Chairman's Jottings - TrustNews December 14
This year Civic Voice, of which CWT is a member, organised their AGM in Canterbury. John Beveridge and I attended and spent two very interesting intensive days. The programme included walks around the City with two knowledgeable guides. One walk was on the general history and one on post- war buildings.
There were certainly some interesting lessons on the post-war building work. Canterbury was badly bombed, particularly on its eastern sector as it was one of the historic cities on Hitler's retribution list in return for our Lubeck City bombing raids. You have therefore on-going new building work spread over many years right up to the present century. The rebuilding with its roads, underpasses and large-scale buildings therefore reflects strategic planning decisions taken over the whole span of town planning history, from 1947 to the present day. The result all around the edges of the city centre is to say the least disappointing and if it is a reflection of town planning history, l do not think the system has delivered a comprehensive, cohesive built environment that is a joyful experience.
It is interesting to compare Canterbury with Winchester. Their history is not dissimilar, founded by the Romans, surrounded by a defensive Medieval wall built along the line of the Roman wall. Each city has at its core the large Cathedral. There have been waves of immigrants — in the case of Canterbury from Flanders, and then later the Huguenots, all bringing prosperity with their weaving skills. Today, the influx is 33,000 students, studying at three universities, so with a population of 44,000 inhabitants, it has the highest ratio of student to local people in Europe.
A number of people have commented on John Pilkington's AGM. talk on his Balkan experiences, and stated how much they had enjoyed the talk. A big thank you to John on behalf of all of us for entertaining us so well. However there has been some criticism of the poor advertising of the event. We will try and do better next time. So, as an early warning note for your diaries, please note 28th September 2015. The speaker so far is unknown but we will keep you updated. We are grateful once again to the University for kindly allowing us the use of the John Stripe lecture theatre.
We have recently invited two people to accept honorary membership. First, His Honour Judge Christopher Clarke, who served as our President for a number of years and gave us wise advice on many occasions as well as chairing a number of events. And second, Tony Hill of Sarsen Press, who has given a great deal of his time and expertise on many of our publication requirements, not least on Winchester Heart of a City.