JUDGES arrived at Rivington Terraced Gardens this week to survey the work of hundreds of volunteers in restoring the historic beauty spot.

Volunteers have been helping with clearance and maintenance work for the past five years in order to enable the Rivington Heritage Trust, which runs the site, to qualify for funding to bring it back to its former glory.

Civic Trust Award judges will now decide whether the gardens are worthy of this boost.

Gardens heritage projects manager Andrew Suter said: “We are indebted to our amazing volunteers who have made applying for the awards a reality.

“Eighty-five per cent of the team are local, but we have people coming to help from as far away as Anglesey and Leeds, mainly because they used to live around here.

“We have all ages pitching in, from five to 88, and everything in between. They are brilliant and we can’t thank them enough.”

Securing the funding has become all the more important to Rivington after first the Winter Hill fire of 2018 and then the Covid-19 crisis devastated the trust’s plans.

Fortunately volunteer contributions have helped to rebuild the gardens and have saved around £90,000 on the original contract.

This has allowed the restoration of Rivington’s Great Lawn and Tennis Lawn, which was not part of the original costings, and for a replica sundial to be installed on the Orchestral Lawn, which has now been dedicated to volunteers.

Their efforts will also be hugely important to securing the new round of funding, since the awards expect to see evidence of community involvement the projects its judges consider recognising.

The restoration project has already made it possible for the gardens’ fundraising events programme to re-commence post lockdown.

Such events include the Festival of Light, which returns in October, with organisers an extra night after tickets for the Friday and Saturday events sold out in days.