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November 2010 update
Since the September update another Executive Committee member has joined the Gates sub-committee. He is Henry Williams who was involved with the restoration of the gate pillars at St Paul’s church. http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/news/Cheltenham-church-completes-163-200k-revamp/article-1572820-detail/article.html
Dr Steven Blake gave a fascinating talk on the history of Pittville Gates at the AGM on 21 October and since then Friends of Pittville members, Judie and James Hodsdon, have carried out a lot of research. This will be published in the Cheltenham Local History Society’s (CLHS) Annual early in the new year. In an effort to obtain more information about the Gates Judie and James designed a questionnaire which is on our website and which also was enclosed with the latest issue of the CLHS’s newsletter.
We are still clarifying ownership of Pittville Gates and hope to have a resolution before too long. We have decided to proceed with the project on the assumption that this resolution will be positive.
We have met staff at Cheltenham Borough Council several times over the last two months and hope to have some initial drawings to share with you as well as indicative costings for the project. These will be needed for any applications to funding bodies which we might make in the immediate future.
In fact, we will be applying to Community Spaces http://www.community-spaces.org.uk/ in early January 2011 for the landscaping element. This funding will be finishing next year so it is important to apply now.
We invited Professor Michael Dower, from St Philip and St James (Leckhampton) Area Residents Association http://www.spjara.org.uk/ who was the project manager for the Norwood Triangle project http://www.cheltenham.gov.uk/site/scripts/news_article.php?newsID=572 to our 25 November sub-committee meeting where he shared his ‘lessons learned’ with us. He has continued to give us useful information and inspiration, for which we are most grateful.
We are planning three events in the next four months –
· a public meeting in late January - early February when people can view the drawings and plans as they are at that stage and can express their views
· an event, on Sunday 6 February 2011, when people can bring their postcards, photographs and other illustrations of Pittville and in particular, the Gates, to share with others. The aim is to add to our knowledge of Pittville and the Gates. We have invited another historian, Sue Rowbotham, to give a brief talk on interpreting postcards etc. in local history
· the public fund-raising launch, which will be in April 2011
Details of each of these events will be on the website when they are finalised.
In the meantime, 200 families and businesses in Prestbury Road, Winchcombe Street, Clarence Road and Pittville Lawn have received a letter in which we explain what we hope to do, how far we have got, and inviting them to comment now or at the public meeting referred to above. This letter also enclosed the Pittville Gates questionnaire mentioned above.
Pittville Gates restoration project 2010 - Frequently asked questions
1 Why is Friends of Pittville taking on this project? Restoring Pittville Gates was top and second priority for Friends and the public respectively in the Heritage Lottery Fund consultation in 2007.
2 How much is it going to cost? We estimate about £250,000, to make new stone piers, to restore the existing ironwork, and to landscape the surrounding area. It will probably cost more as we hope to have the missing ironwork replaced.
3 Why doesn’t the Borough Council get the Gates restored? Budgetary constraints are even tighter now and the Council has many demands on its financial resources. There are other sources of finance which community groups can access which are not open to government bodies. The Council will provide support in kind and there may be opportunities later for the Council to provide cash.
4 Why keep the gates at all? Why not raise money for maintaining the park better, planting flower beds etc.? The gates are part of the original Pittville Estate and are listed grade 2 by English Heritage, which says ‘the Gateway forms a significant streetscape feature’. Also, charities and other sources of funding do not give money for maintenance - they expect the owners of the property to pay for this.
5 The traffic goes in the wrong direction to see the gates, so why bother? The gates are used by hundreds of pedestrians every day and many cyclists as well. Visitors to the Holst Museum also see the gates. The current Gloucestershire local transport consultation includes traffic modelling and there is a possibility that traffic flow may be changed.
6 Why not move the gates somewhere else where they can be seen better? This is the original location and there is no other place that is more fitting.
If you have any questions or information you would like to share with the Gates Project team, please contact us on gates@friendsofpittville.org
November 2010 |
