Work to begin on restoring Coach House in Penwortham’s Hurst Grange

One of the proposals for the former coach house

Members of the Friends of Hurst Grange Park Coach House Restoration Project in Penwortham, are popping the champagne corks following news that work to restore the Coach House on Hurst Grange Park is due to begin in November.

The work will see the building turned into a community facility with much needed public toilets, events space and provision for a cafe.

Visitors will also be able to learn about the built and natural heritage of the park and Penwortham through a series of interpretative information panels in the building.

The project includes extensive landscaping of the area around the building including replacing trees, removed to allow the work to take place.

Garages that were added in the 1960’s when the building was used by the Council as a parks maintenance depot will be demolished to restore the appearance of the building to ‘as built’ in the 1850’s.

The coach house in Hurst Grange Park dates to the 1850s

In 2017 the Friends were awarded £15,000 by The National Lottery Heritage Fund in order to carry out studies into the level of support for restoration of the building, but the main bid for funding has been made by South Ribble Borough Council as owner of the building.

Now, South Ribble Borough Council has secured a grant of £513,100 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund for the project. Additional funding of over £200,000 is coming from the Council itself and the Friends are contributing £17,000, raised through various public events.

The work also involves repairs to the roof of the building, new flooring throughout, a high level of insulation and an eco-friendly heating system.

A courtyard to the rear of the building will be glazed over, providing a further area to hold activities and events. Provision for illuminating the approaches to the building has been made, enabling it to be used during the evenings.

Chairman of the Friends, John Fazackerly paid tribute to the Council for supporting the project and in allocating Officer time to prepare the bid to The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

John said “The building has been an eyesore for many years and Penwortham residents have been asking for something to be done for a long time.

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“The Friends have been working on this with the Council since 2011 so it is great the project has reached a successful conclusion. We just can’t wait for building work to start.”

The news comes on the back of an announcement that the Council has approved funding to refurbish the children’s play area with proposed designs to be publicised shortly and works to begin on site early next year.

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