We've received our official 'Permission to Start' from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
We are delighted to report that we now have official ‘Permission to Start’ our Falling Sands Viaduct project from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thank you to everyone who has helped us get to this point! On receipt of our grant we still had some important information to gather and submit to the Heritage Fund before we could get started, but now it really is ‘All Systems Go’!
Phase one of the project sees us tackle the drainage on the viaduct and we are currently in the process of confirming the contractor. The contract will commence in early January, then in spring 2020 we’ll begin Phase Two – the restoration of the brickwork. However, we have already started the educational and outreach work that forms an important part of this project – this week we hosted a class of nine-years-old from Sutton Park Community Primary School, Kidderminster who visited the Viaduct as part of an art project.
In the meantime, we have welcomed two new staff members into the Charitable Trust to assist with the delivery of the project, and who are being funded by the National Lottery.
Frankie Spickernell will be managing the project and acting as the liaison between the Railway and The National Lottery Heritage Fund to ensure that we’re meeting the terms of our grant.
Laura Hines has started with us as our Activity and Interpretation Manager. She will be helping to deliver the educational and community outreach work that runs alongside the restoration works which will include the Stove R, our travelling exhibition space.
If you’ve already expressed an interest in getting involved with the project, we will be in touch soon. For those of you who are new to the project who’d like to learn more, or volunteer your time, please don’t hesitate to contact laura.hines@svrtrust.org.uk or pop into the Charitable Trust offices.
We look forward to updating you again in the not too distant future.