BUILE HILL MANSIONS FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHTER WITH REMEDIAL REPAIRS SOON TO START AND A MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING SIGNED BY THE COUNCIL AND THE MANSION ASSOCIATION

The restoration and eventual re-opening of Buile Hill parks beloved Georgian Mansion took a major step forward toward yesterday with the joint signing of a memorandum of understanding between Salford City Council and the Buile Hill Mansion Association (BHMA).

The group formed after a huge public backlash against interim proposals put forward by Capital & Centric boss Tim Heatley in 2018, which suggested building a number of homes on land within the Mansion complex depot area as a way of funding renovations of both the Mansion and Park in general.

An online petition posted at the time by local resident Linda Curran, gained thousands of signatures against the plans within just a few days, prompting the idea to eventually be abandoned as the company walked away.

The stately home was built in 1827 as the abode of Sir Thomas Potter, the first Lord Mayor of Manchester, it was eventually purchased by the Council and opened to the public on the 22nd July 1903, the former home being reopened as a natural history museum a few years later in 1906.

The current boundary of the park was formed as a result of the absorption of the former Hart Hill estate in 1938.

The much beloved historic gem would go on to become the home of the Lancashire Mining Museum up until it saw closure to the public in the year 2000, remaining boarded up and mothballed ever since.

However, now thanks to a lot of hard work put into the project by both the Council and the BHMA, along with an election commitment made by the City Mayor to restore it to full use within his second term of office, the future of the Grade II listed Mansion is looking the brightest it has been in decades, with remedial work costing up to £150k already set to start within the coming month.

Paul Dennett, visited the park yesterday (Monday 5th July), meeting with BHMA committee members to put his signature alongside that of the associations chair,  Jenni Smith, on a memorandum of understanding to jointly work on the plans and proposals for the site.

In the meantime, the BHMA has wasted no time by enlisting the skills of respected local horticulturalist Pete Simms who has been working alongside them on exciting plans to bring about the restoration of the sensory garden which lies adjacent to the Mansion, after permission to do so was granted by the Council.

Additionally the council has also earmarked and committed £1.2m to the mansion aiming to work with the BHMA to produce a business plan for both the mansion and depot area, as well as assisting in finding third party funding to support its eventual full restoration and reopening. The eventual cost could be as much as £5m.

Upcoming work will help restore the building so that it does not fall into a further state of disrepair, dealing with rot and making sure that it is structurally sound, with the overall aim being to bring both the mansion and depot area back to life in a way which the community and city to benefit from.

The task will not be easy and there will no doubt be many obstacles to navigate along the way but for once both the council and the people seem to be on the same page regarding the historic building, with the Mayor speaking with real optimism regarding plans for its future.