Chairman's Message - TrustNews Spring 1996
Heritage Centres and Councils
The argument as to whether, and to what extent, party politics should dominate local government has gone on for a long time. There is no doubt that the change of the ruling party in the Winchester District from Conservative to a very strong Liberal Democrat majority has brought about a major swing away from matters of heritage in the City of Winchester. The consequer-e of this, not helped by the serious depletion of Council financial reserves for reasons now well-known, is that there has bee major deflection of funds away from those organisations concerned with heritage.
The proposed cut in historic building grants and, to come closer to home, the original decision of the City Council to neither sell nor lease the Winchester Heritage Centre to the Preservation Trust, nor to continue the 13-year old grant that covered the rent on the building, bore witness to this policy.
The initial decision to refuse to dispose of the building came as a surprise equally to the Trust and to the senior Council Officers who had been advising us since April 1995. The two successive decisions not to continue the grant were understandable in the light of the priority list for grants put before the Council's Grants Committee. Heritage scarcely figured even in the lowest category of priorities for grants - funding was to be devoted to welfare, the young and to selective arts.
However, we believed that in part our double lack of success might have been due to the lightness - or politeness! - of our lobbying of Councillors. We wanted to make them aware that what we were trying to do was to raise funds in order to develop the Heritage Centre, so that what had now become a serious operating loss due to the added expense of paying £7000 per year rent would become at least a break-even situation. By so doing, we would be adding to the bank of attractions in our City and to the means of educating both adults and children about its history - at no cost to the City Council. If we were to fail, then the closure of the Heritage Centre would become a possibility.
We therefore set out on a balanced lobbying campaign. Getting the balance right is not easy and requires a fine judgement - not to do enough is to leave the cause unsung - to overdo it can result in a loss of sympathy and support.
Be that as it may, the result of our efforts was an offer from the Council to take up a 99-year lease on both the existing Heritage Centre building and the adjoining land. It is now "all hands to the pump" to raise the funds to purchase the lease and develop the property, primarily in order to provide a purpose-built viewing arena with son-et-lumiere for the 1870 model of the City.
The Heritage Lottery Fund is, somewhat naturally, an obvious potential source of funds. However, additional funds from other sources will also be required, including donations of materials for use in construction. We are extremely fortunate in having several members of the Trust who are giving their professional services entirely free, and the Trust itself will be contributing from its own reserves. At the same time we must take care that the Heritsage Centre project does not bring about any cut-back in the primary work of the Trust, which is to guard the character of the City.
Peninsula Barracks
It seems a very long time since September 1993 when Save Britain's Heritage (SAVE) and the Winchester architect Huw Thomas convened a meeting in Winchester College to gain support from the councillors and citizens of Winchester for a new development plan involving all the existing buildings of the Upper and Lower Barracks.
Those of a nostalgic leaning might still hanker for the days of the mystique of decay and natural overgrowth doing its best to hide the historic outlines of a cast-off major military barracks - but now all is irrevocably changed.
The first show-house of a new terrace of houses on the old site of the Married Men's Quarters close to St James' Lane was opened on 13 January 1996. The cheap-and-nasty former Canteen Block near the Romsey Road entrance is now a pile of rubble, with a team of archaeologists deep in their trenches talking of 12th century buildings and the foundations of the ancient tower that cannot be found. The 1960's Sergeant's Mess at the southern end of the Upper Barracks parade ground is not even marked by a pile of rubble. When last I saw it in mid-January, three funeral pyres of burning discarded timber were all that remained. The archaeologists from the Canteen Block will be moving there next.
By this time next year, we shall really see a significant change. There will be delights - and there will be disappointments once paper plans become reality. The Trust will continue to study the detailed landscape plans as they come off the presses, making suggestions where we think that refinements to the established plans can be easily made. During the next few months we would also hope that the arrangements for the management of this large area of public and private open space will be better defined.
The bulldozers are there, the "brickies" are there, and above all the will is there. Let us hope that the successful bringing back to life of this fine site will make the major contribution to character of our City for which we all yearn.