Coalface to Wildspace, Midlands

What was the project about?

The Coalface to Wildspace, Midlands project ran from 2022- 2025 across Walsall and was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and the West Midlands Combined Authority.

There had previously been very little focus on Reptile and Amphibian conservation in the region, so the project aimed to raise awareness through public engagement, create new habitats and improve existing habitats through community intervention, and bringing attention to local natural and geological heritage.

What were the aims?

To increase habitat connectivity across Walsall and create new habitats including ponds and wildlife homes.

To engage communities across Walsall using a variety of creative methods about their local, natural heritage, relating the history and geology of the area to the species that live there now and the species that used to live there in the past.

What did we do?

We ran Wildlife Gardening Workshops with communities across Walsall, teaching people about native Amphibians and Reptiles, and how they can be encouraged in gardens and greenspaces.

We created 8 Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridors that improved connectivity and habitat across Walsall for amphibians, reptiles and other wildlife.

We connected people to their local, natural heritage using a variety of creative methods:

Layers of Time

We created an exciting 3D short film called Frogglebox, that were screened at local schools and community venues. Frogglebox is an immersive experience taking the viewer on a journey into the depths of Walsall’s rich, historic past. You can watch Frogglebox online here!

In Summer 2023, we hosted 40 Froglife Brick Workshops in partnership with Bricks McGee. Over 500 local people took part to create designs out of LEGO® bricks reflecting the geological time periods from Frogglebox. Thank you to everyone who joined us and took part! The Layers of Time tiles were transformed into inspiring displays by Infamous Arts.

These displays have toured Walsall, and can now be found at The Crossing at St Paul’s.

Speaking Sculptures

We created 8 ‘Speaking Sculptures’ through a series of 32 community art workshops in partnership with professional artists, Juneau Projects. During these workshops, local people worked with the artists to design and make the sculptures to celebrate nature on the doorstep and incorporating wildlife habitats. Each sculpture has a unique speaking soundscape accessible via a QR code on each sculpture or you can listen here.

The sculptures were installed in greenspaces across Walsall in July 2024. Following the installations, we ran a festival of events to celebrate the sculptures and encourage people out into Walsall’s greenspaces to learn about the natural world.

Reedswood Park Celebration Sculpture

The West Midlands Combined Authority Green Grants supported us to restore and create new ponds at Reedswood Park, transforming them into an amazing wetland mosaic. These ponds will now provide even better habitat for freshwater wildlife, including amphibians, and enhance the park for the whole community.

Thanks to funding and support from the Ironmongers Company we worked with sculptural artist Luke Perry to have a new steelwork sculpture installed in Reedswood Park. The design celebrates the new ponds and was directed through consultation with local school children. We received wonderful feedback during these sessions and found that our Common Frog was the winning animal to be represented within the sculpture!

The sculpture was unveiled on the 25th of October 2024, by Louise Harrison the Deputy Mayor of Walsall, Richard McVittie from Walsall Healthy Spaces, Shokt Fazal from Birchills Agenda 21 and Luke Perry. We hope that everyone who sees this wonderful leaping frog will be inspired to join us as “we protect nature” and to be proud of Walsall’s wonderful wildlife. You can find out more about this here.

Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridors

We worked with a range of community groups across Walsall to create habitat enhancements and link up Walsall’s greenspaces resulting in 8 Neighborhood Wildlife Corridors.

Together, we made 9 new ponds in Walsall at Winterely Lane allotments, Ryecroft Community Hub, Old Church C of E Primary School, Slater Lane Allotments, Hucker Road Allotments, Bloxwich Primary Academy, Beechtree Road Allotments, Victoria Road Allotments and Daffodil Road Community Garden. We also created mini ponds, bog gardens, toad abodes, meadows and more across Walsall.

You can see all of these interventions on the map below.

Map

You can see our key sites marked in red and our additional community sites in blue, as well as our Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridor habitat interventions marked by snakes or ponds here:

Read about the project and it’s achievements here:

Coalface to Wildspace Midlands Download

Garden Guardians!

Why not contribute to your local Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridor by becoming a Garden Guardian?

There are lots of easy ways you can improve your own garden, balcony or community greenspace for wildlife! Why not plant some herbs on your windowsill to feed the bees, or create a mini pond in your garden to provide a haven for freshwater invertebrates? You can read more about easy habitat interventions in the Froglife Learning Zone or if you want to build a wildlife pond our “Just Add Water” booklet will teach you how.

Please add your habitat interventions onto our Neighbourhood Wildlife Corridors map by completing this form: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/J73GRJ6