A partnership has been working to conserve and enhance the special landscape of Cranborne Chase and the Chalke Valley has been extended.

The Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership, which has been running since 2019 has been extended until June 2025 thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The original five-year partnership has been working with local communities to better connect people with the landscape.

One of the events was the Broadchalke and Marleycombe Walk in May (Image: The Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership) The extension will allow a select number of projects to continue beyond the original end date of September 2024.

These projects will continue to provide benefits to individuals, communities, heritage, and the landscape.

They include 'Nurturing Nature', 'Champions of the Past', the Walking Festival 2025, StarFest 2025, and ongoing weekly practical conservation tasks.

There will also be additional work to ensure a lasting legacy for the Memories Captured project and the Time Traveller App.

A spokesperson for Cranborne Chase National Landscape said: "We look forward to continuing to work with our fantastic volunteers, and there will be new opportunities to get involved."

The partnership is grateful to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and project partners for making the extension possible.

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Cranborne Chase National Landscape is one of the nation’s finest landscapes, with a distinctive character and natural beauty.

It straddles parts of Wiltshire, Dorset, Hampshire, and Somerset and is home to just over 33,000 people.

Cranborne Chase was designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in 1981, and in 2019, it became the first National Landscape in the country to be designated in its entirety as an International Dark Sky Reserve.

The partnership's aim is to deliver 20 projects across the Chase and Chalke Landscape Partnership area, providing benefits to individuals, communities, heritage, and the landscape.

The projects are divided into three themes: Natural Landscape, Historic Landscape, and Cultural Landscape, each with a diverse range of projects to build stronger connections with the landscape and with each other.

The partnership encourages people to head to the Cranborne Chase National Landscape website to sign up and get involved in the projects.