MAJOR grant funding has now been secured to allow two exciting projects to go ahead at Alford Manor House.

The first project will enable Alford and District Civic Trust Ltd, which manages the manor house site, to restore the walled garden at the rear of the building.

Funding totalling £130,000 has been awarded from a range of sources which include the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), Heritage Lottery Funding from the Your Heritage award scheme, Lincolnshire County Council and Lincolnshire Gardens Trust, plus funds from the Civic Trust themselves.

The restoration will include archaeological research which will be both desk based and geophysical, extensive garden wall and cobbled courtyard restoration and a major redesign and implementation of the rear garden. This will include an apothecary's herb garden, secret garden, heritage fruit and vegetable beds and all-weather pathways to improve access around the garden for all.

A major activity programme attached to the project is also due to be announced shortly and the restoration should be completed towards the end of 2010.

A second amount of grant funding comes from Grants for the Arts, the Museum, Libraries, Archives (MLA) and Renaissance partners and The National Trust who have granted £20,000 to the trust as part of the Museumaker2 project.

Museumaker2 is a groundbreaking programme that supports new partnerships between museums and the contemporary craft sector and the project will result in commissioning a piece of work which will be sited within the restored walled garden.

Alford Manor House is the only Lincolnshire museum and one of just 16 museums within the whole of the UK to receive the grant funding.

House manager Sara Blair-Manning said: "We are absolutely thrilled to have received this funding. Grant funding is quite competitive and so we are delighted that the application has been successful.

"We also have further plans to extend the Hackett Barn to make a great facility which will seat around 250 people and will become a community space allowing us to put on more local cinema, music and drama."

These two projects along with the Hackett Barn plans are part of the next phase of the forward plans which will see the whole Manor House site finished by 2014.