HERITAGE AT RISK 2011 / SOUTH WEST Contents HERITAGE AT RISK 3 Reducing the risks 7 Publications and guidance 10 THE REGISTER 12 Content and assessment criteria 12 Key to the entries 15 South West heritage assets at risk 17 Bath and North East Somerset (UA) 19 Bournemouth (UA) 22 Bristol, City of (UA) 22 Cornwall (UA) 24 Devon 55 Dorset 119 Gloucestershire 158 Isles of Scilly (UA) 172 North Somerset (UA) 176 Plymouth, City of (UA) 177 Poole (UA) 180 Somerset 181 South Gloucestershire (UA) 194 Swindon (UA) 196 Torbay (UA) 198 Wiltshire (UA) 200 AW_SW_Regional_Sep26_Layout 1 27/09/2011 10:19 Page 1 PRIORITY SITES COVER IMAGE: Carriage Works, Bristol, Building • Academy Theatre and Great Western Hotel (Palace Theatre), Union Street, at Risk and Priority Site Stonehouse, Plymouth • Birnbeck Pier, Weston-Super-Mare, North Somerset • Carriage Works, 104 Stokes Croft, Bristol • Cloth finishing works at Tone Mills, north range, Langford Budville, Somerset • Former Saxon church to west of Priory House, Leonard Stanley, Stroud, Gloucestershire • Grenville Battery 550yds (500m) SSW of Maker Farm, Maker-with-Rame, Cornwall • Guns Mill Barn, Littledean, Gloucestershire • Medieval moated site and Romano-British settlement at White Walls Wood, Easton Grey, Wiltshire • The Mechanics Institute, Emlyn Square, Swindon • Torbay Cinema, Torbay Road, Paignton, Torbay CONTACT: Kara Fitzhugh, Business Manager, English Heritage South West, 29/30 Queen Square, Bristol, BS1 4ND. Fax: 0117 975 0701 Telephone: 0117 975 0700 Email: [email protected] In its fourth year, the Heritage at Risk Register now includes grade I and II* listed buildings, listed places HERITAGE AT RISK of worship, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, protected IN THE SOUTH WEST wreck sites and conservation areas known to be at risk as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate SCHEDULED MONUMENTS AT RISK development. This year, for the first time, we have published a list of ‘priority sites’: important heritage BUILDINGS AT RISK at risk sites where we will focus our resources to secure their futures. PLACES OF WORSHIP AT RISK REGISTERED PARKS AND GARDENS AT RISK REGISTERED BATTLEFIELDS AT RISK This Register is published at a time of significant change in the Communities, trusts and voluntary organisations play crucial roles LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITY heritage sector. Alongside the impacts of the global recession in saving historic buildings. With the reduction in public resources are the effects of the 2010 Spending Review, proposed changes taking effect, their roles may become even more crucial. Trusts to the planning system, and the continued emphasis on the Big like the Cullompton Walronds Preservation Trust in Devon, the Society. The Register reminds us that the challenge of securing community of Maker-with-Rame in Cornwall and the church sustainable futures for vulnerable heritage assets is here to stay. council of St Peter and St Paul, Wincanton, Somerset are all Whilst we have cause for celebration this year, with 13 grade I engaged in major repair schemes to secure local heritage assets and II* buildings removed from the Register, no protected wreck at risk. And our research with the UK Association of Preservation sites at risk, and more data on the condition of our conservation Trusts on the work of the region’s building preservation trusts areas, we know that future success depends on adapting to will inform joint working on heritage at risk in the future. rapidly changing circumstances. The16 new grade I and II* listed In the midst of so much change, the value of expert advice buildings added to our 2011 Register remind us that for every cannot be underestimated. It helps establish appropriate courses building secured, another awaits an urgent solution. of action, accurate costings and sensitive repair techniques; it As the South West economy makes tentative steps toward provides reassurance to communities and funders tackling major recovery, we continue to encourage developers to invest in heritage at risk projects. This was the case at Birnbeck Pier, vulnerable historic buildings. High profile buildings at risk such North Somerset, where English Heritage technical advice was instrumental in informing a phased repair programme for this © Crown Copyright and database right 2011. as Tone Mills near Taunton, Somerset remain mothballed, and All rights reserved. Ordnance Survey Licence long-term building at risk. 080Km will be a priority for us in the coming year. Many public sector number 100024900. funding sources have been cut or reduced; smaller awards, The value of the Heritage at Risk Register is clear at this time: particularly our own, must be carefully targeted and invested it provides a fixed point of reference, sets out the priorities for strategically. Heritage assets with little or no ability to generate action, and