Win a night at Rivington's Pigeon Tower following multi-million pound restoration project

After decades of being closed to the public the towering centrepiece overlooking Chorley is opening to the public – and you can win a night staying in the newly refurbished focal point.
Pigeon TowerPigeon Tower
Pigeon Tower

An overnight stay at Pigeon Tower at Rivington, near Chorley, is being offered as part of Rivington Terraced Garden’s fresh fund-raising work.

Andrew Suter, heritage projects manager, said: “The odd person has gone in the tower when United Utilities doing work, but the ceiling and the floor were rotten for some time; it’s not been safe for decades.”

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But now the Grade II listed building, which has been closed for more than 30 years, is reopening on Saturday after recently undergoing National Lottery funded restoration work.

Work at Rivington Terraced GardensWork at Rivington Terraced Gardens
Work at Rivington Terraced Gardens

And to mark the landmark day a raffle is being launched in aid of the Rivington Heritage Trust, with the top prize being a night in the revamped tower.

Andrew explained: “It’s been renovated periodically. There’s a wood fire upstairs but it’s very bare and it will be more of a ‘glamping’ opportunity.”

Details surrounding the raffle are still to be decided, including entry fees.

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But Andrew confirmed that all money raised from the raffle will go back in to supporting the Rivington Heritage Trust.

Pigeon TowerPigeon Tower
Pigeon Tower

It comes after the Rivington Terraced Gardens have been the focus of number of regeneration projects in the last year, including creating a new path network and draining the Italian and Japanese Lakes for de-silting and re-lining.

To mark the work on the lakes the Gardens is this weekend hosting its first Festival of Light near the restored Italian Lake to let people see what work has been done so far.

“We’re expecting a few thousand people over the weekend,” Andrew added, “we’re really proud of the work that’s been done.”

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Liam Roache, senior development officer at the Gardens, said: “We’ve the light festival on Friday and Saturday which is sold out; we’ve 800 people coming both days.

“People have been excluded from the Italian Lake area for the last five or six months.

"We wanted to invite people back in to see what work has taken place so far.”

In September last year hundreds of heroic volunteers that tackled the summer’s wildfire were invited to a thank you concert at the Gardens, with everyone from firefighters and mountain rescue teams to members of the public given complementary tickets to the weekend celebration.

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All proceeds from the event were split between the Rivington Heritage Trust; The Salvation Army; Mountain Rescue England and Wales; Woodland Trust; The Fire Fighters Chairty; North West Air Ambulance; and the North West Police Benevolent Fund.

The same weekend this year is set to host another fund-raising concert with details yet to be announced.

For more information on the Pigeon Tower raffle and events follow Rivington Terraced Gardens on its website or on Facebook