Welsh heritage sites receive £4.1m boost

Gwrych Castle in North Wales has been awarded £2.2m to protect and preserve it for future generations by carrying out urgent repairs that had been halted due to the Covid pandemic.

The National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) said the money, which is being provided through its £40m Covid-19 Response Fund, will allow Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust to rescue the castle’s central block from "imminent collapse".

It is one of four sites in Wales to receive a combined £4.1m toward work that was cancelled or postponed due to the pandemic as well as the impact of forced closures.

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Dr Mark Baker, Chair of Gwrych Castle Preservation Trust said the grant, which has been match-funded by the Richard Broyd Charitable Trust, is a "lifeline" for the castle in helping it to overcome ongoing setbacks to its restoration that were caused by the pandemic.

“The buildings are in perilous condition following the pandemic, during which development plans were limited and significantly delayed by the lack of funding streams and restrictions on construction work," he said. 

"This combined with extreme weather conditions has contributed to a decline to the roofless main building. 

"With this substantial funding award, we can reverse the critical situation that the site is currently in, allowing Gwrych Castle to be returned to its former glory and offering our visitors the best experience when they come to learn about the fascinating heritage it has to share.”

Gladstone's Library, a library established in 1895 by former British Prime Minister William Gladstone in Hawarden, Flintshire, has also received £777,246 from the fund.

The money will be used to tackle major repairs to the entrance porch, the roof, the reading room ceiling, and to some of the external windows of the historic building that had been postponed or cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the 18-month enforced closure of the library.

And two redundant medieval churches – St Lawrence's, in Gumfreston, Pembrokeshire and St James's, in Llangua, Monmouthshire – will receive £769,309 to save them from ruin.

Meanwhile, Insole Court, a Grade II* mansion house located in the Cardiff suburb of Llandaff – will get £328,938 to address essential repairs that accumulated due to closures and disruption caused by the pandemic.

Dr Simon Thurley, Chair of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, said: “We’re tremendously proud to have provided a lifeline for some of Wales’s incredible heritage sites and assets through the Covid-19 Response Fund – from castles and churches to libraries – helping them to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic.”