Contacting SAVE

[Sarab]

Good Morning

Would anyone happen to have an email addy or telephone number for someone in SAVE who may know the current status of a building owned by them? It just happens to be located behind my house in Somerset?!

It was featured on the BBC Restoration programme a couple of years ago but sadly didn't win. The person dealing with possible grant aid in the council has left and no one has replaced them.

Thank you

 

[Nemesis]

I posted about two days ago about Castle House. We are hoping that, following Strummerville pulling out, The Vivat Trust is to be the new owner.

Call Adam on 0207 253 3500


http://periodpropertyshop.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6741

I've mailed him and passed this post to him.

 

[Nemesis]

Here's a pic from the 2004 Restoration street party, with the Damien Hirst wraps on the building:

 

[Sarab]

How clever of you to know it was Castle House

Thank you for your reply.

I'll call Adam as it would be nice to get an update.

I'm worried that the current sheeting over the scaffolding is not going to make it through another winter and the ensueing damage could be ever more harful for the building.

 

[Nemesis]

I know as he's one of my dearest friends, and I am a very committed SAVE Friend!

The scaffolding and covering is a bit of a problem I agree - thanks, I think he'll poss know about it as I know he's been down for several meetings recently.

I love that building.

I even wrote a poem about it.



A VISIT TO CASTLE HOUSE BRIDGWATER DECEMBER 2003
(For Adam Wilkinson, The SAVE Trust)


Repair me now, for mine own end doth haste
I run to death, and death meets me as fast…
John Donne Holy Sonnets


Yes there are challenges: turrets, battlements,
the interlocking frieze unwinding,
decapitated faux-mediaeval necks -
nothing to mouth a serenade or mock arrivals.
So macabre, a nightmare, in a wider viewing
than the startled endurance
of the Cormanesque gargoyles.

There’s a need for urgent surgery,
suture, pinning crumbled ribs,
reconstruction of a heart, of lungs,
the whole splattered guts of the place -
all artifice and cunning.
Even then the prognosis, you say,
is profoundly uncertain.

Above, the flap and crack
of plastic canopy wheels, dismal
protection from the years. I slip
through hoarding, pass bins, piss stink,
rat traps, underfoot crush of rubbish;
test my weight, balance on planks, negotiate
a knuckled lattice of corset - all

requires tilting and bowing
and such delicacy of footfall
as a measured country dance.
No company of musicians here:
only leering casements,
and a tracery of veins from lost ivy
shrouding sockets hollow of figures.

Yet on the door still loops
a knocker – immortal wreath,
crisp as its hot pouring.
I lift; it swings easily,
drops, rebounds –
into this place stutters
the initial beat of a pulse.

 

[Sarab]

I'm just back from the dentist so will call Adam tomorrow as currently feel like I have a bed of nails in my mouth!

I've lived in Castle Street for 3 years and since that time either SAVE, Sedgemoor or Strumerville were supposed to be restoring it. I understood that there was money available through a heritage grant. I just hope that whoever does take it over, has the money available to finally make a start on the restoration. I won't hold my breath though! It seems that huge amounts of money have already been spent on professional fees...

Every winter the wind, rain seagulls and pidgeons damage it more, so something needs to be done soon.

As for holiday accomodation, well that's an interesting idea if Bridgwater takes off, as it's forecasted to, when the river is sorted out between the Environment Agency and SDC. It's in a central part of the town so maybe if SDC and others get their act together Castle House could be a little gem.

You do seem passionate about it and yes, there is a need for urgent surgery as per your poem.

 

[Nemesis]

Adam is not in the office this afternoon until later. He's at a conference tomorrow.


I have a great deal of information about it, and can assure you that everything in SAVE's power is being done. It took on the building from Sedgemoor as a final resort - Sedgemoor was never in the frame to repair it as far as I am aware - the local authority compulsorily purchased it from the owner in a 'back to back' agreeement with the SAVE Trust, which is a body entirely made up of volunteers - albeit highly knowledgable ones. Without SAVE I think there would be even less there now of Castle House, which has been fire damaged also, and I do know how much time and effort has gone into the building, much of it by Adam.


Yes money has had to be spent so far - on professionals fees, which were required, professionals such as architects, and historic buildings engineers, and an expert in early cement, and scaffolding costs for the security of the buildings. The Architectural Heritage Fund has helped with some of this. Not so sure it has been huge, in the overall scheme of things, but what has been spent has been necessary.

SAVE is a Charitable Trust, however, and cash cannot be found from nowhere, sadly. Strummerville pulled out as a partner and that left major problems.


The local authority grant will not cover all the costs of repair, and grant aid is a very difficult thing. It has all manner of strings attached to it, and many hoops which have to be gone through.

English Heritage has had its grant funding cut too.

The building is II* Listed, it's a very important one in terms of construction history, and it needs care and a very scholarly approach to its repair.

Both the Vivat Trust and SAVE are working together; as both are charitable trusts with a strong record it seems likely that Vivat will take this on. However, as a charity it too has hoops to go through in order to take on a building.

It is my view that the Vivat use would be a very good one, far less invasive to the building than some other uses. Grant aid brings many restrictions on use also.

None of this will be very rapid, however. Much work done so far with Strummerville has now had to be discounted, and fresh plans will mean a whole new round of discussions with EH and grant and planning applications and drawings etc.


http://www.vivat.org.uk/

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org

PS any donations to the scaffolding costs would be hugely appreciated!