A TEIGNBRIDGE charity which lets inner-city children experience life on a farm has been awarded a £15,000 grant by a national education charity.

Shallowford Farm, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, has hosted children and young adults from south London for almost 40 years.

Youngsters help run the farm, rear animals, grow fruit and vegetables, learn about the moorland environment and take part in team tasks and challenges to improve their social and emotional development.

Grant donor the Ernest Cook Trust is hoping to create a new residential centre in the heart of Dartmoor. The funding will support the salary of the centre’s resident manager, an experienced teacher with 25 years in outdoor education.

Resident manager Debbie Sandels said: ‘I’m so grateful to the trustees for their generous grant. Shallowford Farm is striving to expand its provision as a place where disadvantaged, inner-city youngsters and primary school children benefit from learning outside the classroom.

‘We open their eyes as to where their food comes from and share the wide-open spaces of Dartmoor, giving them space to think.’

The trust is one of the UK’s leading educational charities, and is rooted in the conservation and management of the countryside.

It owns and manages 22,000 acres of landed estates across five counties in England.

ECT actively encourages children and young people to learn from the land through hands-on educational opportunities on its estates and by giving grants.

Each year trustees distribute £1.8m to a range of education initiatives.