Posts Tagged ‘englishheritage’

Conservation Areas at Risk – an English Heritage Survey

Friday, April 17th, 2009

Do you live in a conservation which you think is at risk?  Have you had experience of regulations protecting conservation areas being eroded?

English Heritage is approaching every local authority in the country for a first national survey of Conservation Areas as a means of identifying those at risk.  Recently Birmingham City Council said it could not longer full protect the Ideal Village Conservation Area in Bordesley Green (pdf map), which had an article 4(2) protection, because of the extent of breaches of conditions there. (See the Birmingham Post report here.)

EH wonders if you too are worried about a proliferation of plastic windows or oversized extensions, if so you can sign up to keep track of it’s campaign by signing up here. The English Heritage news release tells us:

“England has some 9,300 Conservation Areas, historic parts of cities, towns, suburbs and villages designated by local authorities to protect their special character. But what condition are they in? Are they cherished through a close partnership of council and residents? Or are they at risk from neglect, decay and inappropriate development?

Conservation Areas vary enormously. They include, for example, the Belgravia Conservation Area in central London, the industrial heritage of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, the fishing village of Clovelly in North Devon and the Victorian People’s Park Conservation Area in Halifax. The heart of a historic town might be a Conservation Area. So too might be a street of well-preserved 1930s semi-detached houses or an isolated group of farm buildings. Details of local Conservation Areas are held by councils and can usually be found on their websites.

English Heritage has asked every Local Authority in the country to fill in a questionnaire for each of their Conservation Areas as part of the first nationwide census of the condition of this important element of our heritage. The results will be announced and a campaign will be launched on 23rd June to help councils, communities and individual residents to care for these special places.”

Birmingham’s first conservation areas were created in 1969 in Harborne, Yardley, Edgbaston, Kings Norton and Northfield. You can find a full list of all 27 areas in Birmingham here:

www.birmingham.gov.uk/conservationareas.bcc

If you have any comments on conservation areas please leave them below.

For other’s blogging about conservation areas in the UK see also:

Icomos-UK

Audiences central.

The Bristol Blogger

Kingsdown Conservation Group (also in Bristol)

Liverpool Landscapes

Nemesis Republic

Margate Architecture

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Posted in Birmingham News, BirminghamUK, Feature on Front Page, Heritage News, Other sites, Policy | No Comments »

Sandwell wants to get shut of historic gates.

Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Soho Foundry - home of the Henry Pooley Gates (image from Wikipedia)

Soho Foundry - home of the Henry Pooley Gates (image from Wikipedia)

Apparently Sandwell council will be pleased to see the famous Grade II Henry Pooley Gates held at the Avery Museum at Soho Foundry (part of the “Silicon Valley of the 18th century“) returned to Liverpool.  Above is a shot of the Gatehouse at the Soho Foundry – the Pooley gates can be seen if you go here. The Liverpool Daily Post reports:

The city council has been mired in negotiations with Sandwell Council and English Heritage for years. The major sticking point is getting Grade II building consent to remove them.

Current owners Avery Weigh-Tronnix are understood to approve the deal, leaving the onus on the two councils to agree terms with English Heritage.

Mr Muies, a former seaman who set sail on board the Regent Royal from the Dingle jetty in 1955, said: “People from around the world will come to see them in their original setting because so many of our seamen and women have emigrated and will want to see them back.”

The deal would cost between £35,000 and £40,000, and Sandwell has urged Liverpool to make contact.

So, it seems the whole deal hinges on English Heritage.

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Posted in Architecture, Buildings, Heritage News | 12 Comments »

Growing numbers of you volunteer for heritage in the West Midlands

Thursday, October 30th, 2008
Volunteers, staff and contractors worked together on the huge and detailed job of cataloguing the contents of Newman Bros

Volunteers, staff and contractors worked together on the huge and detailed job of cataloguing the contents of Newman Bros

Every year Engish Heritage publishes a regional and national survey of the state of our heritage and today Heritage Counts 2008 (link to a pdf) tells us something very encouraging:   it seems more and more of you are volunteering for heritage organisations in the West Midlands.

Over the last year we have had fantastic volunteers helping us with everything from the arduous work of cataloguing and moving the contents of Newman Bros through to recording and transcribing interviews with the people who worked there.  Every time we ask for help it seems to just arrive.  This website is kept going partly through voluntary effort, including the generous people who share their photos of old buildings with us.

What else is going on? If you do any voluntary work to support West midlands heritage why not let us know in the comments section, it would be great to compare notes.

