All are welcome to join a Yare Valley Meadow Makers (YVMM) work party to collect ox-eye daisy seeds from Strawberry Field on Sunday 5th July from 2 to 3 pm. Meet at 2 pm at the main Strawberry Field gate ( on Bluebell Road) near to the McCarthy Stone Sheltered Housing development. YVMM will use the seeds in the autumn to boost its other meadow sites. Please let Matt Tomlinson of the YVMM know if you hope to come along (yarevalleymeadowmakers@gmail.com).
AGM and Presentation on progressing the UEA Boardwalk
All who value the green space of the Yare Valley are welcome to come along to the Yare Valley Society AGM and presentation on progressing the UEA Boardwalk on Wednesday 17th June 2026 at 7.30pm at the Cringleford Sports Pavilion.
The AGM will be held first, and usually takes about 30 minutes. Papers for the AGM are here.
Last year at the AGM, Tom Everett, the UEA Landscape Manager gave a very well-received talk. This year he is joined by the UEA Boardwalk Team, Justine Mann and Orla Condra. Together they will be telling us how installing the Boardwalk might be expected to progress. They will welcome your ideas and suggestions to guide the project.
YVS partnered with the UEA in bids to finance the Boardwalk, and the committee appreciated working with the UEA team and for their exceptional effort in preparing and assembling the extensive documentation. See our post below on the 7th May.
Take a Walk on the Boardwalk next Spring?
The last few months have been exciting times for the YVS Committee as it has worked with a team at UEA to seek funding from the Greater Norwich Growth Board and the National Lottery Community Fund to replace the UEA Boardwalk.
Firstly though, a big thank you for the generosity of all who have contributed to the fund to replace the University of East Anglia (UEA) Boardwalk, exceeding the target of £5,000. The UEA/YVS bids for additional funding would not have been viable without your clear signal of strong community support.
Added to this is now £260,899 of funding from the Greater Norwich Growth Board. Taken together with funds from other sources, the total now covers the estimated cost of replacement of £439,708. Work on the new boardwalk will begin in Autumn 2026 to a timetable that will minimise the disturbance to wildlife. Completion is due in Spring 2027. See the UEA press release for more detail.
The UEA and Yare Valley Society (YVS) are also seeking funding from the National Lottery Community Fund for a “UEA Boardwalk Community Engagement Project”. The Project is a partnership between the YVS and UEA. It will give opportunities for people to say what they expect for the boardwalk, and their views and ideas for a launch event, for creating signage and interpretation panels, and for guiding promotional and educational materials.
The YVS committee was thrilled to work with a great UEA team. YVS and UEA worked in close cooperation to seek funds from the Greater Norwich Growth Board and the National Lottery Fund. Regular meetings and correspondence took place, and the YVS committee expresses its gratitude to the UEA team, Justine Mann and Orla Condra for their exceptional effort in preparing and assembling the extensive documentation.
Conservation Volunteers Programme February 2026
Learn a new skill of building a leaky dam. Is there a place for such dams on the river Yare?
Mark Webster of the Conservation Volunteers writes:
“I am particularly excited to announce the long-awaited start of the Leaky Dams project in the Tas Valley, where we will be making and installing natural flood defences, using trees sourced from the immediate area to create barriers to slow down floodwaters in a measured way. There’s also more chances to learn the ancient craft of hedge laying at Easton College, restoring a historic pond to how it was in the 1930s (we have the photographic proof of that!) and plenty of hedge and fruit tree planting – including a new community orchard in Cringleford, and new and old sites to see across Broadland. Plus there’s another chance to see the epic Blickling Hall estate.”
The full programme is here.
Plant a tree in the Valley
The Yare Valley Meadow Makers (YVMM) invite you to join with them and the UEA Biodiversity Heroes in planting trees in the university meadow.
Matt Tomlinson (centre of photo) of the YVMM writes:
“To beat the winter blues we have a winter work party planned, joining with UEA biodiversity heroes.
