The redevelopment of Hermitage Park in Helensburgh has been given another boost with the award of £60,000 from the War Memorial Trust.
This is double the amount usually awarded from the trust’s Centenary Memorials Restoration fund and will go towards the repair and renovation of the 40-foot memorial designed by distinguished architect Alexander Nisbet Paterson.
The A-listed war memorial includes a monument, reflection pool, ironwork gates and sits within a walled garden (formerly the kitchen garden to Hermitage House).
Each element needs specialist repair work. The grant funding will support work to re-point, repair and clean the stonework on the monument and the surrounding wall as well as the corroded bronzework.
Repairs to the reflection pool will make it watertight while the ironwork on the entrance gates will also be restored.
The memorial site had been closed for some time due to vandalism but is now opened through the week and at weekends thanks to a partnership between the Friends of Hermitage Park Association and Argyll and Bute Council’s amenity services team.
The council’s policy lead for infrastructure, Ellen Morton, said: ’This is good news. This is a very significant war memorial and we are absolutely delighted that funding has been secured to restore it.
‘’Alexander Paterson is a famous architect, particularly in terms of war memorials, and former resident of Helensburgh.
“After the First World War he was commissioned to design a number of public war memorials and several for churches and companies. He won a competition to design our war memorial, as well as the one in Campbeltown
‘’We are still searching for a copy of his original design plans for the Helensburgh memorial. If anyone has any information about this we would be very grateful if they could get in touch with Melissa Simpson, our development officer, on 01436 658989.’’
The council received confirmation from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in January 2014 that the bid for a grant to regenerate Argyll and Bute’s only urban park had received first round approval.
This first round approval included a grant of £169,700 to carry out the development phase of the project.
This has involved the ongoing development of a whole park plan, including proposals for the monument and memorial gardens, community consultation and investigative works to deal with flooding and erosion.
The finalised plan was submitted to HLF at the end of August, with the outcome of the £2.2m bid set to be announced by the end of the year.
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