Successful fund raising saves Delaval Hall in Northumberland~

interesting arlene and i hope you get to go and take some nice pics for us to view, how wonderfull to raise all that money, just shows you how strongly people feel about local heritage, ;o))

What a great blog, good on all the locals, like Sandra i'm looking forward to seeing some photos of it.

~ it does show that community efforts really do work~hopefully will get up there in the summer and take some pics!

Great :o))

It restores your faith when you see people putting their hands in their pockets for such a worthy cause. I too look forward to some pics. The rich of yesteryear created many wonderful homes and gardens, I wonder if in 100 years time someone will be visiting the homes of the rich of today :-) Beckingham Palace? I can't see it ;-)

Just had a look at the website and the gardens look great - some wonderful herbaceous borders and formal gardens.

Interesting blog.....community spirit at its best.Good that the schools are to be closely involved too.

~I saw the photo on the RHS site but don't know if it still looks as good as that or if that is taken now prior to their Spring opening~I hope that they have loads of visitors~ it's great that the schools are getting involved too~ catch them young and you propably have them for life...

However two years ago the estate was put up for sale to pay off an inheritance tax bill of almost £5 million.

whew i does not pay to die now days.
a cousin of mine inherited the edgecumbe estate in south england opposite plymouth city and when he realized the immense tax required the entire estate had to be taken over by local government and made into a tourist attraction

~I think it is the main reason that The National Trust owns so many stately homes~

~also saw this new project on the RHS website and look forward to the completion of restoration of this old castle in the Lake disrict~ anandoned for the last 70 years~
The restoration of the abandoned 17th-century gardens of Lowther Castle, near Penrith in the Lake District, is to begin this year following the appointment of leading landscape architects Land Use Consultants to lead the project.

The 52 hectare (130 acre) garden is currently inaccessible and buried in vegetation, although it's believed the original layout of 20 hidden gardens is still intact as well as the remains of three significant buildings within the grounds.

Company principal of Land Use Consultants, Dominic Cole, has previously overseen the creation of the Eden Project and the restoration of the Lost Gardens of Heligan and also chairs the Garden History Society. He said he was 'bowled over' to be given the chance to work on Lowther Castle.

“Lowther has a quality of light and magnificence of setting that puts it into a league of its own,” he said. “We're very excited to be working on its renaissance.”

The ruined gothic castle and its gardens have lain abandoned for the last 70 years, since being used as a testing ground for a secret tank weapon during the Second World War. However, a recent £9m grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency, backed up by European funding, has allowed the transformation of the site to begin.

The restoration will take place over several years; work begins later this year on stabilising the castle ruins and creating a garden within its walls, with detailed restoration and planting of the rest of the garden following over the next four to five years.

~ it is nice to know that projects like this are still going on!...it looks an amazing place~ the Heligan of the north?

Good news indeed, I look forward to a visit. It always intrigues me as to why we cherish so much our 'old' buildings. Is it purely because they're old or is it that we just can't make 'em any more? It's very kind of The Northwest Regional Development Agency to pay towards it all though we mustn't forget that we gave them the money in the first place. funding of major projects nowadays is a minefield, gone are the days when we knew who pays for what. I'll wager that not many will know what the NRDA are or how much control they have over us. One thing we're good at in the UK is shuffling money about, the 'middle men' who crank up the cost. Bankers are an obvious example. I like your comparison with 'Heligan, an unforgettable place, I'd love to re-visit but it's at the wrong end of the Country for me.

~ it's a fair bet it is in Category 1 area for job creation,which is why it is getting EU money~ work for the next 4/5 years can't be bad plus a paying attraction with ongoing jobs after that~it is probably cheap at the price providing they use local labour and firms and don't bring in cheaper foreign workers!~
It's a fair bet we wouldn't have people with the necessary skills to build a castle like this from scratch and it would be way over budget if we did!
~we should be preserving our heritage whilst we still can!

Well done Arlene on highlighting these projects...
nice to have our heritage protected :o)