Victoria Gardens in Neath, South Wales, is set to benefit from new visitor facilities after the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) awarded £1.39m towards a major renovation of the Grade II-listed park.

A further 10 UK parks - including Forty Hall Park in Enfield, London; Haddo Country Park in Ellon, Aberdeenshire and Cwmdonkin Park, Swansea - have netted first-round passes to draw up detailed proposals for a confirmed funding award. Built in 1897 to provide open space for the town's expanding population, Neath's Victoria Gardens boasts a bandstand and a circle of Gorsedd stones - a set of standing stones constructed for the 1918 National Eisteddfod of Wales.

Forty Hall Park has received £100,000 to help develop its bid for a £1.3m grant towards a conservation and restoration scheme, while Haddo Country Park has been handed initial support worth £93,500 in its bid to secure £993,500 towards a makeover of park. Cwmdonkin Park has received more than £19,000 development funding towards full HLF funding worth £715,600, which will go towards restoring one of the oldest municipal parks in Wales. Cyfarthfa Park in Merthyr Tydfil has been earmarked £1.93m after being handed a first-round pass towards a scheme to repair and restore the parkland.

Walpole Park in Ealing, London; Victoria Park, St Helens; Grosvenor Park, Chester; East Park in Wolverhampton; Tullycarnet Park, Belfast and Dalmuir Park in Clydebank are also among the parks to receive initial support towards full grants. HLF chair Dame Jenny Abramsky said: "The Heritage Lottery Fund has a track record of providing much-needed support for public parks across the UK. Without it, many of them would revert back to how they were 20 years ago - run-down, neglected and often unsafe."

Image: Haddo Country Park, Ellon