Winchester Heritage Centre - TrustNews Spring 1988
In view of our experience during the winter of 1986/87 when attendances at the Centre were low, the difficulty of getting sufficient volunteer stewards during inclement weather, and the departure for Australia of our Hon. Manager Alan Cooke, the Management Committee decided to close the Centre for the three months to March 1988.
Loss of revenue was more than offset by savings in expenses, and although the exhibitions were closed, talks and meetings continued as usual.
During the winter the opportunity was taken, in conjunction with the Trust's Executive Committee, to review the longer term future of the Centre and chase progress on recommendations made by local authority representatives at the last Strategy Meeting held in April 1987.
An engineer from the City has now surveyed the building and confirmed that the roof is in need of substantial repair. The City Amenities Committee has been made aware of this and other problems, including the important one of location, and a meeting has been held with the Director of Amenity Services.
Attendances since the Centre re-opened have been encouraging. In March there were 275 visitors (including 157 during the Winchester Open weekend) plus a further 87 in groups.
Alan Cooke has now returned to the U.K. and to our great relief has agreed to resume the post of Hon. Manager. We owe a debt of gratitude to Ray Eaglen who has done such a good job in standing in as manager during Alan's absence. Ray has now reverted to his old job of Deputy.
Lastly, an item of extremely good news. British Airways, having seen our video of "Winchester Heritage", has decided to show it as a regular feature on its aircraft now named "City of Winchester". We are currently in negotiation with the City with regard to some consideration accruing to the Heritage Centre for what amounts to a major item of promotional publicity for Winchester.