5:26pm Tuesday 18th March 2008
By Duncan Eaton
AN historic Hampshire landmark has scooped £2m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The way is now clear for a £3.5m makeover for the Royal Armouries at Fort Nelson, Fareham, one of the nation's top heritage attractions.
After months of intense work, the Royal Armouries announced today their success in being granted a £1,988,000 grant from HLF, to be added to £1.5m of required matched funding, of which £750,000 has already been secured.
The windfall will be used to transform the historic site, which overlooks Portsmouth Harbour and the Meon Valley, by completely redeveloping the free heritage attraction.
It will help bring to life the true stories and history behind the Victorian fort, the people who helped build it and the national collection of great guns and historic cannon.
New and better equipped visitor facilities will allow even more people to enjoy the successful attraction and its historic collection, which has already seen visitor numbers more than double between 2000 and 2005.
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