Bigg plans

WORK will start shortly on a scheme to bring back the glory days to one of Tyneside’s most famous areas – potentially bringing in more than £41m in investment.

The £3.2m transformation plan for Newcastle’s Bigg Market was announced three years ago when the Heritage Lottery Fund backed an initiative to regenerate the site, which includes 31 listed buildings.

Through match funding from NE1 Ltd and Newcastle City Council, the scheme has taken a big leap forward with the appointment of a specialist building contractor to carry out the work, and a new project manager at the helm at NE1 Ltd.

North Shields’ Historic Property Restoration Ltd is well placed to carry out the public landscaping and building restoration work at the site, having been called upon to formerly rescue and repair castles, abbeys, priories, industrial monuments, churches, tombs and many other listed structures throughout the UK.

The company, which has main depots in Prudhoe and Ripon and smaller bases in Hexham, Doncaster and Lancashire, used to be the direct labour arm of English Heritage and recent contracts have taken the firm’s craftsmen to Alnwick Castle, Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island, The Lord Collingwood Monument in Tynemouth and Durham Cathedral.

John Gibson, managing director of HPR Ltd, said: “We are delighted to be involved in such a huge project in such an iconic area of Newcastle.”

HPR is set to start work on the Bigg Market in May and, while it’s not yet known how long the project will take, the public spaces part of the redevelopment will take six months.