Almost £1m to be spent on repairing historic Somerset site

The factory operated from 1790 until the 1980s

Almost £1m will be spent on repairing a set of historic buildings amid hopes the site could then be regenerated.

The Tone Works complex, located off the B3187 Milverton Road in Wellington, forms part of a £20m bid to the government's levelling-up fund.

Somerset West and Taunton Council was given £207,596 from the government for a third phase of repairs which need to be completed by the spring.

It follows two previous grants that totalled £748,420.

The complex includes the Tonedale Mills, which produced textiles from 1790 until it closed in the 1980s.

Councillor Mike Rigby said the grant would "provide the means to pay for the further regeneration of a historically important asset without the need for any internal funding".

The council will spend almost £1m repairing the site

Regeneration will ensure the buildings can be re-purposed if the funding bid to central government is successful, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

Of the £207,596 being provided for phase three, £185,596 comes from central government via Historic England.

The remaining £22,000 will be sourced from the new homes bonus, which is paid to local authorities by central government as a reward for delivering a certain number of new homes within a given time-frame.

The funding must be spent in its entirety by 15 March - shortly before the council is dissolved and replaced by the new unitary Somerset Council.

The last bid for levelling-up funding was unsuccessful

Tonedale Mill was the subject of an unsuccessful bid in the first round of the levelling-up fund, which it submitted in June 2021.

The council has released few details of its current levelling-up fund bid, but said in June it involved "the restoration of Wellington's heritage and cultural assets".

The outcome is expected to be announced before the end of the year.

The council has also submitted a £5m bid to the government's cultural development fund for the Creative Tonedale programme.

Since February, it has also been making repairs to Tonedale Mill - which is located on the site - after part of it collapsed before further damage was caused by Storm Eunice.

It came after the mill's owners - Mancraft Ltd - ignored an Urgent Works Notice to protect the Grade-II listed site at the beginning of the year, LDRS reported.

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