Monument Walk Helston

Situated at the northern end of the Lizard Peninsula, Helston is a bustling market town that is probably most famous for the Floral Dance.

With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund, Cory Environmental Trust and Cornwall Heritage Trust the town embarked on a huge restoration project of Grylls Monument and the public realm.

The Grade II* listed Grylls Monument was built in 1834 in honour of Humphry Millet Grylls, a local solicitor who secured the future of the Wheal Vor copper tin mine that employed 1,200 local people.

Grylls Monument sits majestically at the lower end of Coinagehall Street and the entrance to the Helston Bowling Green.

Situated in the heart of the town, Helston Bowling Green has been a Bowling Club for more than 250 years.

We were initially contacted by the Landscape Architects MeiLoci in January 2015, and early 2016, Cormac Solutions Ltd were appointed to oversee the restoration project which included:

• Specialised cleaning and repairs of the Grylls Monument
• Installation of new benches
• Landscaping
• New paving in front of the Monument
• Creating a pathway around the bowling green.

The aim of the project was to not only improve the setting for the Grylls Monument, but to also create better links between this area and the town centre.

SureSet resin bound paving in Barley Beach was installed to the main pedestrian area – the colour Sterling was installed in the remembrance garden, complementing the stone and Sterling Midnight installed to create a feature band within the Barley Beach.

This hugely successful restoration project was completed on time and on budget, with minimal disruption to the public and residents living close-by.

The much improved facilities and environment around Grylls Monument and Monument Walk Helston will provide opportunities and benefits for local people, businesses and visitors to the area.

Before the installation of a Barley Beach resin bound SureSet pathway, the public realm was a patchwork of repaired asphalt with a covering of moss – now it’s a neutral coloured accessible, low maintenance, UV stable surface that will stay looking good for many years to come.

Following the excavation of its troublesome loose gravel and installation of SureSet in Sterling Natural Aggregate, the remembrance garden is now a sophisticated looking, smooth tidy area befitting of those visiting and remembered.