£50,000 boost to Roman Fort Project in north Wales
- Published
The planned settlement includes a 1st Century fort and village
Enthusiasts have won a £50,000 prize to help fund a reconstruction of a Roman fort and settlement to teach children about history.
Paul Harston, of Caergwrle, Flintshire, runs a company giving Roman tours to thousands of children each year around Chester.
His Roman Fort Project is now looking for land in Flintshire or Cheshire.
He said:"The money will go a long way but we will have to be thrifty with it."
The not-for-profit project has been years in the planning.
Education centre
The idea is to find a plot of land to build a Roman fort as a replica of one that would have been built in the 1st Century - made of earth and wood and surrounded by a ditch.
The plan is to use original techniques using labour from other enthusiasts, organisations and businesses interested in the project.
Mr Harston also wants to see a Roman settlement created next to the fort, complete with fields of crops being managed as they would have grown in Roman times.
"The money will enable us to reconstruct a Roman fort to use as an education centre to teach Roman history and archaeology to school children across the country," he said.
The Roman Fort Project was the in a Barclays competition, Take One small Step, to help small businesses.
Barclays said over 5,000 businesses registered to take part and they were whittled down to a shortlist of 27 ideas across nine UK regions by a regional panel of three judges.
The public then voted for their favourite online.
Mr Harston said he is in talks with a landowner over a possible site.