Lumb Bank: Former home of Poet Laureate Ted Hughes preserved for the future thanks to funding boost

Now, with grant funding by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, its literary heritage and landscapes are set to be unlocked.

The goal is to share Lumb Bank, as a centre of creativity and inspiration, with more people than ever before.

The grant will not only ensure that the building can be conserved, but the preservation of its archive which includes a number of Hughes' handwritten poems.

Teams can build sustainability with solar and heating, they said, and create a "compelling" programme of heritage to uncover "untold stories".

This was a landscape described by Hughes as "heavy with the dream of a people", said Helen Meller, co-director of Lumb Bank and Arvon at Home.

"The support from the National Lottery Heritage fund will allow us to uncover, understand and share this rich heritage with our communities near and far," she said.

"It will allow us to maintain and futureproof this iconic building for generations to come."

Ted Hughes, born in Mytholmroyd in 1930, was raised in the Calder Valley. In 1969, he bought Lumb Bank, later leasing it to the Arvon Foundation which bought it in 1989.

First it was a farmhouse and mill owner's home, evolving through time to be a pony ranch, mink farm and Victorian tea rooms.

Today the estate is home to Arvon's creative writing courses and retreats, having welcomed over 75,000 writers through its doors since 1975.

Now there is a valuable literary archive, featuring those handwritten Hughes' poems, and a collection of portraits of those who have taught here over some 50 years.

Then, surrounded by more than 20 acres of landscape steeped in history and the natural world, there are woodlands and walled gardens.

This was a world that was to inspire Hughes, set close to Sylvia Plath's burial place in Heptonstall and the moors of Haworth and the Brontës.

A Crowdfunder, launched earlier this year to raise £75,000, has also now ended with the redevelopment of the property in its closing stages.

The programme will also include an artist's model of Lumb Bank, a writer-in-residence programme, and a project called Heritage Detectives to explore some of this history.

As this year marks the 50th anniversary of Lumb Bank as an Arvon writing house, celebrating half a century of storytelling, Ms Meller said it's a significant time in its history.

"The anniversary offers a perfect springboard for welcoming thousands more visitors to experience the magic of a place that provides inspiration to everyone who steps through its gates."