Legal News

Building Work Starts On Restoration Project

19/05/2011

Building and restoration work on an award-winning heritage site in Wellesbourne, which won funding from BBC TV’s Restoration Village programme, is due to start.
Having received charitable status, The Chedham’s Yard Trust is now in a position to forge ahead with plans to restore the early 19th century blacksmith and wheelwright workshop and build a visitor centre.
The sympathetic restoration will be untaken by Cannock-based Croft Building & Conservation, which is a leading restorer of listed buildings, churches, castles and estates throughout the Midlands.
Solicitor Kevin Mitchell, from Leamington law firm Blythe Liggins, has been appointed company secretary. “We were delighted to achieve charitable status and, having got all the legalities completed, the trust is now in a position to drive the project forward by involving these specialist builders and restorers. Having worked for the National Trust and English Heritage, we are confident that Croft will be sympathetic to the yard’s beginnings and that we will soon be able to make this resource available to the community.”
The heritage site was owned and run by seven generations of the same family until Bill Chedham left the business in 1965. Leaving the workshop exactly as it was, the site became of historical interest and was bought by the Parish Council in 1992. In 2006 thousands of BBC viewers voted for the yard to win the £250,000 of restoration funding from the programme which sought to save the nation’s threatened historical sites. Chedham’s Yard also secured grants of £780,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.
The trust has also signed a 25-year lease with the parish council, taking on all responsibility for restoring the historic blacksmith and wheelwright workshops, caring for the 5,000 artefact collection, erecting a visitor’s centre and opening the site to the public. Trust chairman, John McKenzie, said: “We are now entering the most exciting phase of the project when we will be able to see tangible evidence on the ground of all the hard work that has gone into the planning. I would like thank Wellesbourne Parish Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and BBC Restoration, along with the Warwickshire Museum Service, the Friends of Chedham’s Yard and many others, for all their support since the project.”
Anne Jenkins of Heritage Lottery Fund added: “Chedham’s Yard gives us a wonderful snapshot of working life in the 19th century. It captured people’s imaginations on the BBC Restoration Village programme and perfectly illustrates a fast disappearing but important part of our rural heritage. The Heritage Lottery Fund is passionate about ensuring that heritage isn’t just about interpreting the past, but is relevant to the future and we are delighted that Chedham’s Yard is now ready to start its transformational journey from derelict buildings to a place for learning and quiet enjoyment for the local community.”

Photo caption: (l-r) James Nelmes from builders Croft, John McKenzie – chair of the trustees of Chedham’s Yard, Heather Cox – trustee, Matt Davies from Croft and Kevin Mitchell, company secretary and solicitor from Blythe Liggins Solicitors.