The project aims to preserve, restore and celebrate an outstanding ‘Capability’ Brown park, which includes a rare, Brown-designed and Grade I listed chapel.

Development funding of £179,656 has also been awarded to help Compton Verney to progress its plans to apply for a full grant at a later date.

This project seeks to restore this outstanding landscape and enliven it with eyecatchers and activities which highlight the site’s history of innovative thinking, art, architectural change and ecological diversity. The project will: 

• restore the ‘Capability’ Brown Chapel of 1776-9 as a venue for music and events
• build a new Interpretation Centre to provide materials about the site’s landscape, history and ecology as well as much-needed visitor facilities
• expand learning, engagement and volunteering opportunities
• secure and develop the biodiversity of the parkland and recreate original Georgian pathways so visitors can view forest, wetland and meadow habitats while enjoying Brown’s original sightlines
• create two visionary eyecatchers and a contemporary bridge in the landscape, drawing attention to the history of the site in refreshing new ways
• use Brown’s landscape as a platform to bring together a range of interests – art, architecture, landscape design, music, history, exercise and ecology – which will enable us engage with new audiences in totally new ways

Dr Steven Parissien, Director of Compton Verney, said: "We're delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund has given us this support. Compton Verney has enriched the regional cultural landscape for the past nine years, and this grant will enable us to fully exploit and harness the astonishing potential of our historic context, thus benefiting both the local community and visitors from further afield."
 
Reyahn King, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund West Midlands, said: "With the centenary of Capability Brown’'s birth approaching in 2016 this project to conserve and protect the historic North Park at Compton Verney could not be more timely. This investment, which will conserve and protect a rare Grade I listed chapel designed by Brown himself and its surrounding parkland will complement the recently restored Ice House making this a marvellous heritage asset for future generations to learn from and enjoy. We are very pleased to be supporting this project and look forward to working closely with the Trust as they progress their plans further."

Notes to Editors 
 
Compton Verney has won a first-round pass, which means that the project meets the HLF criteria for funding and that the HLF believes the project has the potential to deliver high-quality benefits and value for money. The application was in competition with other supportable projects, so a first-round pass is an endorsement of outline proposals. Having been awarded a first-round pass, Compton Verney now has up to two years to submit fully-developed proposals to compete for a firm award. On occasion, an applicant with a first-round pass will also be awarded development funding towards the development of their scheme.
 
About Compton Verney
Compton Verney is an award-winning art gallery set in a Georgian mansion surrounded by 120 acres of Capability Brown landscape. It is an independent art gallery and registered charity which receives no central or local government funding but which is sustained through admissions income, memberships, sales from the shop and café, hire and sponsorship income, donations, legacies, endowment income and in-kind support.

Further information

For press information contact Sam Skillings, Head of Marketing at Compton Verney on 01926  645 541, email: sam.skillings@comptonverney.org.uk.

Contact Vicky Wilford, HLF Press Office, on 020 7591 6046.