West Restoring England's Heritage

Across the country, thousands of historic buildings tell a story of

our island's history. Over time, some have been lost, others lovingly

restored. But today, many more are at risk of collapse and being lost

forever. In such difficult economic times, can we really justify

spending often huge sums of public money on the past when many of it

argue we should be spending it on investing in the future? That is the

big challenge facing everyone involved in restoring England's

heritage. The West of England is full of

history and heritage. Its architecture speaks of classical

design and engineering innovation. design and engineeringinnovation.

innovation. `I'm Hudson and have long been

inspired by the passion of those struck tolling keep Britain's

heritage alive. Ordinary men and women who're doing whatever they can

to save many of Britain's buildings at risk `` struggling to keep

Britain's heritage alive. I'm travelling around to see how the

challenges are being met and how some buildings are being given a new

life. I'm also asking why others are left to deteriorate. It's a decade

since the BBC programme restoration highlighted buildings at risk. I'll

be catching up with progress at places like Sherborne House in

Dorset and in Bridgwater, one of the most ding tintive buildings on the

list, Castle House `` distinctive buildings on the list. It was

commissioned as a home for a family but it's much more than just that.

Back in 1851, its creator was fascinated with the use of new

terms, many of which he was developing. Castle House was builted

to showcase what he thought could be achieved with concrete.

It's one of the earliest surviving examples of modern reinforced

concrete construction. By 1998, it was in such a bad condition that

English Heritage stepped in to stop it being knocked down.

It was a cause celebre in restoration, but I have to wonder

whether its TV appearances made any difference at all.

It was really important. Even though a final solution hasn't been arrived

at nine or ten years later, it raised the national awareness about

Castle House which is only good. English Heritage have given us a

large grant which we spent on urgent repairs internally. The reason it

has to begin on the inside is that there are cracks. If you repair the

outside without repairing the internal ceilings and floors, it's

just going to split again, meaning the work going on isn't visible yet.

But it doesn't mean it's not happening. There is more going on

than just emergency work. Castle House is benefitting from an

unlikely source. As part of its work on a new nuclear power station at

Hinkley, French energy firm EDF has pledged ?230,000 to the concrete

castle. And, with the support of the local

council, the team have been able to release more capital by selling the

small plot of land next door. It will be a while before work can

start on the outside but Castle House may yet have a future. That

injection of capital should help to to leverage more funding from the

heritage funds. This is one building that may finally come off the

at`risk register. Just as soon as one building comes

off the At Risk Register, another can soon take its place. There are

over 1,000 currently on the list across the UK. A chunk of them are

here in the West. 109 all together. Private homes and places of public

worship. Some in need of a new use, others at risk of collapse. Why

should we care about them now if we didn't before? Once buildings are

gone, they are gone forever. You can't recreate them. It's part of

our national identity. The buildings we highlight, the buildings on the

heritage At Risk Register are the grade I and Grade II star buildings,

a very small percentage of the building stock in the country. Those

buildings have been identified because they are particularly

special. They demonstrate particular things, even techniques or

associations with a person. These buildings are special and they are

worthy of care and attention. There are more than 374,000 listed

buildings in England and more than 6,000 of them are in the celebrated

Georgian city of Bath. Even in this world heritage city, there is one

architectural gem languishing on the list of the unloved. This is

Cleveland Pools, the only surviving open air Georgian pool in England.

Wow. Here we. Cleveland Pools, my first visit. It's not the easiest

place to find, it has to be said, and the path down is treacherous.

When you you get here, look what you find, this lovely Crescent, I

suppose reflecting the great Crescents in the city itself. Look

at these changing rooms. Even got the numbers still above the doors

covered in years of paint. Arguably the wrong sort of paint. It's not

letting this building breathe at all.

This lovely stain is just flaking away. Even there, the hooks within

the changing rooms themselves. Just imagine it. This opened in

1815, the same year as the Battle of Waterloo and it was only open then

to gentlemen bathers. Were they flashth splashing around in here

discussing the battle reading the newspaper of the day. This place has

a great story to tell as our history as a nation of bathers.

It's a tradition that goes back to the Roman bes, of course, with

bathing in Bath? Absolutely that. 's what we said all the way through.

It's the missing link in the whole history of Bath with going back to

the pigs and the muddy puddles and the Romans, all the way through

history. It's such a special place, an individual place. If it was

anywhere else in the country, I'm sure it would be more valued than in

Bath where we've got so many listed buildings, not too many that are

Grade I star but we have still got a lot. That perhaps is part of the

problem. Being in Bath. With so much history to celebrate, not every

building can be a priority. It was built with private money, the great

and the good coming together to create a community pool.

By the 1960s, it had become a popular summer hang out.

