WESTCOUNTRY charity the South West Lakes Trust, is celebrating this week after securing £378,900 from the Heritage Lottery Fund for its Burrator Historic and Natural Environment project.

The trust, thanks to HLF and in partnership with South West Water, says it will now be able to 'unlock the potential of the lake and surrounding natural environment' by working to preserve the historic features and opening up this fascinating landscape to more people.

Burrator Reservoir is the backdrop to a wide range of historic buildings and features – including 12 scheduled ancient monuments.

Dating from 2,500BC to the late 19th century, these include remnants of an 800-year-old tin mine, and the greatest concentration of moorland stone hut circles to be found in Western Europe.

The three-year project will:-

l preserve and convert a redundant 100-year-old iron store into a discovery and learning centre with a classroom, interpretation centre and offices

l preserve two important historical ruins — Lowery Barn and Longstone Manor

l provide wide ranging learning and volunteering opportunities, including a Forest School and Family Wildlife Watch group

l provide for innovative interpretation both on site and via online media

l employ a heritage learning officer to deliver the project aims and objectives.

During the development phase the trust also submitted successful funding applications to Biffa Award, Dartmoor Sustainable Development Fund and West Devon Borough Council and has been awarded, £15,963 and £500 respectively.

Evelyn Stacey, director of South West Lakes Trust, said: 'This is wonderful news and provides a great opportunity for us to protect some important historical features for future generations.

'Burrator is here for everyone to enjoy and people are keen to have better information on their heritage, which is a keystone of the project.'