Yesterday the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) announced two big awards to Gloucester Cathedral and the Llanthony Secunda Priory, totalling over £7 million – a huge step forward for our Heritage attractions to city residents and tourists alike.
The one building in Gloucester that everyone knows is our Cathedral, a jewel in anyone’s crown. It’s a story of Norman monks, Edward II’s tomb, Henry III’s coronation, the Crecy Window, ‘Harry Potter’ cloisters, Stafford-Smith’s music for the US national anthem and Colonel Carne’s cross carved from nails in North Korea. For wonderful music, peace of mind and religious celebration it is second to none.
But the Cathedral is also grounded in community too: hosting the sad, sad, memorial services for young people killed by knives, the launch of the Rugby World Cup and (next week) a temporary skate park.
This great national attraction is also hard to access completely for those with disabilities, and is in a setting which most cathedrals easily outmatch. So Project Pilgrim award will tackle both issues, and more besides. When all is done we should have a setting that makes us even more proud of our Cathedral, and attracts even more visitors. I congratulate the Dean and Chapter on this fabulous success.
By contrast few know about Llanthony Secunda Priory. The original 12th century Llanthony is in Wales, its walls partly absorbed in a wall of a house, now Hotel. Walking to Hay-on-Wye, I once slept a night with hay and pigeons in its medieval gatehouse in a neighbouring field. Our Llanthony, by contrast, is a mystery wrapped in an enigma, to misquote Churchill.
For a start the priory itself ain’t there. It was probably where the Canal is now. The books, unusually, of what was once a great medieval library, have outlasted the building: quite a lot of them are now in the Lambeth Palace Library (see photo below). What is left is a Tudor farmhouse with a Victorian extension, the remains of a great barn, some decent walls, a gateway and hints of ancient landscape. It has great charm – but what to do?
The Llanthony Secunda Trust, created a few years ago, has preserved the buildings, improved the landscape and come up with an inspired plan – which HLF funding makes possible. It will make the main buildings usable, brings in neighbouring Gloucestershire College students to use them, and will recreate a medieval garden beside the Sharpness-Gloucester canal.
At a time when the Quays opposite are also being regenerated with businesses and f&b outlets, and homes (Bakers Quay, now definitely happening), with possibly a new care home beside it soon, Llanthony has a strong chance to be an important green lung opposite a retail mecca. I can see students punting jaded shoppers across to picnics at Llanthony Secunda.
It’s very timely to get this HLF news in the year of the 800th anniversary of the coronation of King Henry III in Gloucester Cathedral, at a time when monks were writing Llanthony’s books. We have now had 24 successful bids from Gloucester to the HLF since 2010, after decades of Heritage decline and a lack of investment. Today our city’s enthusiasm for what the past can do for our future is much higher, and there is further to go as the improvements take place. The HLF has played a major part in that change.
Heritage is a vital part of any great city. It has to be recognised, explained, restored, highlighted and brought alive with new meaning for new generations. When it works, and a city is recognised for its Heritage, then other things – better hotels and shops to serve visitors, more Festivals and city centre hustle and bustle – become much more likely.
Our next bid is by St. Mary de Crypt’s Discover de Crypt project (of which I’m a patron – declaration of interest), which will bring alive the long closed old schoolroom, with both a Christian and a learning angle (see http://www.discoverdecrypt.org.uk/oursupporters.html). But HLF bids can come from schools and parks and be as whacky you like: (see list of winners on my website: http://richardgraham.org/gloucesters-heritage-lottery-fund-successes/).
