IT'S a vista that poets and presidents have waxed lyrical upon in centuries gone by - and soon members of the public will be able to drink in the newly-restored grandeur of the parkland surrounding Hagley Hall for themselves.

The 290 acres of Hagley Park and its magnificent and quirky follies, which include a rotunda, an obelisk and a mini castle, have been undergoing a make-over on a grand scale, costing over £2 million.

And that is without around £3 million to be spent upon creating the new visitor centre, where work is due to begin on September 8, so that an estimated 100,000 people a year can enjoy the spectacular grounds, where deer roam freely.

The latest transformation - of a "Palladian Bridge" previously crumbled to a shadow of its 18th century magnificence - has just earned the accolade of "commended" in the Historic Houses Association and Sotheby's Restoration awards.

Eighteenth century poets Alexander Pope and James Thomson and early US presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson would definitely have approved.

Adams and Jefferson compared Hagley Hall and its park to Blenheim and Stowe, while James Thomson, who penned the lyrics for Rule Britannia, eulogised it in the spring section of his famous epic poem "The Seasons".

The setting drew the following remark from art historian and critic Horace Walpole: "I wore out my eyes with gazing, my feet with climbing and my tongue and vocabulary with commending."

Soon the view opened up from the bridge, with the eye drawn along a series of ponds to the Rotunda, will be complete, although work is still in progress to bring a cascade into the lake by the bridge back to life.

It's a labour of love for the current Viscount Cobham, Chris Lyttelton, and his head of landscaping Joe Hawkins, who is overseeing the work.

Lord Cobham, aged 67, who inherited Hagley Hall and its grounds from his late brother, John, in 2006, said: "It's huge fun pulling it back to what it was.

"It's about trying to save an incredible part of my family's heritage - and the whole area's heritage.

"Having been commended in the Historic Houses Association and Sotheby's Restoration awards gives a warm feeling to everyone who has worked extremely hard on the restoration of one of the great parks of the UK."

The 12th Viscount Cobham says that "every ologist known to man" has advised upon the refurbishment of the bridge and other follies and grants towards the work have been given by English Heritage and Natural England.

The Palladian bridge was designed and built in 1750 by Thomas Pitt, nephew of Hagley Hall's then owner George Lyttelton and of prime minister William Pitt the Elder.

But its grand columns were smashed down when a tree fell on it in about 1830.

Mr Hawkins, aged 54, who previously worked at Shugborough Hall estate in Staffordshire, has been head of landscaping at Hagley Hall for three years and has steered through the £150,000 restoration of the bridge.

He said: "All that was left of the bridge before this work was the arch - but it's been carefully rebuilt, complete with Ionic columns, and it's absolutely fantastic."