We continue to promote more sustainable WE’VE BEEN BUSY! forms of development that enhance the local After 18 months of hard work, the Purifier economy and provide opportunities for Building was officially opened on 31 May by employment, recreation and tourism in the The Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, long term. Admiral the Lord Boyce – though there’s lots We have an elected representative on the still to be done (see inside). We also had a management group of the Faversham Creek celebrity visit on 17 May, from Griff Rhys Consortium. Jones, President of Civic Voice. There’s more about both events on the website. … and the Dinghy Race in the Basin on 27 April, at which Deputy Mayor Nigel Kay presented the Purifier Cup to the winner, local boat-builder Alan Staley. The Lord Warden, The Mayor of Faversham Councillor David Simmons and Sea Cadet Ben Chittenden We raise awareness of flood risk issues. Previous plans by Swale Borough Council GETTING THINGS DONE have prohibited housing along the creekside because of flood risks. The flood risk Faversham Creek Trust is an independent, designation was changed during the current We have fun as we fundraise! Hundreds of non-political, not-for-profit community enterprise. planning process, but the actual risk is still people danced and laughed at last Its overall aim is to restore Faversham Creek as significant. September’s Barn Dance and the Christmas a working waterway. In particular, it will: Hop with Hamish Stuart and his band. We organise litter picking days to clear along Help to regenerate the Creek as a community the Creek banks – and were delighted to find resource the illustrated map taken from an information Develop a training scheme for shipwrights panel on Crab Island. It is now back where it Foster traditional boat building skills, and belongs. Members of The Trust also join in Promote tourism linked to the town’s maritime Councillor Cindy Davies’ litter picking events. heritage. We support events run by other Faversham In order to achieve these aims the Trust is people, such as the very popular Nautical refurbishing the Purifier Building to act as a Festival in May, organised by Lena Reekie for training centre, a workshop, and a focus for the Kent Sail Association. We recruited over community activities relating to the town’s a hundred new members and introduced our maritime heritage as a Cinque Port Limb. In new range of T-shirts … partnership with other organisations it is also Come to the next Barn Dance campaigning for a new lifting bridge that will re- open access to the upper Basin, and contributing on Friday, 27 September to the local authority planning process. The Trust is taking part in the Faversham Creek Neighbourhood Plan (see back page for more details). It contributes to the wider planning process. Recent examples are the proposed developments at Ordnance Wharf (the “cruise ship” block of flats) and Standard Quay (conversion of the black shed into a windowless restaurant surrounded by a car park). Housing of any kind on Ordnance Wharf would severely restrict maritime It’s being held at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar activities at the Purifier and the upper Creek School, from 7.30 to 10.30 pm. Music is by Mike Wheeler’s Faversham Steam Navigation Band, as a whole; converting the Standard Quay and Ruth Cronk will be the Caller. Bring your building into a restaurant would end forever own food and drink - and be prepared to dance! the centuries-old maritime use of Standard Quay. The future of these sites is still Tickets cost £8 (£6 unwaged) and are available unresolved – and our efforts to prevent now. Call Sixer on 01795 530121. damaging development continue. NEWSLETTER 3 AUGUST 2013 FROM BIRDS TO BOATS: LET THE SUN SHINE IN 18 MONTHS’ WORK ON THE PURIFIER BUILDING Ten tons of scrap metal, 100 gallons of waste oil, 22 tons of rubble, 4 tons of ivy and 5 tons of pigeon droppings – that’s what our volunteers had to remove from the Purifier Building before renovation could begin. The building had been empty, derelict and vandalised for half a century – until All the original cast iron windows needed 18 months ago, when the Trust took it over. SCRUBS UP NICELY attention. First they had to be stripped of paint Thanks to the owners, Morrisons, we were and putty. Broken ones were restored, missing able to sign a 35-year renewable rent-free The interior was scrubbed from top to bottom – swing casements reproduced in new metal, and lease, in return for restoring the building to a no small task, as ceiling heights climb to 35 feet new ones are being made to re-instate bricked- safe, useable and attractive condition. – and the walls painted