£17m Lottery Fund grants to help preserve iconic British landscapes

The funding has been set aside for 10 different countryside areas to help them conserve their distinctive character, protecting grasslands, sand dunes, moorlands, wetlands and wildlife.

The work will involve local communities in schemes such as surveying species and archaeological digs and teach people traditional skills including dry stone walling, beekeeping and hedge-laying.

The Belfast Hills, the wetlands of the Avalon Marshes to the west of Glastonbury and landscapes shaped by medieval monks are among the rural areas to benefit from the cash.

The Mourne Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) which inspired CS Lewis's vision of Narnia and Dame Vera Lynn's favourite chalk cliffs of the Dover coastline are also set to receive funding.

The chairman of the Heritage Lottery Fund, Dame Jenny Abramsky, said: "Landscapes play a huge role in our lives and are often the backdrop to daily routines – but we mustn't take them for granted.

"This significant investment by the Heritage Lottery Fund is important, particularly in the International Year of Biodiversity, because it not only encourages people to work together effectively but gives them a greater sense of involvement and connection to their own local landscape."

Between 1m and 2m has been earmarked for each of the schemes, which must now submit a further, fully developed application to secure the grant award.

Among the landscapes for which funding has been earmarked are:

n The White Cliffs of Dover, Kent – 1,602,200 for protecting the landscape, removing scrub and maintaining grassland, as well as conservation work

n Tees Vale and Barnard Castle, Tees Valley – 1,999,700 for conservation work in the valley which is characterised by farmland, ancient woodlands, small villages, Roman roads and the ruins of Barnard castle.

n Meres and Mosses, stretching from Shropshire to Cheshire – 1,055,400 to conserve the pastoral landscape of glacial lakes, canals, wetlands, heathlands and small hills.

n The Solway Wetlands, Cumbria – 1,981,700 for the central part of the Solway Coast AONB, a wetlands area originally shaped by the agriculture of medieval Cistercian monks, which is important for migratory wildfowl and wading birds and threatened species such as the natterjack toad.