I AM writing on behalf of the Warrington Borough Council Ranger Service and the Bewsey Old Hall Conservation Project Team, who jointly organised the Civil War Re-enactment event at Sankey Valley Park on August 8-9.

We would like to thank the people of Warrington for the tremendous support which made the event such a great success. Over the two days, an estimated 7,000 people attended and over the past week we have been overwhelmed with letters and telephone calls from people saying how much they enjoyed the proceedings.

As you reported in the GUARDIAN, the event was centred on the re-enactment of the Battle of Winwick in 1648 between King Charles I's Royalists and Cromwell's Parliamentarians.

The very life-like hostilities were performed by the English Civil War Society and it appears that they enjoyed the event just as much as the people they entertained.

Humour and comedy from the 17th century was performed by the Gobbi Theatre Company and the entertainment was concluded by a Falconry Display by Cheshire Waterlife, showing the skills and grace of their birds of prey.

The event gave the members of Bewsey Old Hall Conservation Project an ideal opportunity to explain to visitors the tremendous history associated with Bewsey Old Hall and the efforts of the project team to secure its future.

We were greatly encouraged by the help and support we received from Warrington Borough Council, the Sankey Valley Rangers, the Commission for New Towns and a number of local businesses, without whom we could not have staged the event.

The disappointment of the rejection of our first submission for funding to the Heritage Lottery Fund is now well behind us and we are well advanced in developing an alternative submission to the HLF.

This event once again shows the level of interest there is for the preservation of a precious local historical asset and provides us, the project members, with all the encouragement we need to pursue our objective to secure the future of Bewsey Old Hall.

Once again, thank you to everyone involved.

T.J. ENNIS

Chairman of the Management Committee

BOHCPP

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