£3.1 million lottery win for Ff&WHR

FFESTINIOG & Welsh Highland Railway (Ff&WHR) has secured £3.1 million from The National Lottery Heritage Fund (NHLF). Ff&WHR’s £4.2 million Boston Lodge Redevelopment & Interpretation Project secured a NHLF first round pass last year (RM, February 2020) and this second stage application was submitted at the end of May this year (RM, July).

The £3,144,000 grant will finance the restoration and conservation of buildings at Boston Lodge Works, boosting

Ff&WHR plans to attract more visitors by providing “a highquality tourism experience”, and work, training and volunteering opportunities for the Porthmadog community.

Funding

Earlier this year the Ffestiniog Railway Society committed to contributing £475,000 of match funding to the project, this contribution being made possible by a significant legacy from the late John Powell which specified it should be spent on heritage buildings. The balance of the contribution will come from general society funds. A similar sum has been committed by the Ff&WHR Trust.

The project is scheduled to take three-and-a-half years to complete and aims to help attract up to 250,000 visitors to the railways annually. This lottery success follows the announcement of the Slate Heritage of Northwest Wales, of which Ff&WHR is a part, becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

TERRY EYRES Ffestiniog Railway Double-Fairlie David Lloyd George runs across The Cob towards Porthmadog Harbour station on September 29, with the 14.50 from Blaenau Ffestiniog. The previous few days had seen heavy rainfall, doubtless contributing to there being more water on the landward side of The Cob (left) than the seaward side! Boston Lodge works can be seen in the distance.