Members of the Chaplaincy for Agriculture and Rural Life (CARL) in Worcester Diocese worked alongside local people in whatever ways they could. (CARL is an ecumenical group of volunteers whose rich experience of life in the countryside is brought together to assist the Diocesan Chaplainf for Agriculture and Rural Life.) While some got involved with the Rural Stress Network others began to consider whether there was any way that the rich heritage of church and countryside could be used to assist the rural community and, at the same time, increase understanding between town and country.
The Go West Teme Valley Project was born, and with three years of generous funding from Little Malvern Priory, started to devlop into the educational tourism project it is today.
In 2004 we started to plan for when the Little Malvern Priory pump priming money would come to an end. We had been 'Highly Commended' in the Worcestershire Community Pride Competition, run a series of talks and tours, including a tour and a talk by Brian Draper of Martley and we wondered if there would be sufficient support to take the project into a second stage.
It was at this time that we had our first contact with Malvern Hills District Council, they sponsored The Go West Pathfinding Forum. It took place in the Pump Rooms in Tenbury Wells on February 17th and 18th 2004 and was well attended and very succesful. The decision was taken to make plans to secure the funding for a second phase.
There followed a period of discussion with several different organisations and finally the decision was taken to apply for funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Stories from the Stones pilot. We were successful and the second stage was able to start on January 1st 2006
Click on Stories from the Stones to discover how the programme has progressed.