Work due to start on £1.18 million Chance’s Park restoration

(Date of issue: Friday, 14 August 2009)

Sisters Ruth and Mary Chance will cut the first sods to mark the start of a £1.18million restoration of the historic local park, gifted to the city by their father, a former Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, Robert Chance, in 1944.

The Chance sisters will be present at a special turf-cutting event next Tuesday (18 August), at 11am, within the grounds of Chance’s Park, off Wigton Road, Carlisle.

The local park is on track for a major transformation, after receiving a £869,000 National Lottery grant to back exciting regeneration plans. The funding has come from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Big Lottery Fund (BIG) under their Parks for People programme, with additional funding from Biffaward to promote the park’s biodiversity. The joint investment will help to make the park fit for the 21st century.

The steering group, made up of representatives from the Friends of Chance's Park, Morton Community Centre and Carlisle City Council, will use the funding to progress the £1.18million scheme and will make the park more accessible for visitors, opening up new views and improving pathways.

It will be used to reinstate original features such as the ha-ha, medieval ridge and furrow meadowland and the Georgian garden; entrances, pathways and lighting will also be improved. New landscaping features and natural improvements including a new avenue of trees and the planting of around 100,000 floral bulbs will be accompanied by a range of activities for schools, families and older people.

The City Council agreed a £40,000 contribution to the scheme. In addition to the main funders, generous support has also been received from Cumbria Wildlife Fund, Cumbria Community Foundation, Morton Neighbourhood Forum and the County Council’s Carlisle Local Area Committee.

Local architectural practice Johnston and Wright, and their associated consultant team, was awarded the development contract to prepare the necessary plans and documents for the steering group’s successful bid to the HLF and will oversee the implementation of the work. The work will start next week, with the majority expected to be completed in around 16-weeks time and final planting in spring 2010. R H Irving Construction of Longtown has been appointed the main contractor for the work and the work will be project managed by Carlisle City Council’s Facilities team.

Carlisle’s prominent Chance family gave Chance’s Park (Morton Park) to the city in 1944, but the landscaped gardens and parkland around the Morton Manor date back to the early 1800s. The parkland forms the grounds to the Grade II listed Morton Manor House and a number of features from the original layout remain including the ha-ha* and many veteran trees.