Clun Castle hit by £126,000 winter repair bill

English Heritage chiefs are having to spend an extra £126,000 redoing work to damaged masonry at the remains of an historic south Shropshire castle, it has been revealed.

Work to apply more lime mortar to the tower at Clun Castle, which dates back to the 13th century, was due to start either today or tomorrow.

It was completed before Christmas, only for freezing weather conditions in December and January to cause the mortar to crumble.

About £150,000 has already been spent on the preservation project, with the additional investment almost doubling the original budget for the scheme.

It is hoped the work will take about a week-and-a-half and once an inspection is carried out contractors will spend three weeks taking down scaffolding.

The castle has been shrouded in scaffolding for almost three years while work to repair stonework at the castle has taken place.

Renee Fok, communications officer for English Heritage, said: "We have agreed with contractors that more repair work of the masonry is needed on the strong tower.

"This will start today or tomorrow and is expected to last for a week-and-a-half.

"We will then inspect the work and if it is okay the scaffolding will come down. That will take three weeks.

"The cost of doing this work again is about £126,000. We realised the masonry definitely needs more work and lime mortar does not perform well in extremely cold weather conditions," she said.