You could feel what it was like to be there. But in 1984, the council

closed it down. No private plan was put forward to save it and now Anne

and her fellow trustees are looking to the community and the National

Lottery for salvation. Community pools do work. They maybe

don't make a lot of money but the business plan says it's feasible.

What is it going to take to see this place come back to life? An awful

lot of money? An awful lot of money. Any idea how much? ?3 millio``ish. I

mean prices go up. Is it realistic to think you could achieve ?3

million? If we are successful with the heritage lottery bid, yes. And

we have got a lot of community support.

But it takes more than just goodwill and enthusiasm. The Heritage Lottery

Fund needs to see evidence, not just of an historic value, but of a

business plan that's viable in the 21st century. This place has an

obvious purpose. It is a swimming pool. That makes it restoration

relatively simple but also limits how it can make money. Today's

entrepreneurs haven't seen a commercial opportunity worthy of

their investment. So it needs to draw on some kind of public purse.

And the Prince's Regeneration Trust are helping to do just that.

We all know these days that there aren't vast sums of public money to

support these sorts of projects.let they have got to be viable from the

economic point of view. This is unusual because actually, the use

for which it was originally built which became redundant in the '80s

win we thought we had to swim in pools with chlorine, has now come

back and everyone loves open air swimming again. You couldn't just

re`open it as it was in the '60s and '70s, it wasn't heated, for example.

I don't think that would be viable now. So there are things you need to

do to make it fit. It's about protecting the past but making it

fit for the 21st century. That the the key. Keeping the essence of the

pool but also using the space in new ways to make it viable.

There isn't another building like this or facility like this in the

United Kingdom. It's the only surviving outdoor Georgian open air

pool. It's just amazing. It deserves to have attention, it deserves to be

saved. I for one would love to think that in a city that's founded its

reputation on the history of baths and bathing, going back to the

Romans, that once again these pools here at Cleveland could have a

future. Ensuring their future is going to be tricky and will involve

a lot of compromise and negotiation between all of those interested

parties. Finding the money to do them up is one thing, finding the

money and the interest to make them a viable business concern, well

that's the other thing. 200 years to the day when they first opened, who

knows once again they may echo to the sound of bathers enjoying

themselves. It's going to take an awful lot of hard work and it's also

got to stop raining! And here in Kingswood in south

Gloucestershire is another project from the BBC restoration programme

that desperately needs a brighter outlook.

Here we are, the site of the Whitfields Tabernacle. A place of

significance and yet a decade on, not an awful lot seems to have

happened. It was already in a desperate state

when it featured on Restoration in 20093.

To be honest, this is not a picturesque ruin, this is now a bit

of a mess. It's a mess of enormous historical

value. It's regarded by many as one of the

most important sites in the story of nonconformism. From 1741, these

walls reverberated to the voice of George Whitfield, preaching the

gospel to the common man. The site also contains a later church and

church yard, but it's the unassuming Tabernacle building that's list and

clearly at risk. Its own buyer and developer that specialises in reuse,

since 120, the situation's been deadlocked. There's a legal dispute

with the local council over who pays for emergency repairs.

The council felt it would be inappropriate for them to talk to

us. The developers feel the council needs to compromise.

One of the most important recipes for success, if you like, is to have

all the interested parties around the table so you can have open

dialogue, understand their concerns and they can understand ours. It's

very, very difficult from our point of view to try and convince and get

the local authority to understand the commercial reality. Without an

agreed plan for its use, knighter private nor public money is likely

to be easily available. The local MP feels English Heritage could do more

to facilitate the most tricky restoration projects.

I think what we need to see is some form of new strategy where we say

out of the buildings that are at risk, what are the ones we

definitely want to save, rather than just have them all in a general

category. Also English Heritage need to be more flexible about the

adaptations, rather than them being exposed to the elements, make use of

them and not worry too much about the exact historical recreation of

the sites. Even the most flexible approach may

not be enough to save this. It was 1867 when it opened, and to

be quite honest, I don't think much money has been spent on it since.

