National Lottery Fund

Run down garden

We are delighted to announce that we have been awarded a development grant of £136,300 by the Heritage Lottery Fund under their Parks for Peoples scheme towards the restoration of the Bishop’s Park in Abergwili.

The development funding awarded will help us progress our plans to apply for a full grant at a later date. We aim to secure HLF funding to develop the Bishop’s Park as an all year round destination complete with museum, visitor and volunteer centre, reinvigorated pleasure grounds, kitchen garden, a flood plain meadow and ox bow lake with its secret island.

Judith Holland of the WHGT said: “We have long been concerned at the decline of this gem of a park that’s so important to the Tywi valley heritage, as well as to local people today. “This grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund therefore marks the first big step in revitalising the Bishop’s Park.”

Carmarthenshire’s executive board member for heritage Cllr Meryl Gravell said: “This is really good news for the area, and starts off the New Year really well!

“The Tywi Gateway project, along with the County Museum, will celebrate the beauty, history and heritage of the area.

“I look forward to developing this project further with a view to applying for further funding to complete it.”

Jennifer Stewart, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund in Wales said: “We’re happy to support these initial plans to help safeguard both the natural and built heritage of the Bishop’s Park.

“Our recent State of UK Public Parks report revealed how incredibly important our parks are to our physical and emotional well-being but also that they face an uncertain future.

“It’s exciting to see how this new investment is going some way towards helping parks like Bishop’s Park find new ways of funding and maintaining them so that they are protected for people of all ages to enjoy. We look forward to seeing how plans develop.”