Photo: Basher Eyre
A STREAM that runs through the heart of Leigh Park is the focus of an innovative project aiming to highlight the area’s history and wildlife.
The Heritage Lottery Fund has handed over a grant of £283,000 to fund a scheme based around the Hermitage stream.
Over the next three years, the charity Groundwork Solent will be working with schools, colleges and family learning centres to use the stream as an outdoor classroom. The aim is to tell the story of the area.
During its history the four-mile-long watercourse has had connections with prehistoric settlement, a Roman road, a country house estate, Second World War military camps and temporary accommodation for refugees forced to leave nearby Portsmouth due to wartime bombing.
Following the war, one of the largest ever housing estates in the country was built.
The stream runs into Langstone Harbour and is an important wildlife corridor for fish, birdlife and a wide range of plants.
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