This is Birnbeck Pier at Weston`super`Mare. It is

horrendous, it really is. It is in a dire state. The hollow cast iron

legs are still pretty strong and they are good and holding it up. But

it is all the decking and the cross bracing underneath that needs to be

sorted out. Time is very much against it. I have been trying down

the years to try and see it saved. But they think it has now got to the

stage where we really do need a miracle, and whether miracles happen

or not, I don't know. Of all the buildings on the At Risk Register in

the West, this is perhaps the one that English Heritage is most

concerned about. Birnbeck Pier is not just at risk. Its situation is

critical. What I find shopping is just how quickly it has fallen into

this condition, how such a unique piece of coastal architecture has

become a dangerous and crumbling wreck. It is the only pier in the UK

to link the mainland to an island, and for years that Ireland was one

of Somerset's most liveliest attractions. It welcomed ferry loads

across the Bristol Channel to its amusements, to promenade the

decking. The more relaxed Sunday drinking laws in England made it

popular with visitors from Wales but the last ferry sailed in 1979. It

has been designated a dangerous structure for 20 years. The ideal

scenario would be to have it restored. In its glory? Yes, but

let's bring an element of reality into this. It is all about money. We

can't go back to what the pier was. That would just not make sense

unless it is a totally charitably funded exercise. There would have to

be some development on the island and perhaps on the landing side, to

create funding, to keep the pier going once it has been built. The

problem comes once the amount of development is so excessive that it

detracts from the whole point of restoring the pier. It is about

balance. But getting that balance is proving almost impossible. It has

always been privately owned, so restoring it really is an issue for

its owners. But it has now become so derelict that it has become an issue

for the whole town. There have been many different proposals for its

redevelopment but none so far has planning approval. Urban Splash is

confident that the developer could take it off their hands and make it

work, but they have not been given the go`ahead. You would be handing

over land to a developer, which is the pier were not here would not

have a hope in hell of getting planning permission. In trying to

restore the pier you could destroy it through development around it.

That begs the question of what you have achieved at the end of the day.

But in wanting to achieve something, there is a real risk of achieving

nothing at all. Birnbeck Pier could easily disappear, and

Weston`super`Mare has already lost one pier. When the Pavilion of the

Grand Pier was destroyed by fire in 2008, it had a huge impact on the

seaside resort, financially and emotionally. But it was not just

rebuilt as it was. The owners worked with planners and asked the public

to choose the designs. Though can they see a future for Birnbeck Pier?

It would take millions to get the structure ready for anything on top

I think that is the biggest problem. If you said 20 million, I don't know

if that would be enough. If you said 30 million, I don't know if that

would be enough. Can you see a future for Birnbeck Pier? In its

current state, if I am honest, probably not. Unless it is going

over to community ownership, and the community can apply for some lottery

funding, I can't see any investor wanting to do anything with it that

would be commercially viable. The more I have learnt about the plight

of Birnbeck Pier, the more tragic the story has become. As to its

future, on the one hand, the plans and ideas of future developers and

on the other the doubts and concerns of the local authority. But clearly

some kind of compromise needs to be found, because if it is not, this

wonderful, historic structure will simply sink into the sea, which

would be a tragedy not just for Weston`super`Mare but the region as

a whole. The wheel is out there to see it saved. But if we cannot

foresee a commercial future for it, although it is a lovely romantic

ideal to preserve it as a piece of history, it is not realistic. Quite

possibly not but I don't really like saying that. We are stuck. Yes. In a

place that says, yes, we want to keep it but we have not got a plan.

We have not got a plan. Idea not have the money to do it. By which

ideas. `` I do not have. It is a crying shame to see it go, but maybe

that is what will happen. Where do we stop restoring things? Every

monastery pulled down by Henry VIII, every castle pulled down by

Cromwell? Some parts of our history have to be allowed to slip into

terminal decline, and that decline itself is part of history. We can go

to great mysteries that ruins and the ruin is the history as much as

the building was history. Perhaps, I don't know because I cannot predict

the future, but perhaps this is going that way. When it comes to

restoring our heritage, one thing is becoming absolutely clear, the

bigger the project, the bigger the challenges. But getting everybody to

agree on the vision for that project can be almost impossible. What they

really need to make them work, to make them viable, is a real dose of

realism, pragmatism, and above all else, compromise. And that is very

much what has happened here in the Dorset market town of Sherborne.

This is Sherborne House, a picture perfect Palladian facade but the

real treasure is inside. These murals are the work of Sir James

Thornhill, known for pieces at Hampton Court, Blenheim Palace and

Saint Pauls Cathedral. But this was a Private permission. They're slow

deterioration is the main reason Sherborne House has been on the At

Risk Register for more than a decade. Now they have been restored

to stop there was considerable paint loss and the paintings were very

dusty and dirty. Remedial treatment needed to be done, as well. Where do

you start? You start at the top and you work down. That is how you

approach conservation projects. You really get an understanding. You see

the brush strokes as you are cleaning, the under drawing, where

he has made adjustments and changed the position. You feel the working

artist through the paintings. They are nationally significant because

they are a personal work. Towards the end of Thornhill's life, and he

was an incredibly important artist, and these paintings are important

because he was the artist. The murals have been restored and the

house is clearly well on its way but this has not been achieved because

of the intrinsic historic value of Sherborne House itself. It has much

more to do with the value of the land upon which it sits. In order to

restore one house, they set about building many more. Tucked away

around the back is a new development. 44 homes built

privately as part of a deal that saved Sherborne House for future

generations. The developers will pay to restore not just the murals but

the whole of the main house, which will then be used as office space.

