NOVEMBER 20th 7.30pm.
Lecture Series: Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre 7.30pm

Neil Bamford from the Watts Gallery and Village in the Surrey Hills will give a talk on the Victorian painter George Frederic Watts, known as ‘England’s Michelangelo’, and his wife, Mary, a renowned potter.
A visit to the Watts Gallery and Village will be one of the highlights of a 5 day visit for members of the Trust from March 31st-April 4th 2025. Other places of interest during the visit will include Hughenden Manor, the home of Benjamin Disraeli, the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham and a private viewing of the National Trust’s Polesden Lacey.

Booking details will be included in the December Newsletter.

NOVEMBER 22nd 5.45pm.
* Talk by David Ebsworth about his mystery thriller set in Wrexham in 1876 including pie, mash and pea supper.

2025

JANUARY 5th 7pm.
‘Twelfth Night Quiz’ – Bishop Lloyds Palace – £10 including festive refreshments – booking forms in December mail out

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 15th at the Grosvenor Museum Lecture Theatre at 7.30pm
Lecture Series: DR JAMES WRIGHT will talk about his recent book ‘Historic Building Mythbusting’

THURSDAY JANUARY 30th at Bishop Lloyd’s Palace at 2.00pm
MICHAEL TREVOR BARNSTON, a Life Member of Chester Civic Trust, will give a talk about his family’s illustrious history followed by afternoon tea. Booking forms in the December Newsletter

MARCH 31 – APRIL 4
Residential visit to the Surrey Hills including the Watts Gallery and Artists Village (details in the December Newsletter). Following from the lecture in November, a visit to the Watts Gallery and Village will be one of the highlights of the 5 day visit for members of the Trust. Other places of interest during the visit will include Hughenden Manor, the home of Benjamin Disraeli, the Stanley Spencer Gallery in Cookham and a private viewing of the National Trust’s Polesden Lacey.

MAY 21st 2025
Special guided tour of Wrexham.

 

Please note Civic Trust members have FREE admission to the lectures at the Grosvenor Museum. Guests are welcome £5 on the door.

(Booking forms for events marked * were included in the September mail out.)

In July the government published a consultation on a new national planning policy framework that will govern the scope and content of planning decisions and polices made at the local level. This will directly influence the content and policies of the next local plan to be drawn up by Cheshire West and Chester Council.
The government state that amending the planning framework, and universal, ambitious local plan coverage – are vital to deliver the Government’s commitments to achieve economic growth and build 1.5 million new homes.

The main features of this new guidance set out by the government are as follows:

  • Make the standard method for assessing housing needs mandatory, requiring local authorities to plan for the resulting housing need figure.
  • Implement a new standard method and calculation to ensure local plans are ambitious enough to support the Government’s manifesto commitment of 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament.
  • Broaden the existing definition of brownfield land, set a strengthened expectation that applications on brownfield land will be approved and that plans should promote an uplift in density in urban areas.
  • Identify grey belt land within the Green Belt, to be brought forward into the planning system through both plan and decision-making to meet development needs.
  • Improve the operation of ‘the presumption’ in favour of sustainable development, to ensure it acts an effective failsafe to support housing supply, by clarifying the circumstances in which it applies; and, introducing new safeguards, to make clear that its application cannot justify poor quality development.
  • Deliver affordable, well-designed homes, with new “golden rules” for land released in the Green Belt to ensure it delivers in the public interest.
  • Make wider changes to ensure that local planning authorities are able to prioritise the types of affordable homes their communities need on all housing development and that the planning system supports a more diverse housebuilding sector.
  • Support economic growth in key sectors, aligned with the Government’s industrial strategy and future local growth plans.
  • Deliver community needs to support society and the creation of healthy
    places. And
  • Support clean energy and the environment, including through support for onshore wind and renewables.

Civic Voice’s Response to the National Planning Policy Framework Consultation

Civic Voice is a national charity representing civic societies across the country. The government supports civic societies like the Chester Civic Trust as recently stated in a letter to Civic Voice from the government.
“We recognise the important role that civic societies play in promoting the interests of local communities and I would like to assure you that community involvement in place-making is at the heart of the planning system.”
Civic Voice is encouraged by this recognition and urges the Government to ensure that local communities’ voices remain central in planning and housing decisions.

Key points from Civic Voice’s response include:

Housing Affordability: Civic Voice emphasises that simply increasing housing targets will not automatically result in more homes being built or lower house prices. Without targeted reforms, the private sector may continue to prioritise high-end developments, leaving the urgent need for affordable and social housing unmet. Civic Voice calls for stronger public sector involvement and funding, empowering local authorities and housing associations to meet community needs.
Community Involvement: Civic Voice urges the Government to strengthen Statements of Community Involvement, ensuring that local communities have a meaningful role in shaping major planning decisions. Public engagement must be an ongoing process at every stage of development to rebuild trust and ensure local voices are not just heard, but acted upon.
Strategic Planning: Civic Voice supports enhanced strategic planning at sub-regional levels, potentially overseen by combined authorities, to address complex housing and infrastructure issues. Local housing markets should be assessed by regional bodies, with findings used to guide public investment programmes.
Net Zero and VAT Reform: Civic Voice highlights the urgent need for planning policy to support the Government’s net zero ambitions. Building new homes must go hand in hand with sustainability goals, ensuring developments are energy-efficient and contribute to carbon reduction targets. To this end, Civic Voice calls for reform to the VAT system to incentivise retrofitting and refurbishment of existing homes.

