SAVE OUR PARSONAGES is a splendid name for a campaigning preservation group. The Summer 2004 Newsletter suggests an intriguing new tactic for rescuing churches and parsonages from dioceses determined to sell them off. It comes from Paul Williamson, Rector of St George’s Hanworth Park Middlesex, who is “condemned to live in a pseudo-Georgian house that is woefully inadequate for meetings and parish events” while he looks daily at “the rectory sold for a song” which would fit parish requirements.
He says that the Land Registry has revealed that it is prepared to register title deeds to the parish church “under the 12-year rule”. This means that, where no title deeds exist, the church wardens, PCC or incumbent can apply for a simple Declaration of Occupation because they have maintained the parish church on behalf of the people. Thus a parish trust will own the church, not the diocese.
The same principle, he says, applies to the parsonage house. Each parish pays the diocese a sum for maintenance and repairs of the house. Since this comes from parishioners, they can make a statutory declaration which may allow the land to be registered in the name of the parish. “Many former sales of churches and parsonages could have been prevented,” he says.
Meanwhile, under no circumstances should SOP change its name to Historic Church Houses Society or they will never be heard of again. Contact Anthony Jennings on 020-7636 4884; ajsjennings@hotmail.com
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Government ministers in Ulster continue to maintain their record of fecklessness on heritage issues. The latest example is the demolition over a weekend of the end of the listed 19th-century terrace in Malone Place in Belfast. The Ulster Architectural Heritage Society had challenged the approval to demolish in court. Ulster’s former Department of the Environment did not seek to justify its decision but undertook to take a fresh look at the matter. Now they have acquiesced in a pre-emptive demolition.
In Ulster, as in England, there is a clear policy that listed buildings should be put on the open market at a price reflecting their condition before consent is granted for demolition. Part of the UAHS case was that this had not happened. Ministers and civil servants in Ulster evidently consider they are above the law in such matters.
If this case is not pursued other buildings will certainly follow. The UAHS recently successfully challenged another demolition approval, this time of a fine house on the main square of Dromore, Co Down. Now they are concerned the DoE will nod this through as well. This will be an even greater travesty as the Heritage Lottery Fund has offered to grant some £300,000 towards a Townscape Heritage Initiative if this listed building is retained. UAHS 028-9055 0213
There is fresh hope for Abbotsford, the great Gothic shrine of the Sir Walter Scott. A crisis had been prompted by the sudden death of Dame Jean Maxwell-Scott, who lived in the house and opened it to the public. The National Trust for Scotland recently decided that it could not take on the house if it meant raising funds for the contents.
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Now another member of the splendid Scott family has come forward willing to devote themselves to the care of Abbotsford, so the estate is safe leaving the NTS the devote energies to the saving of Dumfries House, with its remarkable Adam interiors and Chippendale furniture.
When it was built, Colonel Seifert’s Centre Point was the most notorious building in London. Now it is listed and the Greater London Authority has earmarked the area around it as suitable for a new cluster of tall buildings. Camden council has identified the site as appropriate for a contemporary tall building of “outstanding” design.
Now, Make, the breakaway architectural practice formed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank’s former partner Ken Shuttleworth, has designed a 35-storey mixed use tower for a site near Centre Point which the Saudi Royal family is negotiating to buy. One reason why the ambience of the West End is so much more pleasant than the City is that, like the centre of Paris, it has very few tall buildings. Make has also drawn up an alternative 14-storey development for the site if the tower option proves unpopular with the public and planners. This is an important issue. In the City English Heritage’s standpoint on tall buildings was hopelessly compromised by its volte-face on the Gherkin. In the West End it can put this right by setting out the issues and implications in a way that will ensure a full public debate.