A charity which hopes to restore a beloved building within a well known park has received a cash boost which will help them get to the next stage of their plans.

Banana Enterprise Network, a charity which works across Bolton and Salford, has been handed £9,999 funding from The National Lottery Awards for All programme for their ‘Rock Hall – Saving Farnworth’s Paper Making Heritage’ project.

The money awarded will fund a six month project starting from January 2022 to provide more free activities for families at Rock Hall, Moses Gate Country Park.

Speaking of the funding, Jayne Allman, the charity’s CEO, said she feels ecstatic and luck is on their side.

She said: "I feel ecstatic every time we get good news. We are doing very well at the moment.

"This year we have written three bids and managed to get two bids back so that's great.

"We are so grateful for this funding as it will enable us to keep the momentum going for our bigger project, saving Rock Hall, and help to plug a funding gap until we can apply for the next substantial funding from the Heritage Lottery."

The activities in Moses Gate Country Park will include forest school sessions for adults and children with Colin from Forest Horizons, bushcraft and archery delivered by Wolfpack Adventures, heritage Walks (Canal heritage and Rock Hall Heritage) and nature sessions with Bolton Conservation Volunteers including planting a community tree, wildflower planting etc and lastly, there will be themed quiz trails and children's puppet shows.

"It's giving people life experiences again after Covid-19 and the chance to do activities that they may not have done before," says Jayne.

"It also helps us to shape our future bids for bigger projects saving Rock Hall."

The hall was previously used as a visitor centre for the country park up until 2014.

Since that date the hall has remained closed and unoccupied but hopes are further funding in the future will allow the building to reopen.