Stroud Civic Society News
April 2010 - Reporting and Blogging.
Accounts of the Society's meetings and events are soon to be available on our Reports Pages and, possibly, a new Blog (more details on that soon...).
Reports currently available include:
- More about Stroud (general information about Stroud)
- Minchinhampton Church (account of the Corona restoration)
- Tricorn House Inquiry (information on a recent planning inquiry)
May 2009 - Shop Fronts Competition Results
The winner of the public poll to find Stroud's best shop front was announced as more than 60 residents and traders attended Stroud Town Council's Annual Awards Evening in early May.
Walkers Bakery was named as the winner during the evening at St Laurence Church Hall. The shop has undergone a major facelift in the past year. It was one of five nominated by Stroud Civic Society for the annual Design Award. The Poll marked the launch of our new Shop Front Guide aimed at improving the appearance of key streets and properties in the town centre.
Around 250 people took part in the public poll. Walkers was the clear winner with more than 100 votes, beating off competition from the new Stroud&Swindon in King Street, Moonflower in the High Street, the Made in Stroud shop, and SFH hairdressers in Gloucester Street.
For more information on the competition and the other entries visit our Awards page.
May 2009 - Stroud nominated for Urbanism Award
Stroud has been nominated in the Great Towns category for an Academy of Urbanism award.
The nomination describes the town as:
"One of the more authentically gritty and industrial of the Cotswold towns, Stroud has been regenerating itself ‘bottom-up’ in recent years, with some notable success. There is a strong community of independent shops and cafés, which provide the mainstay of the retail experience in the town. A farmers’ market, launched by Jasper Conran and Isabella Blow on 3 July 1999, takes place every Saturday at the Cornhill market. It was nominated for the national Farmers’ Market of the Year in 2001 and won it in 2007. Alongside this, the town centre has witnessed two controversial came against a lot of opposition from locals. The success of small businesses has, in recent years, caused a number of national retail chains to open outlets in the town. Stroud has a significant artistic community that dates back to the early part of the twentieth century."
The Great Towns category is one of five awarded by the Academy of Urbanism each year - the others are the European City of the Year, Great Neighbourhood, Great Street and Great Place awards.
The 15 towns nominated for the Great Towns Awards for 2010 are described in a pdf document downloadable here. Three will be taken forward for a final selection later in 2009.
For more information on the Academy of Urbanism and the Awards scheme see their website.
May 2009 - News about The Civic Trust
UPDATE April 2010: The Civic Trust's problems resulted, in 2009, in a new national movement called the Civic Society Initiative. After much consultation this led to the formation of a new national body, to be known as Civic Voice. More details are available on their website (under development in April 2010) at www.civicvoice.org.uk.
Original story below:
The Civic Trust, the national umbrella body for local Civic Societies and Civic Trusts across England, has recently announced that it has gone into administration.
This is very sad and shocking news - the Trust, which was established 50 years ago, has been at the forefront of many key and important environmental initiatives.
There will be more news in due course - but in the meantime we can be encouraged that there are already reports of several Civic Trust functions continuing under other bodies. One example is the popular Heritage Open Days scheme, organised by the Civic Trust every September. English Heritage, who have consistently supported the Trust at this event, have announced they will take on the running of it. The following quotes are from the English Heritage news release:
Steven Bee, Director of Planning and Development at English Heritage, said: “English Heritage can reassure all those who like to take part in Heritage Open Days that it will happen this and every year – and we look forward to an excellent weekend of events on the 10th-13th September. Heritage Open Days is an important cultural event and we are very grateful for the continued support of all the volunteers across England, on which the success of the event depends.
Katja Condy, Heritage Open Days Manager, said: "When the news of the Civic Trust's demise broke a month ago, the news came as a shock to thousands of volunteers across the country who were already gearing up for another celebration of their local heritage in September. It put a huge question mark over the future of the event. We are greatly relieved that the programme has found a new home and that we can now focus on making the 15th edition of Heritage Open Days another success.
"We have been working very closely with English Heritage for many years, and they proved a friend when we needed them most. The transfer of Heritage Open Days to English Heritage will build on this long-established partnership. We see it as a fantastic opportunity for both England’s largest grassroots heritage event and the Government’s lead body for the historic environment."
For more news on the Civic Trust's future read this story on the Building Design website.
April 2009 - April 1st Listing nomination
(Photo © David Gruar and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.)
A news story from ThisIsGloucestershire.
Stroud Civic Society's own vice chairman, Tim Mars, announced, on April 1st, that Stroud's notoriously ugly police station may be in line for Grade II listed building status.
Tim said, "It's about time Stroud police station got the recognition it deserves. Its etiolated horizontality offers an elegant geometric counterpoint to the heterorthogonality of the topography".
"Stroud has an enviable portfolio of post-war buildings which too often don't get the attention rightly afforded to its 19th Century heritage."
He revealed that the police station is the first of several concrete buildings the society wants to see listed because of their new found "retro" appeal. "Stroud Civic Society is today making an emergency application to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to spot-list Tricorn House at Cainscross to prevent demolition or alteration of this iconic building," said Mr Mars.
"The Merrywalks multi-storey car park, perhaps the best New Brutalist building in the South West, should have been listed years ago. While the next-door cinema/shopping/bowling complex is too recent to qualify for listing, this daring and witty homage to 1920s Russian Constructivist architecture still has the power to shock and amaze.
"Like Frank Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao or Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin, this building has at a stroke put Stroud on the map. No longer is Stroud seen as a fuddy-duddy arty-crafty backwater but as a cutting-edge happening place on the cusp of now."
New Civic Society leaflet
Stroud Civic Society's new promotional and membership leaflet is now available for download.
Photographs in the leaflet are by acclaimed local photographer Henri Kyriacou.
Click here for your copy.
