Winchester Heritage Centre - Trust Annual Report 1989
It is disappointing that more than two years after we approached Winchester City Council to discuss the future of the Heritage Centre, the position is still unclear. One or two conversations with City officials have taken place, a survey of the building has been undertaken, and the Trust has made an offer to pay for certain repairs to the building in exchange for some security of tenure. However, the future, both of the building and of the Heritage Centre, remains indeterminate. We appreciate that it may not be easy for the City to come to a decision on the future of the building (which as a result of an initiative by the Trust is now a Grade II listed building) and our policy therefore is to wait patiently for events to unfold themselves and to run the Heritage Centre as a service to Winchester, albeit at a substantial loss to the Trust.
The number of visitors has remained fairly constant, which is creditable in view of the fact that construction work on the Brooks site is in full swing. Visits by schools however have fallen off. The Director of Amenity Services kindly offered to provide facilities in the Guildhall for showing the audio visual but, reluctantly, we had to decline what would have been an opportunity to earn some welcome revenue since it would have been impossible to man both the Heritage Centre and a room in the Guildhall simultaneously.
As usual we are publishing greeting cards which will be on sale both at the Heritage Centre and at the Charity Christmas Card sale at the Guildhall in December. This year we are fortunate in being able to reproduce in colour two delightful paintings of the Cathedral by our former Chairman, David Pare, to whom we are most grateful.
During the year the Deputy Manager of the Centre, Ray Eaglen, decided to stand down, having made a great contribution to its success. This post has been taken over by Neville Oldfield. We are indeed grateful to them both and to the Hon. Manager, Alan Cooke, as well as to the voluntary stewards for all they do to keep the Heritage Centre going under difficult circumstances.