English heritage reports that:

Tim Johnston, Chairman of the West Midlands Historic Environment Forum and English Heritage’s Regional Director for the West Midlands, said:

“The nation’s historic environment is a finite and precious resource which needs to be cared for. Public interest in our unique heritage is certainly growing – this is demonstrated by the number of people in the West Midlands volunteering for the National Trust, which has gone up by two thirds in the last six years. Heritage Counts enables us to raise awareness of the issues and challenges faced by the historic environment in the West Midlands, as well as highlight some of the opportunities we have in the region.”

Highlights from the West Midlands report include:

* The number of people volunteering for the National Trust has increased from 1,990 in 2002 to more than 3,300 volunteers in 2008.

* 50% of the assets included on the Heritage at Risk Register, since its inception in 2001, have been removed as their future has been secured.

* There are six registered Historic battlefields: 14% of the total number of battlefields in England.

* Astley Castle, Warwickshire, has been one of the most seriously at risk buildings in the West Midlands for the past 30 years. But now a strategy for its rescue is in place. The Landmark Trust has acquired a long lease on the building and has put forward a scheme which involves consolidation of the remaining structure and the construction within the shell a modern “landmark” property including a holiday let for eight people. The scheme has the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

* The 19th century terraces at Knutton Village, North Staffordshire, were built for workers at a nearby brickworks and were characterised by the liberal use of decorative brickwork. The repair and refurbishment of the historic houses means the identity of the area has been enhanced demonstrating how townscape integrity can be restored and local distinctiveness built into the renewal process.

Foot note:

Heritage Counts 2008 can be found at http://www.heritagecounts.org.uk It is published by English Heritage on behalf of the Historic Environment Review Executive Committee and the Regional Historic Environment Forums.

The West Midlands Historic Environment Forum comprises:
Advantage West Midlands
Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers
Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
British Waterways
Country Land and Business Association
English Heritage
Government Office for the West Midlands
Heritage Lottery Fund
Historic Houses Association
Institute of Field Archaeologists
Institute of Historic Building Conservation
Ironbridge Gorge World Heritage Site
National Trust
Natural England
Museums Libraries and Archives West Midlands
West Midlands Amenity Societies Association
West Midlands Regional Assembly

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Posted in Birmingham News, BirminghamUK, Feature on Front Page, Policy, Volunteers | 2 Comments »

English Heritage buys JW Evans Silverware factory.

Wednesday, April 9th, 2008

This afternoon both the Telegraph and the BBC are reporting the purchase of Evans brothers by English Heritage. To quote the BBC:

Dr Simon Thurley, chief executive, said its loss “would not just be a blow for Birmingham but for the world”.

He explained: “We now need to secure its long term future both as a business and as somewhere people can learn about the source of goods with which Birmingham supplied the Empire.”

The Jewellery Quarter has a network of 19th and early 20th Century terraces with workshops built in the back gardens.

The JW Evans building was described as “unique as the most complete repository of the traditional craft skills, industrial processes, tools, machinery and archive materials that epitomise this important facet of our industrial past”.

The city council said English Heritage’s commitment builds upon “great work” already under way to preserve and enhance the area.

Birmingham Conservation Trust has been working on finding the best route forward for the remarkable buildings and the history they hold. This is complex problem to unravel but it’s great news to know that JW Evans is secured.

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Posted in Architecture, BirminghamUK, Buildings, Events | 2 Comments »

Simplified listing announced in Heritage White Paper.

Friday, March 9th, 2007

This week the government has proposed to reform and simplify the way heritage sites are listed and protected to create “a unified…system, with more opportunities for public involvement” which will “put the historic environment at the heart of the planning system”.

The Heritage White paper proposes to:

* replace listing, scheduling and registering with a single system for designating historic places.
* open up the system to greater public consultation and scrutiny, and by creating a single new Register of Historic Buildings replacing all existing lists and schedules.
* introduce ‘interim protection’ for historic assets while they are being considered for designation, and create new appeals procedures against designation.
* put the historic environment at the heart of the planning system, merging listed building consent and scheduled monument consent, and conservation area consent with planning permission.
* clarify and strengthen protections for World Heritage Sites, and enhance protection for archaeological remains in the marine environment and on cultivated land.

English Heritage (charged with taking over the listing propcess from government) is delighted with the proposals, enthusing that they:

strip out the bureaucracy of the heritage protection system, demystify the process of listing and make it fairer and more accessible. For the first time, house owners will be consulted when their house is being considered for listing; they will have the right to appeal; it will be easier to make changes to complex listed sites

Heritage Link responded by welcoming the simplification and clarification of the system but went on to argue that it will take more than this to portect our heritage:

Until public financial support is assured, the longer term maintenance and security of our heritage hangs under a darkening cloud

For more details on the consultation on the white paper visit here.

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Posted in Policy | No Comments »