Part of a historic hall which has been shut for a decade could be reopen before Christmas as emergency repairs get underway.
Work has started on Rock Hall in Moses Gate Country Park after Bolton Council handed over the keys to contractors, Rosslee Construction thanks to funding from The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Community Ownership Fund.
Last September, the Heritage Fund awarded a development grant of £466,662 which has contributed to the £725,000 raised for the Development Phase of the project.
This grant award was the first of two stages for the £4million project.
In December 2022, local Charity Banana Enterprise Network successfully applied for £295,000 from the Governments Community Ownership Fund for repair work at the Hall and associated costs.
Now together with funding from the Heritage Fund, the repair work can begin.
The emergency repair work will stabilise the condition of the hall to prevent it from deteriorating further.
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It will also enable the charity to use part of the hall internally once completed, for community activities.
Currently a toilet and a kitchenette can be used when activities take place on the grounds.
The full conservation works to the hall and proposed new extension will not begin until the charity and council secure the second stage funding which they are hoping to apply for in February 2025 if all goes to plan.
Jayne Allman, the Charity’s CEO, said, “We have been working to save the hall for four years and have dreamed of seeing the day when repair work can begin.
"The hall closed 10 years ago and so we will be very excited to see it partially opened before Christmas.
"We are so very grateful to The National Lottery Heritage Fund and National Lottery players along with the Community Ownership Fund, Bolton Council and all other funders who have helped us to get this far.
"Without their financial support, none of this would have been possible. We sincerely thank the team at Bolton Council for helping us to make this happen.
“I would also like to thank the local community and our amazing volunteers for believing in us, supporting us and for patiently waiting for work to begin. The project also has a great team of professionals working with us, so our grateful thanks goes to our Design team, Project Management Team and the professional consultants and project partners working with us. These type of projects involve an enormous amount of work and funding and can be very complex but we are thrilled to have reached this next stage”.
Cllr Nadeem Ayub, Bolton Council’s Cabinet Member for Culture, said:“I’m delighted that work can begin to create meanwhile use at Rock Hall so that the local community can access this much-loved cultural asset.
“The Rock Hall development is a key contribution to the town’s cultural strategy and the vision to regenerate the town.”
Michael Clarkson, Managing Director of Rosslee Construction said: “We are delighted to be working with Bolton Council and Banana Enterprise Network to complete the enabling works so that the hall can be brought back into use for the community, and we look forward to working with the dedicated and determined team behind it.”
Rock Hall was built in 1807 by the Crompton family of paper-makers. TB Crompton was a pioneer and developed a unique paper drying process, which he patented.
This project is “pioneering” in the local area because it will be the first time that a disused historic building has been the subject of a CAT (Community Asset Transfer) process.
The Hall, which is owned by Bolton Council, closed in 2014 and has been unused since then.
The Charity has a Rock Hall project specific website www.rockhall1807.co.uk and a dedicated Facebook page called Save Rock Hall https://www.facebook.com/RockHallFarnworth
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