What HCS members learned from a visit to Wakefield
Kevin Trickett, MBE, President of Wakefield Civic Society, led 20 HCS members and friends on a walk covering Westgate and the many yards and passages that lead off this historic thoroughfare.
Covering an area that has seen improvements as part of a 4-year High Street Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) initiative funded by Historic England and Wakefield Council, Kevin revealed the fascinating history of this area, dating from Saxon times when the burg (borough) was created to the present.
The walk displayed both the prosperity of Westgate, with a number of fine Georgian mansions, banks, coaching houses and other businesses, to the many yards that developed off Westgate. Here Kevin outlined the wide variety of activities that developed from the late 18th Century to the early 19th Century, including tenements, dyehouses and warehouses. The houses were often poor and unsanitary with rampant disease and infant mortality.
Improvements as part of the HAZ programme have included grants and partnership working with tenants and property owners including the removal of paintwork covering original brick facades, repointing using traditional lime mortar and refurbishment of traditional shopfronts.
For those HCS colleagues involved in the HAZ initiative in Huddersfield town centre, the Wakefield programme appears to have had greater success in partnership working, enabling improvements and property conversions, helping restore the vitality and rich architectural diversity of the area.
As in Huddersfield, the work demonstrates that much still needs to be accomplished through a long-term commitment for funding in order to enable the completion of more complex and large-scale infrastructure projects.
Beyond this objective, our evening’s saunter once again highlighted the value and enjoyment of HCS visits to neighbouring towns providing an in-depth look at the architectural heritage, variety and delights of our urban centres.