1:42pm Wednesday 17th March 2010
By Michael Purton
A HISTORIC family tomb restored from ruins has won a prestigious design award.
Darnley Mausoleum in Cobham Wood was named project of the year at Kent County Council’s (KCC) annual Kent Design Awards in Tonbridge last night(March 16).
It was restored by a team of experts organised by Gravesham Council, which owns the Grade I listed building, using a £2m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The mausoleum was built in 1783 and a series of catastrophes over centuries had left it derelict and damaged.
Gravesham Council bought the mausoleum and commissioned the Cobham Ashenbank Management Scheme (CAMS), which oversees Cobham Wood, to repair the building.
After receiving the awards, a council spokeswoman said: “The Darnley Mausoleum is a wonderful part of Gravesham’s heritage.
“I am delighted to see people outside the borough and the project also appreciate the restoration of the building.”
Seven other design schemes were nominated for project of the year, but it was the team behind the mausoleum that collected the award from BBC news presenter Geoff Clark.
The judges praised the “high level in craftsmanship and organisation in order to bring the mausoleum back to life”.
Built at the bequest of John Bligh, the 3rd Earl of Darnley, the pyramid-shaped building was originally intended to be a final resting place for him and his descendants.
However financial difficulties resulted in the Earl of Darnley giving the hall and its grounds to the government.
It was then sold to a private developer who went bust, so it ended up in the hands of the official receiver, and suffered decades of vandalism.
In November 1980 a gang filled the crypt with tyres and cans of petrol and set them alight, causing an explosion which brought down the roof and the chapel floor.
President of the Gravesham Historical Society, Christoph Bull, says the restoration of the mausoleum “warms the cockles of any local historian’s heart”.
For details of opening times of the mausoleum, call CAMS on 01474 337530 or email info@cobhampark.org.uk
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