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30 - The Earl of Dudley votes UP
Archived news release from 2007 Lord and Lady Dudley today described the Black Country £50 million bid as a ‘wonderful opportunity to bring the caverns back to life’. Lord Dudley, who recalled going into the Singing Cavern on a narrowboat, said: ”This really is a wonderful opportunity to bring back to life the legacy of my ancestors. My wife and I will certainly vote for the Black Country and would encourage others to do the same.” Lord Dudley’s ancestors were responsible for creating the amazing caverns under the town, which will be reopened if the Black Country wins. William Humble David Ward, Earl of Dudley, who now lives in London, said he remembered when the Seven Sisters mines were open to the public. And he urged people to vote for the Black Country bid to ensure the historic landmark could once again be open for people to enjoy. The project Black Country Urban Park is one of four across the country short listed for a national television and website vote in The Big Lottery Fund's: The People's £50million Contest. Black Country Urban Park includes four key elements – reopening the cathedral-sized caverns beneath Dudley; a 12-mile ‘green bridge’ park linking Walsall and West Bromwich town centres; breathe new life into Wolverhampton’s canal network; provide improved access to green places, including Cotwall End Valley, Saltwells and Buckpool, Fens Pools and Barrow Hill, in an unparalleled programme of community involvement. In Dudley it would mean breathing new life into the legacy left by the Ward family. William Humble Ward, 11th Baron Ward of Birmingham, Viscount Ednam and Earl of Dudley (1817-1888) made his fortune from the lime quarried at Wren’s Nest. He was born at Bury St. Edmunds in Suffolk in 1817, the son of William Humble Ward, 10th Baron Birmingham and Susanna Beecroft. He succeeded his father and increased the mining of limestone at Wren’s Nest during the 19th century, creating many of the caverns that we want to preserve today. The partners in the Black Country bid are the Consortium, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell Councils and The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country. If successful in the vote, the £50 million of Lottery funding will support the first five to ten years of up to 30 years of Urban Park activity. It will involve 300,000 children and 3,000 local groups in transforming their environment, provide 60,000 volunteer opportunities, deliver 500 local projects and open up 3,700 acres of green space – as well as save one of the world’s most important geological features, the limestone caverns at Wren’s Nest. |
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