running for around five weeks now. It aims to enable unemployed or economically inactive residents of Torpoint, Saltash, and Liskeard to develop valuable educational skills, participate in conservation training, and access wellbeing support, as well as helping them with their first steps in getting back into work or education.

So far those on the course have taken part in guided walks, creative writing sessions, clearance of scheduled monuments on Maker Heights on the Rame Peninsula, and carrying out wildlife surveys and recording results from them.

The project will run every Wednesday for two years and is run in partnership with Adult Education, the Rame Conservation Trust, the Samaritans and the Cornwall Archaeological Unit which offer workshops as part of the programme.

Adult Education provides half-day courses in Maths, English and IT, with the option of gaining a qualification helping course members to take a first step towards further education, while the Samaritans are able to host mental health and wellbeing workshops.

Meanwhile, the outdoor activities such as heritage walks and site clearance training will help those taking part to feel more connected to nature and landscapes, and to engage with local history and work on restoring the important historic monuments on Maker Heights. Those taking part will also gain skills in archaeological survey techniques as well as helping support the work of the Monumental Improvement Project at Maker.

The Monumental Improvement Project received £88,900 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and match funding from Historic England, Cornwall Council, the National Trust and the Cornwall Heritage Trust in 2020 to stabilise 40 scheduled monuments across the Cornwall AONB which are on the Heritage at Risk Register and so are considered vulnerable.

There are still several places left on the Monuments Matter to People course. Participants can join now or the team would like to develop a waiting list of people who will register their interest and be able to join the course when others finish.

The project can fund travel expenses and childcare costs incurred whilst attending the course and will provide lunch in order to help remove barriers to participation.

Anyone wishing to register their interest in joining can email the Monuments Matter to People project team at [email protected] or telephone 07597528962.