IP19018 - Phase 2 of the DVLPS Inspired Landscapes Project

This project is part of the Darent Valley Landscape Partnership Scheme (DVLPS). DVLPS is a five-year project funded primarily by the National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF) and delivered through the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Unit. The scheme aims to encourage local people and visitors to conserve, enhance and celebrate the natural beauty and heritage of the Darent Valley, and to ensure its survival for future generations.

The Inspired Palmer Landscapes project plays a key role within the entire scheme and will be delivered throughout the length and breadth of the scheme area. It will work across communities within the valley to explore, reveal and celebrate the stories of individual places and local landscapes. Creative workshop events will draw together communities and individuals of all ages to investigate the history that has shaped the Darent Valley and created the sense of place for their part of it. Stories will be communicated through a variety of creative forms, inspired by Samuel Palmer’s connection with the valley. This will then be celebrated through a celebration event to enable the wider community to enjoy and learn about the Darent Valley’s heritage and celebrate their own heritage connections to the landscape.

The focus of the project will be on enhancing community pride and joint-working between the individual settlements that are located within the valley. It will be a celebration of the communities, land and how interaction created the distinctive landscape of the Darent Valley. The project intends to be entirely inclusive and provide opportunities for all sections of the individual communities to be involved from school children to adults. Whilst the immediate focus is on those settlements within the valley, it will also work with communities adjacent to the valley.