white to reflect the light, up openings. The windows have temporary revealing the beauty of the large, open spaces. Perspex but, when funds permit, will be fitted The dream that sustained the volunteers through with secondary double glazing to preserve the these labours of Hercules was starting to look integrity of the beautiful frames. The external like reality. woodwork and windows have been painted in the same green that Morrisons use, so now the Purifier looks very smart – a testament to the skills of our Faversham craftsmen! An enthusiastic team started clearing the pigeon droppings and closing the gaps that birds used for entry. For a while a few dozen forlorn pigeons sat on the roof, but all seem to have found new homes now. Ivy was stripped from the walls to reveal brick work in surprisingly good condition, though one gable end of the long wing was leaning and had to be rebuilt, and the others were repointed and strengthened. Waterproof coping was laid to the Work continued with reconstruction of the roof. gables. The Sponsor a Slate Fund to which so many Engineering tell-tale glass strips were placed members contributed (and which is still open!) across cracks inside the building to test for helped with the £30,000 cost. The roof on the movement – and they are still intact. This long wing was stripped, rafters replaced or indicates that the building is now structurally strengthened and repaired, and breathable sound and the cracks can be knitted together underlay fitted. and filled. The slates could not be re-used, so new ones were laid, with specially made ridge tiles to fit the Inside, floorboards and beams damaged by fire- non-standard roof pitch (with the Purifier, nothing setting vandals were replaced. Two temporary is straightforward!). The roof on the short wing partition walls were removed and supporting was carefully removed and properly disposed of. steel beams inserted to open up the space. A The planners required the new roof to look the large and heavy internal partition was recycled same, so we used the modern equivalent, as a balcony balustrade. Two internal walls corrugated Cyber Cement. below the new steel beam have been locked into vertical steel columns to give strong reinforcement to the structure. All the waste was disposed of responsibly: the guano now fertilises hedgerows and field margins to encourage wild life, the oil and metal went for recycling and the rubble forms part of the restored Cremer’s Wharf at Oare. Page 2 MOVING IN MANY THANKS OUR CIVIC VOICE In May the classic sailing yacht Mayhi was Around 50 volunteers have worked on the brought into the Purifier on a special jig, with building, a real tribute to Faversham people’s everyone holding their breath as she was tilted dedication to our town and the Creek in to just the right angle to fit through the doors, particular. There has been a core team of twelve then inched into place (you can see this on video regular workers, including highly skilled at http://vimeo.com/67380734). tradesmen in wood, metal and electricity. Many more have supported our efforts through fundraising, helping with stalls and exhibitions, planning and research, the artistry of our publicity posters which explain the Creek and its history so clearly – the list goes on. Sincere Griff Rhys Jones visited Faversham on 17 May thanks to everyone. in his role as President of Civic Voice. The Board of Trustees has ambitious plans for Faversham was one of four distinctive towns in Kent chosen for the tour. the future. For the Purifier to achieve its full potential as a centre for maritime trades, the He gave an invigorating speech in his inimitable Basin must be re-opened as a navigable part of style about the problems that community the Creek. The Trust has been working hard to organisations encounter and overcome to identify possible replacements for the swing preserve and restore their heritage. She is now settled in the Shipwright’s Hall, bridge and presenting the case to Peel Ports waiting for the first apprentices to take her lines, (responsible for creek navigation) and Kent lay them out on the lofting floor on the first floor County Council (responsible for the road bridge). shipwrights’ balcony, then start to make replicas THE LORD WARDEN of her. Simon Grillet, the master shipwright, will If we can succeed with re-opening the Basin, On 30 May the Lord Warden of the Cinque start work with the first apprentice later this restoring the wharves and clearing the silt, we Ports, Admiral the Lord Boyce KG, GCB, OBE, month. It will be a thrilling day when the first of can look forward to the day when barges and DL formally opened the Purifier Building. He the new Mayhi yachts is launched.