We are truly delighted that the Broadland buildings at risk pilot has been recognised as making an important contribution to the development of a national programme for surveying Grade II Listed Buildings.
Today English Heritage launches the first ‘crowd-sourcing’ project to tackle heritage at risk. Working with other bodies in the heritage sector and local authorities, English Heritage aims to provide the means for members of the public to volunteer to carry out surveys of England’s 345,000 Grade II Listed Buildings as a first step to continued engagement in saving heritage. The initiative is expected to empower local communities to become more actively involved with Listed Buildings and structures in their area.
The announcement will be made today by English Heritage’s Chief Executive at the launch of the Heritage at Risk Register 2013 and has already been covered widely by the national media.
English Heritage commissioned a series of pilots at the start of 2013 to test a range of different methodologies for potentially taking on the task of a national survey of Grade II Listed Buildings that might be at risk from neglect or decay. Nineteen pilots were carried out including the Ingham Pinnock Associates project, by varying combinations of councils, civic groups, consultants and volunteers.
Our ‘Broadland Pilot’ was a unique partnership between us and Broadland District Council with other specialists from local government and private sector such as IS Heritage making up the rest of the team. It engaged a large number of volunteers to undertake building surveys across Broadland in Norfolk. Our approach sought to do more with less, by engaging, training and empowering volunteers from the local community to go out and survey a sample of the 900 Grade II Listed buildings in the district. The buildings ranged from historic walls, barns, village pumps, telephone kiosks, residential and commercial properties and even a set of village stocks.
We were determined from the outset that the Broadland Pilot would just be about identifying buildings that needed help but that it was actually about putting steps in place to repair them and bring them back into beneficial use. Reflecting this, workshops with English Heritage and other specialists have already been held to review some of the buildings in detail and develop strategies to deliver repairs and maintenance and help bring them back to life.
To read the BBC coverage please click here.