The Chester Civic Trust’s New Works Committee and Strategic Development Committee will monitor the governments response to this consultation and the way in which the revised NPPF will influence decisions on planning applications and on policies in an emerging new local plan for the CWAC area.

The AGM was held on Thursday 3rd October 2024 in the Refectory, Chester Cathedral, St Werburgh Street, Chester.

The formal business was preceded by a fantastic talk from The Bishop of Chester, Mark Tanner.

Mark spoke significantly about the buildings we inherit, use and pass on to others and how their function might, or has to, change to fit the times. We are simply custodians!

The conversion of Chester Civic Trust’s status to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) was voted in unanimously.

Here is the link to the new constitution which has been worked on intensively and approved by your committees and trustees.

 

In May the trust did something unusual: we moved one of our regular social meetings from Bishop Lloyd’s Palace to the Bluecoat Building. We have to thank Mike, Cathy and Janette for welcoming us there. The changed location was appropriate because Anthony Annakin-Smith was giving his lecture on Chester Foundling Hospital. It was housed in the building.

A group of visitors from the London branch joined us as our guests. They were led by Chris Jones and her Voices Through Time digitalisation team. The Coram Hospital kept detailed records of the children in its care. These date from 1739 to the mid-fifties. There are over half a million documents. The team is digitalising the earliest records. These form about a quarter of the archive. They consist of such items as the registration records of the children. They were numbered on arrival and given a new name. Baptism took place if this was necessary. If the mother left a note this was placed on the record. Medical records are also available. Some of these stories are available on the web

Tony has been working with the group. On a random visit to the Museum, he discovered that a branch of the Hospital had been opened in Chester. This was an interesting surprise to him, and he was driven to research this new information.

Between 1756 and 1760 the government legislated that all children handed in to the Hospital had to be cared for. This period, called the Great Reception, meant that the number of children in the Hospital’s care was multiplied. It was beyond what the London branch could manage, and seven provincial outposts were opened. Chester was one of these.  It took orphans from London from 1763 to 1769. The hub of their work was the Bluecoat Building but most children were ‘farmed out’ to so-called nurses in local villages.

There is a synopsis of Tony’s engrossing talk on the Coram website. He is also writing a book on the subject. He hopes it will be published next year. We will keep you informed.

The Foundling Museum in the Euston/Bloomsbury area is well worth a visit. Upstairs are magnificent rooms and an art gallery. Downstairs is a museum telling the sad stories of the young people in its care. Particularly moving is the collection of tokens left by parents to identify their child in case they could ever reclaim them.

FOUNDLING MUSEUM, 40, BRUNSWICK SQUARE, LONDON. WC1N 1AZ. Open Tuesday to Sunday

Karen McKay

Now in its 18th year, The Chester Civic Trust has given its verdict on the best examples of new development, renovation of existing buildings and community projects in its annual Good, Bad and Ugly awards for the City.

The awards made at a ceremony at the headquarters of Chester Civic Trust at Bishop Lloyd’s Palace Watergate Street, Chester on 17th June, highlight Chester’s buildings, places, spaces and projects in an alternative ‘New Financial Year Honours list’.

Peter Hadfield, chairman of the judging panel, said: “These annual awards are based on nominations from our members. They aim to recognise the best changes to the Chester property scene in the past year. We hope they will encourage higher standards of design and maintenance in our public realm. As always, I would like to thank my fellow Judges for their time and commitment visiting and providing insightful comments on the nominations.”

He added; “Members of the Chester Civic Trust excelled this year with a total of 55 nominations. 32 Bad/Ugly nominations were submitted together with 23 Good nominations.

All categories included an interesting mix of nominations. Once again it was good to see some from outside the city and we would like to receive more in the future.

The judges said; “The Bad and The Ugly Awards are included in the hope that it will prompt action. Sadly, given the current stagnant economy and inadequate funding for local services, we are not anticipating that 2024 will bring many improvements.

As usual we had many nominations for our ‘Hardy Perennials’ (those buildings which get mentioned year after year) including Dee House, the state of the City Walls, the former Quicks Garage and St Olaves Church. We remain concerned about all these areas but this year we decided to concentrate on new nominations and those which we have not mentioned for some time.”

There were several projects which the Judges declined to consider this year as they are incomplete. These will automatically be included with other nominations next year.”

The Chair’s Special Award

  • Picturehouse

The Good Awards

  • The Flaggs and Hamilton House, Church Street, Tarvin
  • ōH Chester Design Foundation, Bridge Street
  • 6-12 Saint Werburgh Street, Renovation of Facades
  • New Chester Market
  • Chester Zoo Nature Recovery Corridor

Good – Commendations

  • The White Horse, Churton
  • Bren Bikes, Live! New Scene, Newton
  • New Residential Property, Farndon
  • The Lock Vaults, Hoole Lane
  • Chester Residents Association Group

The Bad and The Ugly Awards

  • Delamere Street
  • The Roman Strong Room
  • The Riverside Promenade
  • Interpretive Devices
  • Collapsed Wall, Liverpool Road
  • Closure of a Section of The Rows
  • Poor Street Lighting

 

A full copy of the judges’ comments is available.

Cheshire Live report on the Bishop Lloyd’s Palace Open Day

‘The most beautiful building in Chester’ seemingly hidden in plain sight – Cheshire Live (cheshire-live.co.uk)

The Future of Dee House and Amphitheatre Working Group findings and recommendations report published:

Dee House The Future – Findings and Recommendations FINAL