CORNWALL Heritage Trust (CHT) has gained the support of five Cornish businesses – including a Par-based coach company – who are helping to fund an ongoing grants scheme to subsidise transport costs for school trips.

Primary schools in Cornwall can apply to the Trust – which has the Duke of Cornwall as its Royal Patron and Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall Colonel Edward Bolitho as its President – for funding to make visits to heritage sites in Cornwall, or visits which have the purpose of developing awareness and appreciation of Cornish heritage.

CHT were delighted that the five businesses – Roselyn Coaches of St Blazey, Par; Cornish Gems of Threemilestone, Truro; Cornish Lithium of Penryn; Duchy Hot Tubs of Truro; and Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens of Penzance – were able to become “Heritage Friends” of the Trust and help to financially sponsor the Schools Transports Grants scheme.

Cornish Lithium, which is seeking to extract from Cornish granite an important element used in making electric car batteries, said: “By sponsoring this important scheme, we aim to inspire Cornish school children to cherish, preserve and learn from their unique heritage, and become the pioneers of their generation.”

Cornish Gems commented: "Cornish Gems are thrilled to support the Transport Grant initiative from Cornwall Heritage Trust. The work the trust does in providing access to historical sites and the importance of preservation is of the utmost importance."

Tremenheere said: “At Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens, we recognise the positive effects outdoor spaces, nature, culture and an engagement with our heritage can have on us all. We were delighted to support Cornwall Heritage Trust’s Transport Grants, and not only to support the amazing work of the Trust, but also help more school children from across Cornwall to visit the county’s amazing wealth of heritage sites.”

School trips to sites such as Carn Euny, Kresen Kernow, Bodmin Keep, Truro Cathedral and the Royal Cornwall Museum are very popular with teachers and school children alike. Staff from Probus School said: “It was fascinating to learn even more about Cornwall’s pre-historic past in such a hands-on way! A huge thank you to Cornwall Heritage Trust for the transport grant for this wonderful trip.”

Cornwall Heritage Trust CEO Cathy Woolcock said: “Learning on location is an amazing experience for the children, especially after the amount of remote teaching over the last couple of years. We asked the schools what was the biggest barrier to taking the children to experience heritage first-hand and the overwhelming response was the cost of the transport. We are very grateful to our sponsors for helping us to continue to offer this helping hand to schools.”

Since the grants were introduced, CHT has helped to fund over 400 trips to Cornish heritage sites and have benefited over 17,000 Cornish primary school children.

Schools can apply at www.cornwallheritagetrust.org and are likely to receive some, if not all, of their requested funding in exchange for write-ups and photographs from their trip.