Over 100 guests were invited to Lincoln Castle on Thursday 13th June to witness the opening of the South Curtain Wall Walk. The conservation project is to conserve and consolidate the walls and install a new walkway system that will eventually provide an exiting tourist attraction. The south curtain wall (phase one of the project) is part of the wider £19.9m Lincoln Castle Revealed project, part funded by Heritage Lottery Fund, European Regional Development Fund and Lincolnshire County Council. The Lincoln Castle Revealed project is due to complete by 2015 in time to celebrate the 800th anniversary of Magna Carta.
Mary Powell, Tourism Development Manager at Lincolnshire County Council, said: “This is very exciting, as we never had access to this side of the wall before. After the 1,000 Years of Traditional Crafts event we’ll be doing guided tours only, as it is a very constrained site with all the work here, and we want visitors to be safe.”
Richard Carlton, the Site Manager from Robert Woodhead Limited, said: “This was phase one of the project. We brought back Lucy Tower to its former glory, all the stone work has been replaced. There will also be a lift shaft near the East Gate, built out of Corten steel. The lift shaft is a nine-metre tower with a spiral staircase and there will also be a walkway overlooking the Cathedral.”
The Castle Walls Project will see Woodhead Heritage on site until 2014 conserving the walls. There has been up to 23 local stone masons working on the project at its peak. The masons hand prepare each stone which takes approximately 2 hours. So far the project has used 260 tonnes of Stone from Lincolnshire Cathedral Quarry.