THE Heritage Lottery Fund has toured one of Suffolk's most famous attractions to decide if it should be given hundreds of thousands of pounds.Representatives of the fund inspected Woodbridge's Tide Mill yesterday for two-and-a-half hours and they will make a decision next year on an application for funding towards a scheme which could cost up to £1million.

THE Heritage Lottery Fund has toured one of Suffolk's most famous attractions to decide if it should be given hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Representatives of the fund inspected Woodbridge's Tide Mill yesterday for two-and-a-half hours and they will make a decision next year on an application for funding towards a scheme which could cost up to £1million.

The fund can give up to 90 per cent of the cost - but the remaining ten pc would have to be raised from the public.

The trustees have launched an appeal to make the Tide Mill work again and grind corn but the full cost of the restoration will not be known until the New Year.

They believe that the number of tourists to the attraction by the River Deben could double to 24,000 a year and lead to an economic spin-off for the town.

Fred Reynolds, project administrator for the Tide Mill Trust, said: “Since the original rescue from dereliction in the 1970s, the famous Tide Mill has become the very symbol of Woodbridge attracting thousands of visitors, young and old, local and world-wide.

“Apart from new attractions like grinding corn and much improved access, the mill will not survive a fraction of the next 30 years without some of the works now planned.”