Park facelift takes shape

The work is to restore the park to how it once looked

Work to restore a Victorian park - considered to be one of the most important park sites in the UK - to its former glory is nearing the end of its first phase as part of a £2m programme.

Belle Vue Park in Newport was the only public park to be designed by landscape architect Thomas Mawson.

But nearly 110 years after it first opened at a cost of £19,500, work was urgently needed to restore the 26-acre park because of general deterioration and vandalism.

The Heritage Lottery Fund agreed to provide a grant of £1.5m towards the cost of the restoration and Newport Council has provided a further £652,000 for the work to be carried out.

The first phase of the five-year project has almost been completed with fences, paths and walls being redone and repaving work on the terrace area around the bandstand.

Repaving work in the area around the bandstand has nearly finished

The council plans to erect a new bandstand on the site of the old one, and renovation work will be carried out on the pavilion building as an exhibition and activity space for local people to use.

Toilets and a refreshment area will also be incorporated into the plans, which will see the conservatory area being reinstated.

John Wood, the council's Park Development Manager said: "It is going to make a huge difference to the people of Newport who use this park.

"We hope that the terrace and bandstand will be able to be used for outdoor events.

"We have got a lot of work to do - the pavilion needs a lot of work.

"Because it is a listed building we are going to restore the outside of it back to how it was and do work on the interior to bring it up to date," he said.

The Pavilion will be restored back to its former glory

The listed park was laid out on land gifted to the people of Newport by Lord Tredegar in 1891.

Its designer, Thomas Mawson - one of the most prolific British garden designers of his day - won an open competition to design and construct the park a year later - finally opening it in 1894.

The council's aims are to return the park to an appearance more in keeping with Mawson's original ideas.

This will mean that a number of trees which were planted in recent years in front of the pavilion and terrace area will be felled in order to recreate the views of the Severn Estuary.