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Friend of Old Town Hall Press Notice


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PRESS NOTICE

 

FRIENDS OF THE OLD TOWN HALL

A new charity devoted to regenerating Sheffield’s Old Town Hall and preserving the heritage of the Castlegate Quarter of the city is to be set up with Heritage Lottery Fund support.

The Friends of the Old Town Hall, who have been campaigning for two years to raise awareness of the poor state of the Old Town Hall in Waingate and to press for its restoration, have been awarded £7,700 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support the setting up of a new charitable trust. The Castlegate Preservation Trust will focus on preserving the heritage of Castlegate as a whole, and as a priority seek to acquire the Old Town Hall and get it back into productive use after 20 years of neglect.

Thanks to National Lottery players, the funding will enable the Friends of the Old Town Hall to get professional advice on its business plan and funding strategy, and to train the trustees of the charity. The Friends have already applied to the Charity Commission to register the new Trust and hope this will be complete before the end of the year. The Trust will aim to preserve whatever of architectural and historical value remains in the area, to help people appreciate the value of the heritage there and to support the local community and its involvement in heritage. It also aims to use restoration work on heritage buildings, and especially the Old Town Hall, as a means of developing the skills and education of local people working on these projects.

‘Castlegate is hugely important in Sheffield’s history’, said Friends’ chair Valerie Bayliss. ‘This is the old town, the place where the city began. It played a big part in Sheffield’s civic and community development and its history deserves to be better-known. People see it as a run-down, unattractive area and maybe don’t realise it contains around 18 listed buildings and structures and another 14 of real heritage value. That’s a wonderful basis for heritage-led regeneration. We are already talking to the City Council and others about developing plans co-operatively. But the Old Town Hall has to be our priority. It’s a grubby, neglected ugly duckling of a place when it should be a swan. And it’s probably the key to getting Castlegate on the move again. We are very grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund for giving us the means to take a big step forward’. 

Explaining the importance of the HLF support, Fiona Spiers, Head of HLF Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “With increasing threats to our historic buildings it is important for local groups and communities to come together to raise awareness of, and protect our built heritage. This project will give The Friends the opportunity to build their capacity to better manage and protect this historic area of Sheffield. 

 

The Friends of the Old Town Hall have applied to establish the Castlegate Preservation Trust as a charitable incorporated organisation, The Friends’ organisation will continue alongside the Trust, as a campaigning organisation.  

 

Hopefully this is just the start of Sheffield Community taking control of our history. With Friends of Sheffield Castle having a high profile patron Tony Robinson we can promote and protect the birthplace of Sheffield and from there with the Joined Up Heritage Consortium across the city.  

 

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Maybe Tony has a "cunning plan", worthy of saving this majestic old building, as this end of town sorely needs a facelift and image boost.

Photos of the inside of Old Sheffield Town Hall

However, it's not the most attractive end of town these days (arguably it never was), but maybe this and other projects in the pipeline will give it the kick-start it needs to regenerate the area?

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It isn't but the old post office is now looking great, funding has been awarded for a IT hub in the old Castle Coop. And we don't need Tony because Sheffield University Architect students have come up with their own cunning plan which hopefully we can get going.  Won't happen overnight of course. A lot of hard work and fundraising to do.

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