UPDATE ON THE GREENSAND RIDGE BENCH PROJECT     Roy Carter

The project to refresh six possibly more, of the BBN benches on the ‘Greensand Ridge Walk’ has been a plan since 2019 and was severely impacted by the Covid pandemic. The project is in collaboration with ‘Greensand Country Landscape Partnership’ and BBN have contributed  £1k toward the total costs, estimated to be £4k. The six original benches have been extended to include two or more along the GRW route, suggested by the BBN team.

The plaque on the benches read: This bench on the Greensand Ridge Walk has been supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund through the Greensand Country Landscape Partnership and the Beds, Bucks and Northants Group of the Long Distance Walkers Association

We are now in the installation phase and some of the six original benches have been replaced. Some old benches will be salvaged and made available for BBN members to keep.

Here is the installation status on the six original benches:

• Heath Wood – installed
• Rushmere – not yet installed, will be during October
• Kings Wood – installed
• Clophill Church – considered to be in OK condition – not to be replaced yet
• Home Wood – confusion over land ownership – clarified and landowner is sponsoring
• Everton – installed

Here is the status for 3 more benches at additional locations on the GRW:

• Haynes – Greensand Country are in contact with Haynes P3 group
• Ampthill Park – Greensand Country in discussion with Ampthill Town Council
• Sandy – Greensand Country are in contact with Sandy Town Council 

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