A five-year-old boy who took on his school’s project to ‘grow a £1’ has gone on to raise hundreds of pounds.

Proud mum Martha Price contacted the Chronicle about son Dylan-Harley’s efforts to help fund raise for his school Goytre Fawr Primary.

The school issued a project to all children called “Grow a £1”.

They were each sent home a £1 and encouraged to use it to buy some equipment or materials for an idea of their choice to raise money - growing their £1 (some ideas were to buy a sponge and soap and offer to wash your neighbour’s cars).

A week before the project was announced Dylan found a hedgehog near his house and being a huge nature enthusiast held onto this encounter.

Said Martha: ‘‘When I asked him what he would like to do for his grow a £1 idea he said he wanted to make a hedgehog house.

‘‘We are currently in the middle of building our extension and had an abundance of scrap wood left over so he even suggested we could use that to make it so as we could recycle, which is better for nature

‘‘He would then sell some hedgehog homes and bird boxes too because ...... well why not look after the birds too, to raise money.

‘‘So we set about making just a few nature homes thinking that it would be only the usual scenario of family supporting him and would be interested in buying one.

‘‘After posting on social media about what our weekend activities had included, we suddenly found ourselves in a position we could not have predicted.

‘‘We were inundated with requests from people from all over the country (friends of friends etc) asking if they could purchase one and support young Dylan in his efforts!’’

Having made a mere six homes and running out of wood Dylan then decided he would ask “The Boys” at Jones’s (A Jones & Sons Merchants in Usk) if they might kindly let him have some wood to finish his order request.

Dylan approached ‘the boys’ after his parents made the difficult announcement they were no longer in a position to take on any more orders.

Said Martha: ‘‘This was due to not only a lack of wood but also Mum and Dad’s sanity - Dad being a builder and having to suspend all further work on our own extension to aid Dylan in his entrepreneurial skills?.

‘‘Dylan-Harley approached “The Boys” and conducted a formal meeting with “The man in charge” to tell him about his idea and to ask if they might sponsor him.

‘‘To our amazement they VERY generously agreed and even kindly delivered the wood to Dylan the following day!’’

However it wasn’t enough for Dylan to complete his 40 homes orders, he then wanted to be able to demonstrate how to put together the flat pack homes (which we were also offering to those families who wanted to build their own).

‘‘We (mum and dad) were ordered to film him putting them together so he coud create his own instruction manuel.

‘‘We also decided it might be a good idea to send each recipient a Top Tip information sheet to encourage the animals to visit their new homes.

‘‘Dylan-Harley raised just short of £400 for his school after selling all of his homes, with one even being an international sales - this is a bird box that once Covid restrictions have been lifted, will be making its way to France.

‘‘With all that has happened this year, we as a family, could not be more proud of Dylan and his idea.’’

Well done Dylan on raising so much money for your school.