reminds us that securing a sustainable future for revenue funding depend on such public subsidy, and have been historic assets is often a long process which can and must If you would like this document in a different For more information on Heritage at Risk a priority for our limited grants this year. weather economic and political change. format, please contact our customer services visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/risk What will change in the planning system mean for heritage at department on telephone: 0870 333 1181 risk? The shift to community-led plan-making could benefit the fax: 01793 414926 textphone: 01793 414878 way that local heritage assets are understood, used and cared for. email: [email protected] We could learn lessons from places like Chudleigh, Devon, whose O9/11)COL550 community masterplanning exercise might help address the issues Andrew Vines, Planning Director which have placed its conservation area at risk. SOUTH WEST 51715(EV AW_SW_Regional_Sep26_Layout 1 27/09/2011 10:19 Page 3 BUILDINGS AT RISK REGISTERED BATTLEFIELDS INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE • Nationally, 3.0% of grade I and II* listed buildings are at risk. • Of the 43 registered battlefields in England, 6 are at risk, In the South West this falls to 2.1%, representing 154 sites. 2 less than the 2008 baseline. None of the 8 registered Britain was the world’s first industrial nation battlefields in the South West are at risk. • 13 sites have been removed from the 2010 Register, and has a wealth of industrial heritage but many but 16 have been added. industrial sites have been lost or are at risk due • 58% of entries (106 buildings) on the baseline 1999 Register PROTECTED WRECK SITES to functional redundancy. Our survey has shown for the South West have been removed as their futures have • Of the 46 protected wreck sites off England’s coast, 7 are at that the percentage of listed industrial buildings been secured, compared to the national figure of 53% risk, 3 less that the 2008 baseline. None of the 23 protected at risk is three times greater than the national (757 buildings). wreck sites off the coast of the South West are at risk. average for listed buildings at risk. • Nationally, £5.2m was offered to 71 sites on the Register during 2010/11. In the South West we awarded grants CONSERVATION AREAS The conservation of industrial sites can pose considerable totalling £509k to 4 sites. challenges. However, industrial sites often have great potential • 288 local planning authorities (86%) have taken part in the for re-use. Our research shows that the best way of saving • 21 listed places of worship are included on our Register national survey of conservation areas, of which 35 are in industrial buildings is, where possible, to find an adaptive new this year.We estimate the cost of repairing these buildings the South West.This is 90% of our local planning authorities. use.We know this isn’t easy, and is not always possible, but is £2.9m. • We now have information on the condition of 7,841of we hope those who own or are thinking of developing an ROBINSON'S SHAFT, SOUTH CROFTY, CORNWALL England’s 9,600 designated conservation areas and 516 industrial building will find our new web pages an invaluable source of information. Robinson’s Shaft complex is an early C20 development at the SCHEDULED MONUMENTS (6.6%) are at risk. last working tin mine in Europe.The complex has suffered from • 16.9% (3,339) of England’s19,748 scheduled monuments are • Of the 1,089 conservation areas surveyed in the Voluntary groups and owners have saved a number of key redundancy, neglect and vandalism, but with significant public industrial sites, often sites which contain working machinery. funding, it will be the centrepiece of a regeneration project at risk, compared to 20.3% (1,419 sites) in the South West. South West, 88 (8.1%) are at risk. to provide work, employment and greenspace for former However, research has shown that many of these groups need mining communities • In the South West, 84 sites have been removed from support to encourage more and younger members to achieve the 2010 Register, but 93 sites have been added. the rescue of the site. • 8.5% of entries (121 sites) on the baseline 2009 Register for Building preservation trusts can provide the answer for the South West have been removed due to positive reasons, industrial buildings where there is no apparent commercial compared to the national figure of 11.9% (399 sites). solution by repairing the site and then selling it, or retaining • Arable ploughing and unrestricted plant, scrub or tree and letting the space. growth account for nearly two thirds of sites at risk nationally. The proportion is similar in the South West. What we know What are we doing? • Nationally, 82% of scheduled monuments at risk are in private ownership, this falls to 75% in the South West.