READING ABBEY HERITAGE LOTTERY FUND BID

At the end of February 2014 Reading Borough Council submitted a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funds to support the restoration of the Reading Abbey ruins and the Abbey Gateway. The bid had massive local support: the Council received over 1100 responses to its online survey – by a huge margin the largest number ever received in a public consultation – and the vast majority was overwhelmingly positive. The Friends’ committee has been working closely with the project team to help make the application as effective as possible, stressing not only the national and international significance of the abbey in its heyday, but also the enduring importance of the remains as a major asset to the town today.

If the bid is successful, the project – known as ‘Reading Abbey Revealed’ – will see the ruins stabilised and reopened to the public, the gateway restored and made available for community use, and improved signage and interpretation to guide people into the ruins and, once they are there, to explain the significance of what they seen around them.

We expect to hear HLF’s response during June.

We submitted this letter of support