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More than £1.5m of National Lottery grants are
going to projects in King's Lynn in Norfolk.
Part of the funds will help refurbish the 13th
Century landmark Greyfriars Tower - a contender in BBC Television's
Restoration series.
Currently closed to the public for safety reasons,
the lottery fund grant of £849,000 will restore the structure
and see it re-open as a visitor attraction.
Jean Tuck of the King's Lynn Civic Society is delighted.
"It's absolutely wonderful. I think it will make a great difference
to King's Lynn.
"The Restoration programme brought lots of
new tourist to Lynn, a lot of people came especially to see the
tower, so this will make a huge difference."
Greyfriars Tower |
Greyfriars Tower was probably a bell tower, built
as part of the Franciscan friary which was founded in the 1230s.
Slender and hexagonal above its base, it now forms
the only standing remains of the Greyfriars precinct in Lynn.
During the Restoration programme, broadcaster John
Peel acted as advocate for the tower.
"I can't take any of the praise for the announcement.
I felt terribly guilty after the programme when it hadn't won.
"When they asked me to do the programme, they
were going to send me a list of places from which I could make a
choice.
"By the time the list reached me, Greyfriars
Tower was the only thing left on it to be honest - so Greyfriars
came to me, rather than me going to it in this respect."
In addition to Greyfriars Tower, the lottery grant
will also be used to give the King's Lynn
Museum is to have a make-over.
Seahenge |
This will allow it to become home to one of the
region's most important archaeological finds - the Bronze Age timber
circle known as Seahenge.
The circle emerged from
the sea at Holme on the north west Norfolk coast during a very low
tide and is under going treatment to preserve
the ancient timbers at Peterborough.
Noelle James from the Heritage Lottery Fund said:
"West Norfolk is one of our priority
areas.
"We've seen a tremendous drive of applications
from King's Lynn itself, but now we'd like to branch out into areas
of West Norfolk which traditional hasn't received much lottery funding."
If you'd live in West Norfolk and would like to
discuss a project with the Heritage Lottery Fund contact 01223 224883.
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