Summer ball raises more than £4,000 for restoration of Boultham Park

A fundraising black-tie ball helped to raise more than £4,000 to support restoration work at Boultham Park in Lincoln.

County housebuilder Chestnut Homes hosted the summer ball in the grounds of Jocastas, off Moor Lane in Thorpe-on-the-Hill, on Friday 23^rd June.

Around 200 guests at the event enjoyed a three-course meal and helped to raise funds for the park project's Capital Appeal through a charity auction and raffle.

Guests included Valerie Waby, Chief Executive for the Linkage Trust, who spoke to guests about the charity and improvements to the 50-acre park, which includes a new café, education centre and horticultural glasshouse, where training, work experience and employment opportunities will be provided for young people with learning disabilities through the trust.

David Newton, Managing Director for Chestnut Homes, said: “It was great to see so many people at our inaugural summer ball. It was an enjoyable evening, and our guests were all very generous in their support for this very worthy cause. “Boultham Park is a lovely space and a real asset for the community, and as soon as we heard about the plans, we were very keen to support the project in any way we could. “More than £4,000 was raised from ticket sales, the charity auction and the fundraising raffle, which is a fantastic figure to achieve. We’d like to thank everyone who donated a prize and all of our guests for their generosity and support. We now hope to make this an annual event in the calendar.”

Linkage is working in partnership with the City of Lincoln Council on the multi-million pound Boultham Park Restoration Project. Works started in September 2016 and are anticipated to take approximately a year to complete.In addition to the new Linkage facilities, the works include the restoration of the fountain garden, bandstand and sundial, as well as new seating, lighting and CCTV.  The project will cost £4 million to complete and grant aid received from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund Parks for People initiative amounts to £2.7 million.

The remainder is being raised through investment by both the City of Lincoln Council and Linkage, plus funds raised by the Boultham Park Capital Appeal.  The project has already achieved over half of its match fund target of £250,000.

To find out more about the plans for the park’s restoration, visit www.boulthampark.co.uk.