‘Spot the cow!’
Devon Mental Health Alliance and the National Trust
Marine Drive car park in Woolacombe will be managed and operated by the National Trust from April 2025, when the current lease with Mortehoe Parish Council comes to its natural end. National Trust members will enjoy free car parking year-round, joining a network of other National Trust car parks that members can park at for free along the Exmoor, North Devon, and North Cornwall coast.
It costs The National Trust £250,000 per year to maintain the immediate surrounding area of Woolacombe. Over the past 5 years the National Trust has made considerable investment in the Woolacombe area, including securing EU grant funding to upgrade the Porthole Café and public toilets and showers on Marine Drive, now managed by tenants.
The car park runs parallel to Woolacombe beach, which is recognised as one of the best beaches in the UK and is surrounded by land cared for by the National Trust. The sand dunes immediately below Marine Drive are one of the National Trust’s most significant coastal nature conservation sites. Funds generated at Marine Drive will help to care and maintain the car park as well as support conservation work in the surrounding coast and countryside.
To promote the National Trust resuming management of the car park, the Communities team are looking to re-establish the painted cow trail in the Woolacombe dunes. These cows have always been part of a community artwork installation and after some years resting in a barn, are set to be re-established in Woolacombe.
Utilising the art space at the Bideford drop in, we have one of the cows to redecorate ready to be placed back out in April. It gives our lovely group in Bideford a project to get their teeth into, as well as supporting the Northern Devon community. What has been amazing is the amount of rural and fauna knowledge contained and now shared within the drop-in group in Bideford. Designing and painting the cow has certainly inspired a whole range of conversations between group members!
This was a great opportunity for the Devon Mental Health Alliance to join in a community project with a respected national charity. It reinforces the support we have for the use of blue and green spaces for public wellbeing and enjoyment and helps create bonds between local communities. Special thanks to Fraser from the National Trust for facilitating this project, and for supporting the group to gather together some collective ideas and begin to paint the cow.
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