Minister's Visit Showcases Town's Heritage, Major Employers & High Quality Developments

Local MPs Justin Tomlinson and Robert Buckland welcomed Tracey Crouch, the Minister for Sport, Heritage and Tourism, to Swindon on Thursday to visit the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic England and Steam.

Swindon is proud to be HQ for many national companies and organisations. The National Trust, English Heritage and the Historic England Archive are all based on the Old Railway Quarter adjacent to the Designer Outlet Village:

The National Trust of England, Wales and Northern Ireland is the largest conservation charity in the UK, employing over 500 people at its Swindon HQ. The trust relies on the donations it receives from its members, around £4.2 million to preserve, manage and protect historic places across the country. The trust since being founded in 1895 has expanded to conserve both our natural and cultural heritage. The land ownership of the trust is estimated to be between 1.5% and 2% of the total land mass of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The English Heritage Trust is a registered charity in the UK that is responsible for the management and maintenance of the National Heritage Collection. This includes over 400 listed buildings in England, as well as historical monuments like Stonehenge and Hadrian’s Wall. The trust relies on donations and admission fees from the public, as well as support funding from central government to properly maintain its sites.

Historic England is a public body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is the official replacement to the long established organisation English Heritage, and among other things, protects historic buildings, places of cultural and religious significance, as well as the maintenance of ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge and Avebury. Historic England also act as an impartial advisory body to local and central government on how to best maintain cultural heritage and making them fully accessible to the public. Grants have been made to national and local organisations for the conservation of historic buildings, monuments and landscapes. In 2013/14 over £13 million worth of grants were made to support heritage buildings. They are also responsible for the maintenance and protection of nationally important archives, including collections of photographs, drawings and other records which document the historic environment of England and date from the eighteenth century onwards. Justin was delighted to take part in the process of ‘enriching the list.’

Listing is the term given to the practice of listing buildings, scheduling monuments, registering parks, gardens and battlefields, and protecting wreck sites. 99% of people in England live within a mile of a listed building or place. Enriching the list is a process of sharing knowledge and pictures of listed places on the Historic England site, in order to enrich their records and contribute different pieces of knowledge. Justin shared a an old photo of the High Street in Highworth, featuring the listed Jesmond House in the distance, now known as the Highworth Hotel.

Finally the visit was rounded off with a trip to STEAM - Museum of the Great Western Railway – which showcases our towns proud railway heritage. Whilst the Minister’s tour was predominantly to mark English Tourism Week, it was also an opportunity to show off the fantastic development of the former GWR site and the newly created Old Railway Quarter development.

Tracey Crouch MP, Minister for Sport, Heritage & Tourism, said: “On my short journey here the first word I said to Justin Tomlinson was wow. This is exactly what you want to see, buildings restored and preserved for the future but reflecting the modern world that we live in. Quite often we have buildings that are derelict but they’re listed so people think that nothing can happen to them. We’re getting a lot of development around the country where you can do really sensitive work in line with the history and heritage - this is a really, really good example of it. I know there are other heritage buildings around Swindon that could really benefit from that sort of approach. Here they have taken what was an area that was pretty abandoned and they’ve built this amazing environment around it.”

Justin Tomlinson MP said: “One of the main reasons for this visit was to showcase the combination of Steam, high quality employers, mixed with high quality residential regeneration. This site is now a huge success economically for Swindon which is in stark contrast to the failure of the town centre regeneration. That is why I’ve been pushing for what we’ve seen here to be replicated ‘like for like’ directly on the other side of this line. That land should be made available for the same developers to move into - this area is lifting the whole of the town and helping to deliver the skilled jobs that our growing economy requires.”

Robert Buckland MP said: “I’m pleased that the Minister came to Swindon today, not just to emphasise the importance of heritage to our local economy and our reputation but also to understand the changing nature of the way we’re approaching heritage and leisure in Swindon.”