Win £100 voucher with new and updated digital history trail

Complete a digital history trail in Rushden to win £100 voucher for Italian restaurant

 Images: The ‘All Aboard for Rushden’ signs ready for installation on the Greenway (Nenescape)

‘All Aboard for Rushden’ is a new app that originally launched last year, but from 28 August, will present new and updated information. If visitors find all five points along the trail during the Nene Valley Festival, they can enter a prize draw to win a £100 voucher for Pizza Venezia Italian restaurant in Rushden. The Nene Valley Festival celebrates the heritage, wildlife and culture of the Nene Valley and runs from 14 – 22 September.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund supported Nenescape Landscape Partnership Scheme has worked with the University of Nottingham’s Computer Science department Horizon Digital Economy Research, Rushden Historical Transport Museum, Rushden Museum, the Greenway team, East Northamptonshire Council, Rushden Town Council, Destination Nene Valley, Screen Northants and Northampton University’s History department to create a new piece of technology that sets a challenge of finding a permanent trail of pieces of art along the Greenway.

By following the story of a mail bag accident on a local railway in 1911 and the imagined contents of the bag, visitors can work their way along the former rail line finding out more about Rushden’s history. Drawn by artist Michelle Barnett, the pieces of art depict cyclists on the Greenway with a traditional railway signal, bringing together the historic and current uses of the path.

The app uses Artcodes technology  and is just one element of a wider piece of work to reinvigorate the Greenway in Rushden and encourage more people to walk or cycle between Rushden Lakes and the town centre and beyond into the landscape. Another programme of work in the Nenescape scheme, ‘Out to Water, Into History’, is led by East Northamptonshire Council and has breathed new life into the pathway, thanks to a fantastic mural in a tunnel, new benches, tree planting and litter clearance.

Thanks to National Lottery players through the Heritage Fund, the ‘All Aboard for Rushden’ app is now available on the Apple and Google Play stores. Visitors will be able to find the trail of art along the Greenway path between Crown Way and the High Street from 28 August, and the competition will be open for entries between 14 and 22 September.

Please visit the Nenescape website at www.nenescape.org for prize draw terms and conditions and to find out more. See the very latest with our social media @nenescape. To find out more about the Nene Valley Festival, visit the new-look website at www.nenevalley.net.

About National Lottery Heritage Fund

• NLHF’s Landscape Partnerships helped bring together members of the community as well as local, regional, and national organisations to deliver schemes which benefited some of the UK’s most outstanding landscapes and rural communities. Grants ranged from £100,000 to £3m.
• Ground-breaking funding delivered thanks to National Lottery players. NLHF’s Landscape Partnership programme – which ran for 12 years – was the most significant grant scheme available for landscape-scale projects. Nearly £225m was been invested in 125 different areas across the UK helping forge new partnerships between public and community bodies and ensuring people are better equipped to understand and tackle the needs of their local landscapes. Over its life-span, the LP programme helped repair over 100 km of dry stone walls, enabled 810,000 people to participate in learning activities and helped more than 45,000 volunteers get involved – the equivalent of 64,000 working hours.
• Thanks to National Lottery players, we invest money to help people across the UK explore, enjoy and protect the heritage they care about – from the archaeology under our feet to the historic parks and buildings we love, from precious memories and collections to rare wildlife. https://www.heritagefund.org.uk/. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and use #NationalLottery.
• For more information please contact: Katie Owen, NLHF Press Office, phone: 020 7591 6036

About River Nene Regional Park

River Nene Regional Park is a Community Interest Company based in Kettering. They work in partnership with government, private and community and voluntary sectors to deliver projects that protect and improve the natural environment and that enable sustainable growth and development. http://www.riverneneregionalpark.org

Nenescape project partners

University of Northampton

One of the youngest universities in the UK but already leading the way in adding value to society. They have won multiple awards for work in this area, among others. They were the first university in the UK to be named as a Changemaker Campus in 2012.

University of Nottingham – Horizon Digital Economy Research

Horizon is a Research Institute at The University of Nottingham engaged in Digital Economy Research. Horizon brings together researchers from a broad range of disciplines to investigate how digital technology may enhance the way we live, work, play and travel in the future.

Wildlife Trust (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire)

Manage and look after more than 100 nature reserves for wildlife, including ancient woodlands, wildflower meadows, and wetlands. More than 95% of people living in the three counties are less than five miles from a Wildlife Trust nature reserve.

Natural England

The government’s adviser for the natural environment in England, helping to protect England’s nature and landscapes for people to enjoy and for the services they provide.

East Northamptonshire Council

The district council for the East Northamptonshire area. East Northamptonshire is one of seven districts in the county of Northamptonshire. It is made up of six market towns and 51 parishes covering an area of 50,979 hectares, spanning 27 miles north to south and 15 miles across at its widest point.

Nene Park Trust

Nene Park Trust is a registered charity and was established in 1988. Along with a 999 year lease on the Park, the Trust was endowed with commercial properties and other assets which now generate income to maintain the Park. Nene Park provides visitors with a range of opportunities for relaxation and recreation in a wide variety of landscapes and wildlife habitats throughout the sites.

Rockingham Forest Trust

Rockingham Forest Trust is an environmental charity which has been connecting people and places for nearly 20 years. The vision is: ‘to bring wide-ranging community benefits through creating and conserving special green spaces, and exploring local heritage, in ways which educate, involve and inspire’.

Destination Nene Valley

Destination Nene Valley is a pathfinding partnership project initiated in 2012 which aims to build on existing frameworks to promote the Nene Valley and develop supporting businesses. Led by East Northamptonshire Council, the project’s aims are to strengthen the rural economy, improve access to the Nene Valley, attract visitors and their spending and promote healthier outdoor lifestyles within local communities, including the use of green transport.

Environment Agency

The Environment Agency works to create better places for people and wildlife, and support sustainable development. EA is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

Angling Trust

The Angling Trust is the new, single organisation to represent all game, coarse and sea anglers and angling in England and Wales. The formation of the Angling Trust brings with it a positive new future for angling. For the first time ever, there is a single body to take cohesive action to solve all the problems that affect the sport.

Screen Northants

Screen Northants is an award-winning social enterprise film company as well as a screen agency for Northamptonshire. Their focus is on working with disadvantaged young people and new talent to raise Northamptonshire’s profile as a film destination.

Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust

Northamptonshire Music and Performing Arts Trust’s core values are “to inspire, to nurture and to excel” and it exists to provide the young people of Northamptonshire with musical and artistic opportunities. It does this by offering a range of enrichment programmes for schools and individuals of all ages around the county.

Icarus

Icarus specialises in the design, facilitation and evaluation of community and stakeholder engagement.

One to One Development Trust

One to One Development Trust delivers engaging, creative projects with an accessible people-focused approach that uses high-end technology and innovation. Their aim is to inspire, inform and push boundaries in how people engage with heritage, health and well-being and digital storytelling.