leahortez86: Uphill challenge to save historic tower

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Uphill challenge to save historic tower

A 183-YEAR-OLD tower could be turned into a tourist attraction .

Community leaders are exploring how the derelict Warder's Tower, in Greenway Bank Country Park, Biddulph, could be utilised to generate money to pay for its upkeep.

Their ideas have been put forward after a restoration project was abandoned last year when it was discovered the building was home to four species of bats.

Preservation charity The Landmark Trust, which had raised more than half the �700,000 for the work, handed the lease back to former owner Staffordshire County Council.

The cash-strapped authority had been unable to afford repairs but is now determined to give the Grade II-listed building a new lease of life.

Councillor Christina Jebb, county council member for Biddulph South and Endon, is fronting the project.

She revealed the council is working with Staffordshire Moorlands Partnership Board to look at using the tower for education and tourism purposes.

She said: "At the start of the year I was informed the Landmark Trust had pulled away from the lease.

"The building presents a challenge because of the presence of the bats but we are up to it. We need to be able to restore the tower in harmony with them and then look at ways of it paying for itself."

The tower – which is already on English Heritage's Buildings at Risk Register – was built in 1828 by the industrialist John Bateman.

It was built on Bateman's estate, but also served a practical use. A gamekeeper lived in the building until 1919 and then it fell into decline.

The first step in the project is to check and repair the roof, pull out saplings and remove rubbish from inside the building to reduce the risk of fires.

Then a more detailed plan will be drawn up to see how they could use the building.

Historians, who feared the tower would be left to decay, have welcomed the plans to turn the tower into an attraction.

Derek Wheelhouse, chairman of the Biddulph and District Genealogy and Historical Society, said: "It is very important that efforts are made to try and save the building which I believe is one of the few remaining built by John Bateman."

Member Elaine Heathcote, aged 53, of Gillow Heath, said: "It is a very old building and a landmark in Biddulph. It is pictured on old postcards and is quite magnificent. It would be a great pity to lose it."

Biddulph Town Council id donating �1,000.

A Staffordshire Moorlands Partnership Board report to councillors said: "Members were informed the building was currently at risk and was falling in to disrepair. The county council was managing the property and it was agreed that the partnership board could help develop schemes for the site in the future."

The money raised by the Landmark Trust will be offered back to donors or they can gift it to another building.