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Welcome to the West Wycombe Village Project Blog written by a National Trust volunteer and supported by the National Trust. If it's your first visit, find out more about the project in our about section.



Tuesday 27 August 2013

Landlords

The last time I had a landlord was five years ago. After the estate agent connected us we met a couple times, but mainly corresponded by email.  I probably saw her builder more often. Pretty standard tenancy stuff I'm told.

The National Trust is quite possibly Britain's biggest landlord and in West Wycombe Village they have been working with more than 50 tenants during a massive refurbishment project.

I spoke with Cliff Percival, National Trust Lead Rural Surveyor, who has helped spearhead communication with tenants in West Wycombe Village which is one of the first and largest let estate projects for the National Trust.

Cliff shared his experiences and thoughts about the village, its amazing roofs and the future of its picturesque High Street. (A few weeks ago Cliff sent me a link to watch a short pre-war film on National Trust properties. It showed the West Wycombe High Street virtually car-free.)

NV: You’ve worked to keep tenants informed and involved, how have you gone about this?
CP: We've had two open days which are open to the entire village – tenants, private home owners and business owners. Along with other National Trust staff I meet, greet and explain what we're doing in general terms. We began early and tried to make sure people understood what was going to happen.

Well before the works started we arranged to visit the tenants in their home. This has given us the chance to talk to tenants in the privacy of their own homes and sometimes it might have been the first time we would have met the tenant, or had even seen inside the cottage.

What do you find out during these first meetings and what happens next?
These first meetings went very well. They have often been a very good opportunity for us to explain to each individual tenant what the project is going to mean for them by way of upheaval, the range of works, and whether they need to be relocated, which isn't often.

We get to hear from them directly what issues have been bugging them about the cottage, the long outstanding issues that have been niggling away that have never really been tacked properly. So it's really being that listening ear to gather information so they know we're taking this seriously and that they understand the processes.

During the meeting we explain the role of  the National Trust Project Manager, Mark Wells and let tenants know that he will be handling the day to day building works until the end of the project at which time it is handed back to the General Manager and us to manage from there on.

What has been unique about this project in West Wycombe compared with other properties?
I think it proves that if you are serious about improving the thermal performance of a listed building there is nearly always a solution on how to do it.

The re-roofing project has been very valuable and a very good experience. It's opened up a potential debate about how much work we should and could be doing to improve the thermal performance of our cottages because it's almost shown that nothing is impossible. And that's actually quite an important lesson to come out of it.

People in the past had been saying ‘we can't do much because it's a listed building, or shouldn't listed buildings be exempt?' You sometimes get the impression that some landlords hope this will provide an excuse for not  having to do so much work but I think what West Wycombe has done is blow the lid off that argument - quite literally !

What does the future hold for West Wycombe Village, do you have any concerns?
I'm worried that we haven't addressed how to keep the fronts of the High Street buildings looking smarter because of the persistent road traffic. There's no point having a brand new roof on a building but having paint work facing the street looking shabby – in time people will stop looking at the roofs and just notice what they see at street level. We need to ensure West Wycombe continues to look ‘cared-for’ long after the project is finished.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Village in Technicolor

A short break in Devon has renewed my appreciation of the English coast and countryside. Travelling just beyond mobile phone and wifi reception was also refreshing. 


Maintaining a post-holiday glow can be hard work so I'm sharing this pretty war-time video clip of bucolic Britain. Cliff Percival, Lead Rural Surveyor for the National Trust sent me a link to watch a short film released in 1941. It shows West Wycombe Village among other British landmarks preserved by the National Trust. Perfect summertime nostalgia. 






The People's Land film is on the British Council Film Collection site and described as a technicolor guide to some of the coastline, countryside, and properties preserved by the National Trust.

While discussing current traffic issues facing West Wycombe Village, Cliff remembered this clip showing an old route master with a curving outer staircase driving west along a car-free high street. Fast forward today we see about 11,000 vehicles  squeeze up and down this ancient and narrow stretch of the A40.





British Council Film, The People's Land. High Street of West Wycombe Village, c 1940.



West Wycombe Village in British Council Film, The People's Land in 1941


The obvious difference 70 years makes on village traffic aside, there were also clips of glowing women merrily hanging laundry on washing lines together. This matches Curator Oonagh Kennedy's discovery of the 1933 journal written by the Royal Society of Arts. Before the RSA handed the village over to the National Trust, they converted cottages into cosy homes for families. 




West Wycombe Village in British Council Film, The People's Land in 1941


In a previous post Oonagh drew parallels saying: the RSA documented their addition of new glazed sinks, draining boards, ventilated larders; they even added new washing lines with hard paths underneath in the gardens so that as you hung up your washing you were not standing on mud or lawn. It’s in the detail that we can see that they really considered how the cottages would actually be used by families. And there’s a lot more we can do to understand what the RSA did.




West Wycombe Village in British Council Film, The People's Land in 1941



The film was launched with a different narrator. But the British Council sacked them in favour of a “more verily commentator” ultimately choosing BBC broadcaster Freddie Grisewood who had a long and varied career and was perhaps best known for being the host of Any Questions? from its inception in 1948 until 1967.


Grisewood from Bristol retired at seventy-nine but can be heard on the website Turnipet which includes British television and radio nostalgia sites from the Fifties. A great resource for hearing quaintly formal presenters with their clipped English accents.


There is an audio clip from Any questions? found on Turnipet featuring the voice of Grisewood chatting about the indecency of French menus and Yorkshire pudding. 





British Council Film, Credits for The People's Land in 1941


The clip of our Chiltern village can be found at around 3.16 minutes into the ten-minute film. The British Council describes the video: National Trust properties of beauty and historic interest, preserved for the people. They include prehistoric stone circles, ancient castles like fourteenth-century Bodiam, a Chiltern village, stretches of the Sussex downs, the famous valley of Dovedale, 14000 acres of lovely country in Westmorland. This noble heritage is held in public trust - for ever.'





The People's Land in 1941, British Council Film


At the Opera

One of the best kept secrets in West Wycombe and Stokenchurch is the Garsington Opera. The Getty family owned estate is home to the opera pavillion which is set upon a meadow landscape overlooking a lake, deer park and woods with trees just lush enough to hide the mobile phone mast near exit 5. 


Opera tickets at Garsington usually cost around £200 so I was only too happy when my friend with a small starring role offered a ticket for a tenner to the first community opera. 

The opera Road Rage by Richard Stilgoe was about a village which fights against government plans for a motorway. Think HS2? The battle hits a bump for planners when villagers flag an ancient stone has historical significance. The male lead singer playing the minster says: 


 BLOODY STONE! FOR TWO MILLENIA
 SITS UNNOTICED GATHERING DUST
 OVERNIGHT IT’S THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
 GOD, I HATE THE NATIONAL TRUST

The audience chuckles. Ah. The National Trust.