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This gave me the sheer determination to see it through.

It should be made clear that out of the £25,000, £4,500 came from a community grant given by Shepway District Council, plus £2,200 coming from Kent County Councillor Ronald Tolputt member's grant. The rest, £18,300, was indeed raised independently by sheer willpower.

Make no mistake, there are still many hurdles to jump as now fundraising has begun for the low loader and crane expenses needed to bring the iconic Victorian carriage back from Ash near Canterbury to Folkestone. The total required for this is £3,500, and to date, we have already raised £1,811 of this sum.

The dilapidated carriage at the bottom of the Leas Lift station tracks

The nation's beloved Queen Victoria, in 1890, was still alive on the throne when the pair of step-lift carriages left the premises of Mousier Hills, in Castle Street, Dover, and arrived in Folkestone in time for the August bank holiday that year.

In 2003, I had to make a swift decision. Namely, whether or not the carriage of great age (119 years) survives into the twenty-first century, or disintegrates. I never had any intentions of allowing this historic piece of Victorian transport infrastructure end its life in a form of a glossy photograph in a local history book or a DVD, because I believe the children of tomorrow, and of today, should experience and feel the real item.

If any of your readers would like to make our job quicker and easier in finishing of the sum needed, £1,689, a contribution can be made through HSBC bank account number: 21433784, Sort Code: 40-21-15.

It can be said this organisation, the 1890 Leas Lift Carriage Restoration Appeal, is just unique, as never a penny has been withdrawn from the above account, since we formed the group, for any expenses incurred since October 2006. We surely do deserve to be in the Guinness Book of Records for that.

Yours sincerely,

Robert Mouland,

Treasurer of the 1890 Leas Lift Carriage Restoration Appeal