Hopton Castle Conservation and Restoration Work
Hopton Castle, South Shropshire, 2005 - 11 Total value £1.4 million
The Hopton Castle Preservation Trust invited Sula Rayska of Rayska Heritage, Heritage Consultants, to help them with their Conservation Management Plan and funding applications in 2005 and subsequently to be the Project Manager for the restoration project. This also involved the purchase of the castle and surrounding land from a local landowner.
A stage 1 HLF application was submitted in 2006 and a pass with £25,000 of development funding followed. The stage 2 application for £880,000 was approved in 2008 and work began in the autumn of 2009. The project has not been without difficulties, from the original negotiations with the vendor to some very technical decisions on the restoration methods and protracted discussions with English Heritage.
Again, this included the following stages:
- Writing the a Conservation Plan and the Business Plan
- Negotiating with the landowner re the purchase of the castle
- Liaison with English Heritage
- Applying for funding. This included obtaining a grant of £880,000, from the HLF, plus £25,000 development funding, £150,000 from English Heritage, £30,000 from Shropshire Tourism Action Plan, £30,000 from Leader and from a variety of sources.
- Helping the Trust to appoint architects, quantity surveyors, archaeologists, interpretation designers, CDM etc.
- Drawing down all the funding
- Managing the budget and ensuring all fees are paid on time
This project is due to be finished by May 2011. It should have been finished by now but the winter weather and excessively low temperatures together with complicated technical procedures to arrest the decay of the ancient monument have held up the building work.
