Shropshire Hills Wins £993,475 Nature Recovery Grant

The Shropshire Hills has been awarded £993,475 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund to plan a decade of nature recovery work across 998 square kilometres of the county.

The grant is development funding, which pays for the planning stage rather than the work itself. If the next stage is approved, it opens the door to a delivery grant of up to £8.9 million.

The project is called Landscape Connections and it is led by the National Trust. The Heritage Fund records the award as made on 24 June 2026 and announced it on 29 July, listing the applicant’s location as Bishop’s Castle. Shropshire Council welcomed the news on 19 August.

What the area covers

The project area is larger than the National Landscape itself. It takes in the designated area plus four sub-catchments of the River Severn, coming to 998 square kilometres.

The Heritage Fund names the habitats it is aimed at:

• upland heathland
• flower-rich grasslands
• wetlands
• ancient woodlands

Four species are singled out as the ones these habitats support: the freshwater pearl mussel, the curlew, the dormouse and the small pearl-bordered fritillary butterfly. The fund says the area faces threats from habitat loss, invasive species and the effects of the climate crisis.

What the money buys first

The Heritage Fund sets out four things the development phase will do:

• work with climate specialists to identify where habitat creation and restoration will strengthen ecological connectivity
• develop and test a farm resilience plan approach
• trial a community grants pilot
• work with local communities and young people to identify what stops them connecting with nature

Shropshire Council adds detail on the ambition for the decade ahead. It says the project aims to work with more than 200 landowners, deliver large-scale river restoration, support smaller nature recovery schemes, help parish councils take a greater role in local environmental priorities, and create funded traineeships for young people.

Who is involved

The National Trust leads. The Heritage Fund lists six co-developing partners:

• Shropshire Hills National Landscape Team
• Shropshire Wildlife Trust
• Severn Rivers Trust
• Upper Onny Farmers Group
• Natural England
• the Environment Agency

Dr Charlie Bell, Landscape Connections project manager at the National Trust, said: “As we experience increasingly extreme weather, the need to build a more resilient landscape for people and nature has never been clearer.”

Sarah Marston, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for the environment, said the grant “recognises both the importance of this nationally significant landscape and the strength of the partnership approach that is already taking shape across the county”.

One of five

Shropshire’s award is one of five Landscape Connections projects the Heritage Fund announced together on 29 July. The other four are Arnside and Silverdale, Mourne and the Ring of Gullion, Cornwall, and Strangford and Lecale.

Between them the five share over £5 million in development funding, with the potential for a further £42.6 million in delivery grants. The fund has not published a breakdown of that delivery figure by project.

Landscape Connections itself is a £150 million, ten-year Heritage Fund programme aimed at large-scale nature recovery in protected landscapes across the UK.

What it means for you

Nothing changes on the ground yet. This is the stage where the plan gets written, and the delivery money is explicitly conditional on that plan being approved.

Three parts of the development phase are worth watching if you live in or near the hills:

• The community grants pilot. A trial, not yet a scheme, but it is the route by which small local projects would get money if the delivery grant lands.
• The farm resilience plan approach. Aimed at the 200-plus landowners the council wants involved. If you farm in the catchment, this is the piece that will reach you first.
• Traineeships for young people. The council names funded traineeships as an intended outcome, though no numbers or dates have been published.

The council also links the project to the Local Nature Recovery Strategy it has adopted jointly with Telford and Wrekin, which sets the shared framework the work is meant to fit into.

Sources

• Connecting people with nature and heritage in the Shropshire Hills, The National Lottery Heritage Fund project record, for the £993,475 award, the 24 June 2026 award date, the 998 square kilometre project area, the habitats and species, the four development-phase activities, the lead and partner organisations, the up to £8.9 million potential delivery grant, and the quotation from Dr Charlie Bell.
• We’re investing in five more UK landscapes to support nature and communities, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, 29 July 2026, for the five projects, the over £5 million in development funding and the £42.6 million potential delivery total.
• Nearly £1 million Heritage Fund boost for Shropshire Hills, Shropshire Council newsroom, 19 August 2026, for the more than 200 landowners target, the river restoration and traineeship ambitions, the Local Nature Recovery Strategy link and the quotation from Sarah Marston.

Days out and walks across the county are on things to do in Shropshire.