Reepham selected to promote launch of Heritage at Risk Register

Reepham was selected to help promote last week’s launch of the Heritage at Risk Register, receiving news coverage from the national and regional media.
 
On Monday 7 October, a senior figure from English Heritage, Ingham Pinnock Associates and volunteers spent the day with the BBC, the Eastern Daily Press and English Heritage photographers, film crew and interviewers at the Bircham Centre and elsewhere in Reepham.
 

Volunteers in Broadland have been successfully surveying and identifying Grade II buildings at risk: (left to right) Mike Cowdrey, Tim Praill, Judith Havens, Ann Buck and Tony Shaw. Photo: English Heritage

 
English Heritage is the government body responsible for conservation, giving advice, registering and protecting the historic environment. One of its major jobs is maintaining the Heritage at Risk Register, which records listed buildings that are considered to be “at risk” – that is, if nothing is done about them they will be lost.
 
In the past, the register has only recorded the most important properties, designated Grade I and Grade II*. However, in England there are about 375,000 listed properties and only about 30,000 are Grade I and Grade II*; the other 345,000 are Grade II – these have not formed part of the register because there were too many to examine and assess for the professional resources available.
 
The only way English Heritage thought it possible to assess all these buildings would be to engage volunteers. It set up 19 pilot trials looking at 5,000 Grade II buildings from Tyneside to Dorset using different approaches and methods of training volunteers to be able to assess a building’s condition and judge how much risk it was at.
 
Broadland District Council was selected as one of the 19 organisations involved, and It decided to employ Ingham Pinnock Associates, who had already carried out significant economic strategy and other community initiatives for the Council and were familiar with the district.
 
In February, volunteers were sought to work on the Broadland Buildings at Risk Pilot Project and about 100 people responded. Of these, some 50 attended the training day in April, including Denise Treissman, Chris Peakome and Mike Cowdrey from Reepham.
 
This brought together experts in conservation and risk assessment to pass on the basic skills needed. Volunteers were paired off, allocated a mentor and given several Grade II properties to assess over the following couple of months.
 
In early August, the volunteers and experts came together again for a “wash-up” and we got the first inkling that we had done rather well. In fact, the Broadland Pilot had been among the most successful in the country, probably because management had been clear, the methodology simple and the training effective.
 
As a result, English Heritage selected the Broadland Pilot as a central feature in the launch of the Heritage at Risk Register on 10 October in London and Reepham was selected as the venue for filming and interviews to promote the launch.
 
Mike Cowdrey and Ann Buck, who had worked with Denise Triessman as a volunteer, travelled to London to meet Simon Thurley, chief executive of English Heritage, and to speak at the launch about their experiences and why they believed the work was important.
 
As a result of the success of the Buildings at Risk Pilot, English Heritage intends to expand the scheme. If you would like to add to your knowledge, to make a difference to our heritage, and to meet and work with new people, please consider volunteering for next year’s survey.
 
Find out more HERE, or contact: English Heritage, East of England, Brooklands, 24 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BU. Tel: 01223 582700.
 
Mike Cowdrey
 

Left to right: Ross Ingham, director at Ingham Pinnock Associates; John Ette, Heritage at Risk Principle for the East of England, English Heritage; and Kate Pinnock, director at Ingham Pinnock Associates. Photo: English Heritage

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