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Extraction funds helps save the past |
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Extraction funds helps save the past |
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Chichester's historic Guildhall is receiving about £72,000 from the Aggregates Levy Sustainability Fund (ALSF) to carry out much needed repairs. The area around Chichester has long been affected by aggregates extraction. Barney Sloane, Head of English Heritage's Historic Environment Commissions, which distributes the Fund, says ‘The environmental impacts of quarrying and transport of sand, gravel and stone have significant effects on communities close by. What we are trying to do is to lessen this impact by helping to ensure that deteriorating but much-loved and nationally important historic buildings in such communities are repaired so that they can play a stronger role in sustaining and restoring a sense of pride and place now and for the future’. The Guildhall is one of the earliest original structures standing within Chichester's city walls and one of the few surviving Franciscan buildings in the country which is still roofed. Its accessible location in the middle of Priory Park makes it a popular venue for community events, but this has also made it vulnerable to damage. The Guildhall is the chancel of the former church of the Franciscan friars in Chichester, built in the late 13th century. Following the dissolution of the monasteries in October 1538 the building was sold to the city of Chichester and converted into a Guildhall when it became the meeting place of the City Corporation and the local courts. Courts were held at the Guildhall up until the 1850s. The Guildhall was disused by 1888 and converted into a museum and archaeological store. It has been open to the public since the 1930s and is now owned by Chichester District Council. English Heritage will disburse £4 million of ALSF money on behalf of Defra during the financial year 2007/8. More at www.defra.gov.uk/environment/ waste/aggregates/index.htm or www.english-heritage.org.uk, then type in ‘ALSF’. |
7 December 2007 |
