A NATIONAL Lottery grant has come as a welcome boost to a town charity dedicated to restoring Kidderminster's memorial to its war dead.

Members of Kidderminster War Memorial Conservation Trust have welcomed the Awards for All grant, of £5,000, to enable them to complete the second stage of their restoration work to the memorial, which stands next to the Church of St Mary's and All Saints.

Ken Stokes, chairman of the War Memorial Restoration Fund, said the money was one of several grants they had received in recent months.

The Awards for All funding comes on the back of a recent £17,000 grant from Wyre Forest District Council.

Friends of the War Memorial have also raised £5,000 and the trust already has £16,000 in cash from various fund-raising activities.

The war memorial comes in two parts, one forming the Winged Figure of Peace and the other a crescent-shaped stone wall on which a series of panels are inscribed with the names of local men who lost their lives in the First World War.

The restoration of the sculpture, created by Alfred Drury in 1922, was the first phase of the project and a commemoration parade was held to mark the completion of the first phase last year.

The next phase, which looks set to start in the next few months, will see the restoration of the 1,000 letters on the 11 panels on the crescent-shaped wall.

Fund-raising continues, however, and the Air Training Corp - ATC - managed to raise £700 last weekend by bag packing at the Co-op supermarket in Franche. The funds will help to maintain the wall and Winged Figure of Peace.

Mr Stokes, who set up the fund in September, 2002, said: "Obviously, we'd like to set to work on this as soon as possible but we now have to find a tender.

"However, we are hoping to have the whole project complete by the end of this year."