Community Excellence Funding Comes into Bloom

Not far from the Griffin Inn pub in Swithland you'll find a gem of a place for walkers, adventurers, historians, train lovers and families alike. The Mountsorrel and Rothley Heritage Centre started its journey back in 2007 with the idea to restore just over a mile of the Mountsorrel Railway. With over 140,000 hours of volunteer labour they restored the rail line, built Mountsorrel Station with car park and access, repaired two stone bridges and then went on to create the Mountsorrel and Rothley Community Heritage Centre.

The hard work and determination of this community and the volunteers shines through and is evident when you look at the quality and high standards of everything this team have achieved.

Wanting to add to this area, the team of volunteers applied to the Everards Community Excellence Fund for donations for shrubs and cold stores (equipment to ensure those plants they have so lovingly worked hard to nurture all year are not destroyed by the frost and cold in the winter months) and some trees.

The volunteers were over the moon to have been granted this funding, thanks to the Everards Family Foundation and Carling and have been hard at work improving the site for all of its visitors.

The money donated has been used to buy and plant trees and shrubs in and around the Peace Garden - a place where the public can buy a plaque and sit and remember a loved one.

"The garden that Jean, Malcolm and the whole team of volunteers have created is absolutely beautiful" says Everards representative Kia Ryan, "The amount of hard work and effort that has been put in, to create paths, move the stone around the site to create the natural walkways and to create a serene and tranquil environment is clear to see. Jean and Malcolm showed us around with such pride and it was so nice to see how the money from the Everards Community Excellence Fund has so lovingly been spent and the impact and change as a local, and user of the centre were astonishing. What was an overgrown, unused area, is now a reason to visit and to sit and enjoy whilst taking some time out to appreciate nature in such beautiful surroundings. The fact that this money has been spent on trees and shrubs and equipment that will last beyond our years is admirable."