WORK to restore a historic granite gatehouse at a Teignbridge county park has begun.

The gatehouse at Stover Country Park, which is grade II listed, was added to the estate in the early 1800s when the Templer family sold up to Edward Adolphus Seymour, the eleventh Duke of Somerset.

The restoration work, which is to be carried out by Project Management & Buildings Etc, is a part of the wider ‘Restoring Stover Park Project’.

Once work to the gatehouse is completed, it is to re-open for public events.

Made possible thanks to National Lottery Heritage funding (NLHF), the Restoring Stover Park Project aims to to make the park more resilient while enhancing its heritage and environment.

Also, the team at Stover are looking to source photos and stories about the gatehouse as a means of brining the structure to life; Newton Abbot Town & GWR Museum volunteers have been conducting research into the history of the gatehouse, for example.

‘We would love to hear from you’ a spokesperson for the park said.

Though primarily funded by the NLHF, several other organisations made contributions to bring the project to life.

These include: National Highways; Devon County Council; Devon Remembers; Bovey Tracey Town Council; Kingsteignton Town Council and the Friends Of Stover Park.

Stover Country Park was designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest in 1984 by the Nature Conservancy Council due to its rare dragonfly species and invertebrates.

And it was added to the register of Historic Parks and Gardens in 1995, and declared a Local Nature Reserve in 2001.