PUPILS from Bere Alston Primary School gathered their trowels and forks, as they planted 50 Tamar Valley daffodil bulbs in the school grounds.

Dale Wood, volunteer with Tamar Grow Local, joined the children with local varieties of bulbs including double white, Tamar snow, Tamar fire, Tamar bell and Bere Ferrers. The bulbs were planted as part of the Heralds of Spring project (National Lottery funded) to celebrate and record Tamar Valley daffodils in the landscape.

Some of the money used to buy the bulbs came from a donation box held at Taphill Takeaway, Bere Alston, during the summer. Paul Graeme-Drury was one of seven local businesses piloting a visitor gifting scheme through the recently established Tamar TLC — a charity set up to raise, manage and distribute funds for projects to keep the Tamar Valley AONB special.

Paul said: ‘A big thank you to all of my customers who have helped to raise almost £50 since June. The Tamar Valley is very close to my heart and I wanted to help give something back to this lovely area in which I live and work.’

Alex Midlen, chair of Tamar TLC, said: ‘We have been delighted with the amount of money raised so far that will help a variety of projects throughout the Tamar Valley. To date, £300 has been raised through the donation boxes. A particular thanks must go to visitors of the Tamar Trails who have already raised £148 that will go towards a recreation project at the trails.’

Picture by James Bird.