We are planting trees on the UEA meadows. For more shade (better able to cope with droughts), increased habitat diversity and linking together the wooded habitats on campus and lake sides. As well as providing an excellent habitat in their own right. Species are wild pear, spindle, hazel, blackthorn, rowan and wych elm. All excellent for wildlife, kindly supplied by the council and UEA.
[Come along at] 9-12am on Wednesday 11th February, meet at the new sign [in the photo] on the UEA meadow, if you are a little late please walk down the meadows to find us.”
YVMM hope to have another work party in late February, this time planting trees supplied by the Woodland Trust.
Another step forward to a new UEA Boardwalk
At a meeting on Thursday, 11 December the Greater Norwich Growth Board (GNGB) agreed to recommend to Broadland District, South Norfolk and Norwich City Councils funding of £260,899 for a new UEA Boardwalk. A final decision on the funding should be made by the councils by March 2026.
The funds are from the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), which is a charge made on developers to finance improvements in local infrastructure and community facilities.
The new boardwalk beside the River Yare will restore a key link to the popular Yare Valley Walk, and greatly increase opportunities to enjoy, appreciate, and understand the green space of the river valley and its wildlife.
Work parties on UEA meadows will prepare for sowing wildflower seeds
The award winning Yare Valley Meadow Makers plan two work parties to continue to improve the UEA meadows. Volunteers will use mattocks to create patches of bare earth for sowing wildflower seed. All are welcome to come along and give their support. The work parties will take place on
Sat, Oct 25 at 2-4 PM and Sun, Nov 2 at 10-12 AM
Meet on the UEA meadows by the ziggurat sculpture, WWW///erase.slice.fingernails.
Yare Valley Meadow Makers Biodiversity Award
Congratulations to the Yare Valley Meadow Makers who have received the runners up award at the recent Norfolk 2025 Community Biodiversity Awards in the “Spaces for Nature and Wellbeing” category. This year, 38 groups and individuals were nominated for the six categories of the Award.
The YVMM have gone from strength to strength over the past 5 years and it is a joy to see what they have achieved in the Valley at Strawberry Field, UEA meadows and elsewhere.
Your donations bring boardwalk closer
The University of East Anglia (UEA), like many universities has been facing serious financial restraints on their spending, and so when the UEA boardwalk needed replacing the university was unable to do this from its own funds. Recognising the importance of the boardwalk to the local community, UEA has provided instead strong staffing support to seek funds from elsewhere, including the Greater Norwich Growth Board and the National Lottery. At a meeting with the Yare Valley Society on Wednesday 28th August, ways in which bids can be carried forward with YVS, and other voluntary organisations, were explored.
The UEA team and the Yare Valley Society sends a big thank you for the generous donations and support, and UEA has issued an update on the progress made so far. If you have not already done so, there is still time to make your donation. It is pleasing to report that the amount of £1800 raised quoted in the update is already out of date. It is now well over £2000, please keep it rising. Being able to show strong community is essential if bids are to be successful.
Please read the update and see:
HOW TO GIVE
Please donate online at www.uea.ac.uk/dare-to-do-different. Or, to discuss your gift, please get in touch with the Development, Alumni and Campaigns Office.
Telephone: +44 (0) 7776 505172 Email: o.condra@uea.ac.uk
Development Office, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich, NR4 7TJ
Thank you. Your donations bring the boardwalk closer.
UEA Boardwalk a step closer
Some welcome news on the UEA Boardwalk. Norwich City Council have agreed to sponsor the UEA application to the Greater Norwich Growth Board (GNGB) for a grant to replace and improve the UEA Yare Valley Boardwalk. If the UEA application to the GNGB is successful, the funding could become available from April 2026.
To avoid the bird nesting season, which spans March to September, work to remove the old boardwalk and replace it with the new one will not take place until October 2026. In the meantime, when possible, the UEA grounds team will clear vegetation and cut back along the pathways to make the project easier for when it finally gets underway.
If you have not already done so there is still time to show community support for replacing the Boardwalk by donating to the UEA fund: under “Our Causes” be sure to select “Restore our Boardwalk”.