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Wildlife Trust and Local Brewery team up to support Sherwood Forest’s ‘stout’ oaks in Lottery Vote

Updated on: 9 November 2007

The Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has teamed up with the City’s largest independent brewer, Castle Rock Brewery to help secure the future of Sherwood Forest.

In November, the Brewery will bring back an old favourite from its’ ‘Natural Selection’ range to help bring the Forest back to its former glory. ‘Oak’, a stout originally brewed in 2003, has been renamed ‘Sherwood Oak’ in support of Sherwood Forest’s bid to win a £50million public vote. The Sherwood: The Living Legend project is one of four schemes that will feature in an ITV show in early December – with viewers choosing which one should receive £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund’s The Big £50 Million People’s Giveaway.If it wins, plans include planting the equivalent of 400 football pitches of new woodland and heathland and creating a new visitor centre.

To help ensure that Sherwood Forest has a good chance of winning, The Wildlife Trust and Castle Rock are calling on regulars to back the bid by simply texting robin to 81025.

The ‘Natural Selection’ beer for December will be Robin – so this too will be used to help encourage people to support the Sherwood Forest Bid right up to the final vote. Speaking about the launch of ‘Sherwood Oak’, which will took place at Nottingham Castle’s new Robin Hood exhibition yesterday (1st November) , Erin McDaid of the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust commented: “Sherwood Forest is the county’s most famous wildlife area and it is of international importance. We have been working hard with partners for decades to help bring it back to its former glory but the Sherwood: The Living Legend bid is once in a lifetime opportunity to restore hundreds of hectares of the Forest landscape. We hope that the launch of ‘Sherwood Oak’ will help publicise the need for the people of Nottinghamshire to back the bid. And we are delighted that Castle Rock have thrown their weight behind the campaign.”

Speaking about the latest brew Commercial Director Colin Wilde said: “It is crucial that all stakeholders play their part in trying to bring this fantastic project to the East Midlands and this includes established local businesses like ourselves. We are hoping that by dedicating our November Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust Brew to the Sherwood: The Living Legend cause and using our December beer ‘Robin’ to help generate even more votes and raise additional awareness as to how, as a region, we can win this bid. We are hoping to help activate our potential voters in time for the crucial voting period in early December."

To register your support for Sherwood’s bid for £50 million Big Lottery money text robin to 81025 or sign up here!