We had a building that was deteriorating before our eyes. We

could not let it go on. And in the current climate, the local authority

does not have the funds to restore it itself. It was imperative to do

something. It cannot just be a museum preserved forever. We have to

be pragmatic about this. We have preserved the key things. The

fantastic Thornhill murals have been preserved and the building itself is

a great landmark. You all want the same thing at the end of the day, to

produce something of value that you have tremendous pride in. It is a

sense of achievement. Certainly everyone who has worked on the new

deal scheme and the refurbishment of the house, they have taken

tremendous pride in it. There have been many occasions when planning

authorities have been very rigid and that is simply not acceptable these

days. You have to be realistic. There will be tension between

planners and developers and conservation bodies like English

Heritage, but if you get together with a common vision, there is

usually a way forward. What has been done here is not an option for every

site, but through compromise, Sherborne has been given a new lease

of life. In a secluded valley six miles South of Stroud, this is

Woodchester Mansion, the architectural venture of William

Lee. On the face of it, the mansion is a wonderful example of Gothic

revival architecture at its best. On the inside, you might expect to find

all the usual trappings of a wonderful and sumptuous home. But

what makes this so exciting for me is the fact that it was never

finished. It was 1852 when William Lee commissioned Benjamin Bucknell

to define his new home. But he was selling land to finance the project

and when the money ran out, the work stopped. Icy plenty of derelict

buildings on my travels but nothing quite prepared me for this. This is

an 1850s building site and the builders have just got up and walked

away, but they have left behind all the clues as to how they go about

building a structure like this. Look at it in its unfinished glory. Look

at that, amazing. Above my head, the original timber foreman for that

Gothic arch, still here. The timber scaffolding still here. It is old

technology in many respects, but here it is, preserved in a moment in

time. The moment when the builders simply gave up and walked away. That

is what makes this building so important. As awful as it is for the

family that it was not finished, it has left us with a real gem, and

something that we can share with Gloucestershire and the people as a

whole, so people can come and experience this amazing building. It

is like looking at a skeleton. The way architects work, and craftsmen.

You can see how the engineering works and the design. I am not a

person who finds it difficult to sleep but one of the few things that

has kept me awake at night is this mansion. And this is what gives

Terri sleepless nights, the chapel. It is this part of the mansion that

is most at risk, held up inside and out by scaffolding. It is the heart

of the building. The central place of worship built for a devout man.

It is the most complete part of Woodchester Mansion and the most

precarious. It is a huge technical job. We have to keep the rain out.

And stop it rotting. It gets wet and cold every winter and then at

certain points the stone is continuously perishing. The team are

looking for a Heritage lottery grant, but they are not just waiting

around until they get one. It is already open to the public and

private events. The team is working with the national trust who own the

land around the mansion and they are working with students at a nearby

college, where they learn stonemasonry and they are now

working on a real`life college. How long have you been learning the

craft? About a year and a half. These are going back into the

building, are they? Yes, back into that building. The last two. What is

happening here is a great example of flexibility, creativity and

open`mindedness. It is already bringing in some revenue. If you

want to get an income stream and you want to get the project under way,

you cannot be led by your own preconceptions about what the point

is of the place and what it is appropriate for. You have to talk to

people and get their ideas of how the building can work today. We

plough on into the future blind and stupid if we do not learn from our

history. If you sweep away the past, your sense of where you are, who you

are, and how your community fits together, it is just that much

weaker. There are and out of all obstacles facing our most endangered

buildings at a time when money is in short supply. `` there are undoubted

obstacles. But I have seen an army of people prepared to take and the

challenges of restoring our heritage. The injection of capital

into Castle House should help it come off the At Risk Register. And I

have seen how at Cleveland pools, the support of a major charitable

trust is giving local campaigners hope and expertise. But I have also

seen how some buildings have been left to languish for so long that

there is almost now no viable way to bring them back into use. The key is

partnership and to get people talking. It is very difficult if you

are just one person trying to save the building and you really need to

build a partnership and get a groundswell of enthusiasm behind the

building. Restoration projects also need a strong sense of reality, a

viable business plan, and if a new way of using a building can generate

revenue, then the investment in our heritage could well be an investment

in the future. In this country we are incredibly lucky. We have a

wonderful range of heritage, enormously diverse. It is also about

creating new economic opportunities as well. I strongly believe that

heritage can be a driver of our economy. It is the basis on which

you can create jobs. There is one more thing that is vital to the

success of any restoration project, and of course that is the support of

local communities. History, after all, is the story of people. It is

that which helps to forge our national identity. I am certain that

it is only by understanding and valuing the lessons of the past that

we can ever really hope to shape our future.

Hello, I'm Ellie Crisell with your 90 second update.

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