WORK will start next month on returning Sandiway’s historic Round Tower to its original roadside site.

Latest pictures from conservation specialists Grosvenor Construction Company show the former gate lodge to Vale Royal Abbey is almost half rebuilt.

Built by Thomas Cholmondeley, later Baron Delamere, in the first decade of the 19th century, the Round Tower was marooned by the construction of the A556 in the late 1930s.

It was dismantled in 2013 after being hit by a car – but when the landmark resumes its place alongside the A556, it will look as fresh as when it was built.

Rory Moore, director of Kinmel Bay-based Grosvenor, said: “Much of the stone was damaged on impact with the car and we were faced with the prospect of a patchwork effect if used new stone with the old.

“We decided to re-work the stone to give it a new and consistent face.

“It has taken us more time to do this but we have managed to salvage much more of the original fabric of the Round Tower than we originally thought was possible.”

Craftsmen have been painstakingly reconstructing the gothic lodge in North Wales and more than 450 blocks weighing around 15 tonnes will be used when the landmark takes its place again in Sandiway.

Guided by details of the original, discovered by Cheshire archivists, they will have completed each course before transporting it back to Cheshire in numbered blocks to begin phase two of the project.

The craftsmen have worked on conservation projects including a Welsh Long House for a BBC TV series, Denbigh and Rhuddlan Castle, Chester’s Roman Walls and Towers and the city’s 12th century St John’s Church.

Rory added: “We may well have worked on larger projects but I don’t think any of them have created more interest.”

Cllr Charles Fifield said: “We have attempted to keep residents informed at each stage of the project and I am very pleased that these pictures show that it won’t be long before it is part of our local landscape again.”