Campaigners launch website to raise £20,000 for temple carvings

Campaigners hoping to install a salvaged temple archway in land adjacent to Mill Road have launched a fundraising website with a target of £20,000.

The stone carvings were saved from the former Hindu temple on Mill Road which was in the Old Library building.

Hairdresser Piero D’Angelico, as part of Mill Road Traders, bought the stones from the county council for £1 and has made it his mission to donate them to a public area in Mill Road. He is now more confident than ever that this can be achieved.

Piero said: “We’ve launched the website to inform people exactly where we are with the project and to give them an idea of how the stones could look when they are installed. I’m hoping this will attract more support as we now need to raise about £20,000.

“We need to comply with strict safety standards as the archway will be outdoors. It can’t be rebuilt in exactly the same way as it was inside the temple where it was supported by the walls and from above. This is why we have decided it would work best in a rectangular shape with a pillar at each corner rather than them being displayed in a long line.

The money we raise will pay for an architect and a structural engineer as well as digging the footings and installing a flooring that matches the stones. It is six and a half tons of stone so they will need proper foundations.”

The next step will be a presentation to the East Area committee in December in which the project will be explained to the public.

Mill Road Traders bought the former temple carving, believed to be worth £500,000, after learning it was set to be demolished when the county council refurbished the site of the former Hindu temple at the old library on Mill Road.

Since then, traders’ spokesperson Piero D’Angelico has been campaigning to have the archway erected on land owned by the city council at Ditchburn Place on Mill Road for the benefit of the community.

Councillor Mike Davey who has been involved in the project said they had looked at several possible places along Mill Road for the carvings.

He added: “It is looking very positive. We are just completing consultation with local residents about possible locations for the stones.”

He agreed that if all consultations run smoothly and funding is in place the installation could happen in spring next year.

Visit .cambridgegatewayfromindia.co.uk/ to find out more or donate.