GRANTS totalling £500,000 have been secured to help turn a wartime landmark into a tourist attraction.

The money will be spent on facilities for tourists at the Heugh Gun Battery on Hartlepool's Headland.

Heugh Battery, established in the 1850s and closed in 1956, had its finest hour on December 16, 1914, when it returned fire during the bombardment of Hartlepool.

Since the Heugh Battery Memorial Society was formed two years ago, £140,000 donated by the Northern Rock Building Society has been spent on building a boundary wall and other restoration work.

Guns have been reinstated at the battery, it has been registered as a historic monument and an archaeological dig has been carried out.

Now the society, which is to be registered as a charity, has secured a further £500,000 from the Lottery, the Government's single regeneration budget and from Northern Rock.

That will be spent on recreating the parade ground, refurbishing the magazine area complete with recorded gun noises, refurbishing the barrack block and building toilets.

Members of the society have also toured a number of museums and schools.

At the weekend, the society members held one of their bi-annual 1940s dances at the Headland Borough Hall, with more than 400 people attending in wartime costumes.

Neil Forcer, chairman of the society, said: "We don't make much from the dances. It's all about remembering the men and women who went through those times.

"We've done so much here in the last two years it's frightening.

"Our next big event will be the commemoration of the bombardment of Hartlepool."

Before the society was formed, the battery had been targeted by vandals. In 2002, the memorial society secured a 25-year lease after negotiations with Hartlepool Borough Council.

In 1914, Hartlepool was bombarded by a trio of German cruisers - the Blucher, Seydlitz and Moltke. A total of 112 people were killed.

Guns from the battery hit the 25,000-ton battlecruiser the Seydlitz three times. The Moltke was hit once and the Blucher suffered nine casualties and had two guns destroyed.

One German shell rebounded off the gun casing and exploded in a field, killing a lone donkey - all that was left was the tail.