Peter Pan creator's childhood home gets lottery cash boost

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) has announced funding worth 4.8million to different projects around the country.

Among the beneficiaries is a scheme to restore Moat Brae House in Dumfries, where Peter Pan creator JM Barrie played out pirate and castaway adventures in its 'Neverland' gardens.

In Barrie's words on the creation of his most famous story, his 'escapades in a certain Dumfries garden which is enchanted land to me, were certainly the genesis of that nefarious work'.

With the help of a 1.78million grant from HLF, an ambitious project will transform the house and its gardens into Scotland's first centre for children's literature and storytelling promoting creativity, imagination and play.

Actress Joanna Lumley, patron of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust, welcomed the funding boost, saying: "This grant will make a sensational difference to Moat Brae and the plans for the future of the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust.

"It means that we can now move swiftly towards our goals of restoring the house and garden in readiness for its role in the literary life of children in Scotland.

"Our aims are to nurture the memories of past writers and to encourage the emergence of new young talent: to respect our extraordinary literary inheritance and to enable children's imaginations to fly, like Peter Pan. What a thrilling piece of good news. "

The funding will also pay for the restoration of Campbeltown Picture House, one of the first purpose-built cinemas in Scotland.

A grant of 1.1million has been earmarked to repair its Glasgow School Art Nouveau design and add new contemporary facilities, including a second auditorium and a new caf bar.

From its origins in the silent movie days in 1913 through to the modern day and digital technologies the Picture House has provided an invaluable service to Campbeltown and Kintyre cinemagoers.

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Peter Pan creator's childhood home gets lottery cash boost