NOW YOU CAN ADOPT A VIRTUAL STONE TO RAISE MONEY FOR HADRIAN's WALL

NOW you can adopt a cyber-stone as part of a fund-raising effort to maintain Hadrian's Wall.

Individual and corporate sponsors are invited to attach their names to a stone, not on Hadrian’s Wall itself but on a virtual realisation of it on the website http://adoptastone.co.uk/.

Volunteers are also being sought for a Wall Watch scheme aimed at keeping the World Heritage Site and adjoining Hadrian’s Wall Path, one of the country’s network of National Trails, in good condition.

Linda Tuttiett, chief executive of the trust which was set up in 2006 to oversee the management of the historic site, said the measures were to stave off what could be a serious situation for Hadrian’s Wall. 

She said the World Heritage Site lost more than £1m a year when the regional development agencies, including One North East, were wound up and was set to lose 40% of its funding from Natural England for the popular path which costs £200,000 a year to maintain.

While local authorities along the wall had responded to a call for extra funding, she feared their budgets would be further squeezed.

Ms Tuttiett said the trust’s full-time staff had been reduced from 21 to 10, meaning it was increasingly difficult to maintain the quality of the trail on whose popularity the wall and many small businesses depend.