VOLUNTEERS are being sought to help with an exciting new woodland project in Porlock which is part of a wider local campaign to celebrate the time when modern computing pioneer Ada Lovelace lived in the village nearly 200 years ago.

Ada Lovelace was a mathematician and writer and the daughter of the famed poet Lord Byron, and is probably best known for her work on Charles Babbage’s analytical engine, recognising it had applications beyond pure calculation and seeing the potential of a ‘computing machine’.

She spent her summer months each year in the 1830s and 1840s in Ashley Combe, above Porlock Weir, where she carried out scientific work and, with her husband William King, developed one of the Westcountry’s first arboretums in the woods near Culbone.

Today, Porlock holds an Ada Lovelace Day annually in the village hall to celebrate women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM), and its computer centre is named after her.

Ada Lovelace died from cancer in 1852 and Ashley Combe became dilapidated and was demolished in the early 1970s.

Now, the parish council is looking to recruit a small band of volunteers to carry out simple woodland clearance work to help rediscover the historic landscape that she helped to create.

The project is being supported by Exmoor National Park Authority and the landowners.

Parish council clerk Jonathan Jones said tools and training would be be provided for any volunteers.

Mr Jones said: “A moderate level of fitness is required, as the site is accessible only by foot and involves some work on sloping ground.

“We hope to start during the first week of February, and meet, maybe monthly, thereafter.”

Anybody interesting in helping with the woodland project should email Dovery Manor Museum committee member Jeff Cox at [email protected].