With thanks to a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund and a great deal of community effort, Brading Town Council launched their unique Town Trail last weekend on a very wet and windy Isle of Wight.

Brading Station Master (pictured) invites everyone aboard for the Brading Town Trail which consists of nine historic information boards in various locations throughout Brading and can be started from either the Station or Town Trust Car Park.

The invitation was ‘Walk through Brading’s new Town Trail, meeting surprise guests along the way’ thankfully the weather did not dampen the spirits of the ’surprise guests’  as local residents proudly displayed the boards they represented in historic costumes.

Shielding ourselves from the torrential rain unfortunately we only managed to capture the Station Master, Little Jane, Mr Grapes the Postman and Mrs Hewson (pictured below).

This project is a real community effort and involved people from all sectors of the community. volunteers carried out the research for the boards and collected pictures of Brading throughout the years. 

Whilst the trail boards are aimed at adults the young people of Brading got heavily involved in the project.  They designed a children’s quiz and word search also colouring exercise so that children can walk with their parents and take part in the trail too (leaflet pictured below).

The young people are very proud of their design and positive comments were received from members of the public at the launch.

The £24,400 Heritage Lottery funding has enabled Brading to produce high quality publicity to promote tourism and assist local businesses in attracting extra custom without spending lots of money on advertising themselves.  All in all, the community, businesses and visitors should be very happy with the outcome of this launch.

The Children’s leaflet to accompany the trail along with an adults leaflet can be collected from Brading Station or Brading Post Office.

Isle of Wight Community News @Island Pulse.