THE University of Aberdeen’s Elphinstone Institute is backing a community group’s bid to restore an historic staircase known as Jacob’s Ladder.
The Friends of Jacob’s Ladder & Riverside Walk want to restore the steps, which were opened more than 100 years ago to help workers get to Grandholm Mills.
The staircase has been closed due to “structural damage and safety concerns”, with pedestrians instead walking around Don Terrace onto Gordon Mills Road.
The Elphinstone Institute, which promotes the cultures and traditions of the North-East, is documenting the campaign’s efforts.
The wider university has already supported the initiative – which is currently awaiting the results of a feasibility study to determine its next steps – through its local community fund, which helped pay for the steps to be cleaned to assess their condition.
Gary Dawson, secretary of the Friends of Jacob’s Ladder & Riverside Walk, said: “We are a group of local people trying to preserve our heritage and community resources by means of working to have our 101-year-old staircase reopened after their closure some 15 years ago.
“We have widespread support from our host communities of Woodside and Tillydrone but also from further afield.
“The stairs were the main gateway for workers to attend the various mills along the River Don, but now are a gateway to the river and pathways themselves, which offer an escape into beautiful natural spaces on the edge of two areas [that] continue to host some of the highest areas of deprivation in the country.
“While the stairs remain closed, access to and across the river is only available by means of an uneven unwelcoming cobbled road with no footpath.”
Simon Gall, public and community engagement officer for the Elphinstone Institute, added: “Supporting local cultural groups to do their important work is a key part of what we do at the institute, so we’re delighted to be helping the Friends of Jacob’s Ladder to explore what the stairs mean to the local community and bolster their efforts to have them re-opened.
“The project could bring about practical benefits in terms of improving access to and from the river, and impact positively on the sense of local identity through the re-vitalisation of an iconic piece of community heritage.”
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