Newton Poppleford teenage backed by Keith Owen Fund on bid to become countryside ranger with National Trust

A HELPING hand has been given to a Newton Poppleford teenager to enable her to start a career as a trainee countryside ranger.

Thanks to a grant from Sidmouth’s Keith Owen Fund (Sid Vale Association), Chryssa Brown, 19, who has just completed A-level exams at Sidmouth College, is able to spend a gap year before applying for university, working with the National Trust. She started on Wednesday.

Announcing the news at an open meeting at Kennaway House on Tuesday, to explain the work of the fund, chairman, the Reverend Handel Bennett, said it had taken two years to bring about the partnership between KOF and the NT.

He said: “The Keith Owen fund will be there with the purse strings for Chryssa.

“The National Trust will oversee her educational training so she becomes a skilled countryside ranger and we are paying the cost of acquiring skills.”

Chryssa applied for the bursary through the Sidmouth Herald and went through an interview process before being accepted.

“I am very grateful for the opportunity the Keith Owen Fund has given me. It is almost like a blessing,” she said.

“I don’t think the National Trust would have offered me this without funding.”

She hopes to do a college course in 12 months’ time and is looking at Foundation degrees at Bicton College.

In the meantime she is keen to get some practical experience under her belt, working with the NT at Branscombe and with the SVA in Sidmouth.