Consultant is project manager if scheme secures Stage 2 Lottery funding
Consultant Capita Symonds has been appointed by Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council to provide project management, landscape design, architectural and engineering services to secure Lottery funding for a £1.4m restoration of Victoria Gardens in Neath, South Wales.
The Heritage Lottery Fund is funding the Stage 2 submission and if the grant application is successful, Capita will then project manage the restoration works on site.
The scheme is being project managed by Bernard Adshead and inspired by Nigel Ford, principal landscape architect in the Cardiff office.
Laid out in 1897-1898 to celebrate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee, the gardens are a prime example of a Victorian urban park.
They also retain a number of original features including a Grade II listed bandstand, a Gorsedd circle (a stone circle used in druidic ceremonies) and a Grade II listed pedestal and bronze statue of Howell Gwyn, a prominent local businessman and benefactor.
The Victorian ornamental tree planting, well maintained lawns, and formal bedding displays - including inclined beds with carpet bedding – also remain as one of the gardens’ main attractions to this day.
Work will include the restoration of the bandstand and Victorian drinking fountain, provision of a new visitor facility and maintenance building, and the replacement of the park’s missing railings which were originally taken away in the 1940s as part of the war effort.
Ford said: “The project will restore the historical features of the gardens to their original glory, providing a recreational asset for the local community and future generations.”
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