Special council meeting considers increased funding for Castle
Cardigan Town Council is to look at whether it can afford to give more cash to Cardigan Castle.
A special meeting is to be called later this month to look at the council’s budget to see if it can help Cadwgan Trust in its bid to raise £155k as part of the £4.5m Heritage Lottery Fund bid that is being submitted this September.
The council has already given Cadwgan a £2,000 grant.
“Cadwgan Trust is doing a lot of work to reach this target,” mayor Cllr Mair Morris told last week’s town council meeting.
“If this bid is not successful then we will be waiting for many many years for a solution to the castle. We are 100% behind them.”
Cllr Llwyd Edwards added: “If we don’t have the castle all we will have in Cardigan is the Guildhall and a new supermarket.”
Vandalism strikes castle site
Security measures have been stepped up at Cardigan Castle after vandals rampaged through Castle Green House. Original Georgian window frames and sills were smashed, doors kicked in and windows broken in the Grade II* listed house.
A protected Greater Horseshoe bat roost was also disturbed – which alone is a criminal act.
Cadwgan Trust are currently working on a £4.5m Heritage Lottery bid to restore the site and discovered the damage as they were escorting a party of Cadw officers around the castle.
Trust chairman Jann Tucker said: “We have been shocked at the scale of the damage. It is just wanton vandalism. The site is full of hazards and these youngsters are lucky they were not seriously hurt.”
And she added: “The best way to protect this special site is to make sure we get funding to bring it back into public use.”
The castle grounds have recently been closed to the public due to health and safety concerns. Cadwgan is due to submit its HLF bid this September and will know if its successful by the New Year.
Plan to remove metal stanchions
The ugly stanchions propping up Cardigan Castle’s walls could be gone within a few years.
Engineers are now surveying the site as part of Cadwgan Trust’s £4.5m Heritage Lottery bid which is due to be submitted this September.
“Engineers feel it would be possible to remove the buttresses but three bore holes need to be drilled in order to take rock bore samples before they can be certain,” states a report to the trust. Archaeological work would be carried out at the same time.
The steel stanchions were installed at the castle more than 30 years ago when work was carried out on the new pedestrian footbridge.
“Their removal would be the best signal yet that Cardigan Castle is coming back to life,” said Cadwgan chair Jann Tucker.
Castle wall stachions
