A scheme to restore Victorian gardens at a former Staffordshire estate has won a £248,400 Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant.

A walled kitchen garden and gardener’s cottage is all that is left of the Elford Hall estate near Lichfield.

The hall, garden and outbuildings were given to Birmingham City Council by the squire in 1936 as a gift to the people of Birmingham. After falling into disrepair the hall was demolished in the 1960s and now the remaining garden wall and associated outbuildings are grade two listed.

The walled garden has been largely neglected for the past 50 years.

Elford Hall Gardens Management Committee is a voluntary community organisation aiming to restore the site and wants people in the area to get involved in the work and to cultivate allotments there.

HLF West Midlands head Anne Jenkins said: “The community has come together in support of this project to conserve an historic walled garden that will be brought back to productive use after so many years of neglect.

“Volunteers will be able to gain new skills and schoolchildren learn about nature, local heritage and the environment.”

The project to restore the walled garden is part of a larger initiative that will see the former head gardener’s cottage restored to provide space for a coffee shop, toilets and a classroom.

There will be educational activities linked to local schools that have already expressed interest in using the garden for visits.

The Victorian gardens, herbaceous borders and orchard will be re-created.

A bowling green and tennis courts will also be constructed within the garden walls, original structures and pathways restored, and routes made accessible to picnicking areas along the adjacent River Tame.

Dave Watton of Elford Hall Gardens Management Committee said: “We are all delighted to receive such substantial backing from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will enable us to deliver this exciting project to maintain an element of Elford’s rural heritage for the benefit of many people in the years to come.”