Backing for idea to turn Corn Exchange into a heritage centre
Thursday, 19th September 2013.
Hopes that the old Corn Exchange in Withersfield Road could be turned into a heritage centre for the town received a boost this week when the idea was backed at a meeting of the ONE Haverhill board this week.
At present it is just an idea, because the building is still in private ownership, but it has met with a positive response all round from councillors.
It was county councillor Tony Brown who put forward the idea at Tuesday's meeting in a report accompanied by photographs of what has been down at Stowmarket corn exchange, which has just re-opened as Arts Centre after a major project of refurbishment.
The report said Haverhill was one of the largest towns in the country without a heritage centre, something that has been seen as crucial in other towns.
Haverhill Local History Group has a large collection of documents and artefacts, but little room to display any of them in the room which it occupies in Haverhill Arts Centre.
However, the history centre is well used, the report says, and with more space could be a great local attraction.
"The building requires a lot of work doing to it," the report goes on, "and is a major project, a project that already has the town interested and supporting what might happen.
"This support could be used to turn this into a community project using local people to put the building back into use, showing Haverhill still has a strong community spirit and can achieve something people will be proud of.
"Highpoint prison is keen to find projects where they can train and rehabilitate offenders and this could be another way of keeping costs down while doing something good for those who have taken a wrong turn in their lives.
"Grants from the Lottery and English Heritage could be accessed to put the building back into use and cover running cost while the heritage centre gets going."
Other buildings have been considered for a heritage centre, including somewhere within the Gurteens site and the cottages opposite the White Hart which Havebury propose to knock down and replace with flats.
But the Corn Exchange was considered the most suitable because it could become available now, which is note the case with Gurteens, and stands alone as a 'statement building'.
As far as ongoing funding is concerned, the report says a café within the Corn Exchange would
attract people up through Queen Street to the building, increasing footfall in that area, and would provide a continued source of money for the buildings running costs.
There were a lot of local organisations who met in the evenings within the town who required somewhere to go, andf the café area could be hired out for a small charge to small local groups requiring somewhere for meetings.
The next stage might be to see if the building could be obtained through a Community Right To Buy scheme, a new element of the Government's Localism Bill.
The grade two listed Victorian building was last in use as St Felix Social Club, but has been derelict for several years and is now becoming dilapidated.
At present it is just an idea, because the building is still in private ownership, but it has met with a positive response all round from councillors.
It was county councillor Tony Brown who put forward the idea at Tuesday's meeting in a report accompanied by photographs of what has been down at Stowmarket corn exchange, which has just re-opened as Arts Centre after a major project of refurbishment.
The report said Haverhill was one of the largest towns in the country without a heritage centre, something that has been seen as crucial in other towns.
Haverhill Local History Group has a large collection of documents and artefacts, but little room to display any of them in the room which it occupies in Haverhill Arts Centre.
However, the history centre is well used, the report says, and with more space could be a great local attraction.
"The building requires a lot of work doing to it," the report goes on, "and is a major project, a project that already has the town interested and supporting what might happen.
"This support could be used to turn this into a community project using local people to put the building back into use, showing Haverhill still has a strong community spirit and can achieve something people will be proud of.
"Highpoint prison is keen to find projects where they can train and rehabilitate offenders and this could be another way of keeping costs down while doing something good for those who have taken a wrong turn in their lives.
"Grants from the Lottery and English Heritage could be accessed to put the building back into use and cover running cost while the heritage centre gets going."
Other buildings have been considered for a heritage centre, including somewhere within the Gurteens site and the cottages opposite the White Hart which Havebury propose to knock down and replace with flats.
But the Corn Exchange was considered the most suitable because it could become available now, which is note the case with Gurteens, and stands alone as a 'statement building'.
As far as ongoing funding is concerned, the report says a café within the Corn Exchange would
attract people up through Queen Street to the building, increasing footfall in that area, and would provide a continued source of money for the buildings running costs.
There were a lot of local organisations who met in the evenings within the town who required somewhere to go, andf the café area could be hired out for a small charge to small local groups requiring somewhere for meetings.
The next stage might be to see if the building could be obtained through a Community Right To Buy scheme, a new element of the Government's Localism Bill.
The grade two listed Victorian building was last in use as St Felix Social Club, but has been derelict for several years and is now becoming dilapidated.
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