The Melton Constable Trust own a section of the former Great Eastern Railway trackbed at Fakenham. Trains would travel from Wells-next-the-Sea through to the Fakenham East station and then onto Dereham and Wymondham which was the main line connection to Norwich and beyond.
The trackbed at Fakenham is now a Permissive path and we are continually grateful to the Fakenham Area Conservation Team that help maintain the vegetation and keep the path clear ensuring that members of the public can enjoy this heritage walk.
Chris Yardley who manages the Fakenham Area Conservation Team, with the help of Tracey is always looking for new volunteers:
The Fakenham Area Conservation Team works in the Fakenham area to do practical conservation tasks with a team of volunteers. Our work mostly concentrates on managing different habitats for wildlife and public amenity, together with maintaining access along some of the many rural rights of way and permissive paths in and around the Town.
We always welcome people to the group and actively seek new members who want to come to join us. There is no joining fee or expectation to donate anything apart from your time to enjoy working with us. There are no commitments over coming to tasks and we are happy if people just drop in and out as the time they have allows.
We have a full inclusiveness policy and will try to accommodate people from all backgrounds, ages (children need to be accompanied by an adult) and abilities, although the tasks tend to require some walking and some physical activity depending on what they are (we do things such as path cutting / levelling, tree planting, grassland and scrub cutting / management)
We have a Health and Safety policy, inclusiveness policy and child safety policy. We are fully insured for public liability through The Conservation Trust – which covers all volunteers for any conservation management task that they are doing whilst with us.
FACT was formed in 1989 by the then Wensum Valley Project (County Council sponsored) and has been going continuously since then. We work with a variety of partner organisations such as The Melton Constable Trust, Fakenham Town Council, Sculthorpe Church to provide management of their sites. The Melton Constable Trust and Town Council have been extremely supportive of FACT over the years and provided us with funding and equipment together with shared help on projects and publicity.
If you would like to join us please contact Tracey Yardley or Chris Yardley on 07748 135422 / 07931 434162 – or tracey.white15@hotmail.co.uk; we would love to hear from you.