Brackenhill Tower in Carlisle will share in Lottery cash

Carlisle's Brackenhill Tower is to share in a �6m Lottery grant.

The 16th Century Scottish borderland peel tower, will get a cash boost of �50,000, which will be used to appoint a project manager.

However, the crumbling structure still needs �3m to fully restore it.

The Heritage Lottery Fund says the cash will be shared between Brackenhill Tower, Greyfriars Tower, in King's Lynn, Norfolk and Darnley Mausoleum, in Gravesend, Kent.

Broadcaster and journalist Martin Bell, who tried to persuade viewers to save Brackenhill, said: "I am delighted. I firmly believe the Tower should have been the winner of BBC Two's Restoration series, but we can go forward from here, and hope it will be restored to its glory."

Border reivers

Griff Rhys Jones, who presented Restoration, said: "Everyone involved in Restoration is delighted that three of the most striking and enchanting buildings featured in the series have taken this vital step on the road towards restoration."

Brackenhill Tower was home to the Graham clan when they first arrived in the border area.

The Grahams were banished from Scotland around 1516 due to their various misdemeanours.

They were mercenaries who earned their living on the battlefield.

Brackenhill became the most southerly outpost of the "border reivers" - outlaws operating on the outskirts of land patrolled by the monarch's men.

A recent report from English Heritage said hundreds of historic buildings in the north-east of England and Cumbria were under threat.

The organisation says those at risk range from a 1920s chemical silo in Billingham and lime kilns at South Shields, to a greenhouse with a potting shed in County Durham and Britain's first ever bird research station in Northumberland.