Bishops Castle town hall restoration thanks to heritage lottery fund (From Ludlow Advertiser)

Bishops Castle town hall restoration thanks to heritage lottery fund

8:00am Saturday 29th September 2012 in News

WORK on the restoration of Bishops Castle Town Hall is set to start early next year with completion scheduled for Christmas 2013.

There was been a tinkling of champagne glasses since the Heritage Lottery Fund approved a bid for £678,000.

Sam Hine, who project managed the bid, said more than 100 people have so far played a part in achieving the success.

“It has been a real team effort and I believe that our community consultation and involvement has been a key factor,” she said.

“We can have a short time breathing a sigh of relief and celebrating and then it is on with the job.”

The local community will be required to find an additional £250,000 and although much of this has been secured more needs to be done.

Although the bulk of the total spend of about £900,000 will go on the town hall, pictured, to make it good for another 250 years an important element will be the programme of activities.

“Heritage Lottery do not just give money for buildings, there is a lot more to it than that,” added Sam.

“We believed we had a good bid but it was still a relief to discover that we had been successful as we know there are limited funds.”

The hall is a grade two listed building dating back to the 18th century and is a rare example of its type.

It is home to the town council as well as a coroners’ court and a regular market.

Because of its historical importance the renovation will be carefully controlled and the work put out to tender although it’s hoped where possible local contractors can be used on the flagship project.

Sam said she did not know why Bishops Castle had been successful, while a £1.7 million bid in Ludlow had failed.

“We were at a more advanced stage so had jumped more of the hurdles,”

she added.