THE man behind a “provocative” report which grabbed national headlines condemning Warrington as the worst town in Britain for culture and heritage is set to visit the town – as a key note speaker at a special conference entitled “Heritage Matters.”
Jonathan Schifferes, Associate Director of the RSA
It is hoped the event, organised by Culture Warrington, will help set the record straight on some of the misleading national newspaper headlines which proclaimed Warrington was “bottom of the league for culture vultures.”
Heritage Matters will take place at Warrington Museum on Saturday, November 21, from 10.30-15.30 but with limited space booking is essential.
Key note speakers include Jonathan Schifferes, Associate Director of the RSA whose recent heritage Index provoked lively debate on Warrington’s ranking and Sara Hilton, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund North West who will speak on Making the Most of Your Heritage.
Warrington was ranked bottom at 325th on a list compiled by the Royal Society of Arts, designed to help local authorities make better use of their assets, with the report making headlines in the national press.
The Society based their league table on an area’s list of interesting assets such as Listed Buildings, museums and archaeological finds.
The Heritage Matters event is free to attend with the aim of building a local network to strengthen Warrington’s heritage offer and will include a positive debate about Warrington’s ranking in the RSA’s Heritage Index, discover how heritage can create a vibrant town and resilient community, network in the Heritage Forum and help plan Culture Warrington’s 2020 Vision for Warrington’s Heritage
To pre-book Email Janice Hayes at [email protected] but please be aware that if you use a Gmail account a very efficient SPAM filter may block your email so call 01925 442394 (Janice Hayes) or try 01925 442390 or 442015.
3 Comments
“help plan Culture Warrington’s 2020 Vision for Warrington’s Heritage” ??? That’s a laugh! By 2020 if the Town Centre Regeneration goes ahead there won’t be any heritage left in Warrington!
I could not agree more with Jonathan Schifferes comments regarding Warrington, when you see buildings like the Bay Horse and the cottages next door, also part of boots in bridge st the front of which is list but that will go. Warrington council appear to let any building worth saving get in such a state it then becomes uneconomical to repair and that is when they take their opportunity to demolish.
No building is safe in this town not even the town hall.
I agree with Mr Schifferes in that for a town as wealthy and as large as Warrington it is sad to say that the authorities seem to do everything in their power to destroy heritage and in their place put unnecessary large retail operations that both destroy the heart of the town and will I have absolutely no doubt will in 5 years be largely redundant.
To say that local planning for culture is limited by a significant lack of imagination would be an understatement.
Where is there a beautiful potential river frontage that was important to the Romans but is completely ignored as an asset for the town. Whilst the centre of town has a carbuncle of a new multi story car park to welcome you to the centre of town. If that is you can be bothered to try and drive the 35minutes it takes to travel the last mile into the town.
No I am afraid the truth hurts but it should be used as a wake up call for Warrington to look at its heritage and make it part of our planning to create a town we can be proud of ,rather than a town we simply avoid if we can