THERE is renewed hopes for a landmark building to reopen following months of closure after undergoing important maintenance work.

The 170-year-old Sir John Barrow monument in Ulverston is being repaired and repainted this week after months of closure as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Grade II-building underwent a £1.2m renovation in 2009 including a series of structural improvements, mainly to make it water-tight.

A spokeswoman for Ulverston Town Council revealed that the distinctive monument will undergo a week's worth of repairs across the next few days, with hopes it will reopen to the public this September.

She said: "The work is scheduled maintenance on the monument which is a Grade II-listed building.

"It is being painted on the outside and small repairs to the render being fixed.

"The work will take a week. After this, painting will take place internally. The monument has been closed all year because of Covid. We hope, but it is not finally agreed, that we will open it during September."

The Hoad Monument was completed in 1850 to celebrate the lifetime of achievements by Ulverston-born Sir John Barrow – explorer, author, naval pioneer and Britain’s first long-term civil servant.

The 100ft high lighthouse-style building stands on Hoad Hill and overlooks Ulverston.

The monument has survived a lightning strike in 1851, a fire in 1900 and an earth tremor in 2009. In 2000, Ulverstonians came together to celebrate the 150-year anniversary of the monument's construction.

The Mail, on Monday, May 15 in 2000, noted: “Ulverston stepped back in time on Saturday when a naval re-enactment group dressed as 18th-century Royal Naval officers, sailors and marines dropped anchor in the town’s Market Place.

“They manned a replica sailing ship erected by the market cross which was the centrepiece for the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Hoad Monument."