Articles

Heritage Group

• Details
• Written by Alan Morris

For the last two years the Historical Group has been finding its feet and looking for direction. After much discussion the group will now be called the Heritage Group, using its members’ enthusiasm and knowledge to join up heritage studies with local conservation and planning campaigns.

The Heritage Group will work alongside the Bristol council City Design Group to promote the use of the excellent online tools now available, which not only provide a detailed resource of the history of the city but also allow anyone to contribute new information. This could be in the form of photographs or facts on the history of a local area.

Is there a building or structure in your local area that you feel is worth of mention? We will promote proposals of local heritage for the new Local List. Examples can be seen in the photo below.

Do you know a notable building in your local area in a bad state of repair? Flag it as ‘at risk’ with the new tools that will be provided by the City Design Group.

Become an early adopter of “Our Place community context mapping toolkit”: the aim is to create a context map for your local area which informs planning and conservation work.

The Heritage Group will work to help local groups and individuals collect the kind of information stated above, and develop a better knowledge of their local area accessible to anyone on the web through the Know Your Place website.

The Government’s Big Society agenda is empowering local communities through the Localism Act and the Neighbourhood Plans, and other support programmes which enable people and local groups to decide on the future of their communities.

Our heritage is a fundamental part of the identity of a place, which has often survived the worst city design decisions, and we need to explore the new resources now available to protect what is left of our past.

The first Heritage Group meeting will be held on Monday, May 13, outside the Llandoger Trow, King Street at 6pm. The group, led by Peter Insole, City Archaeology Officer, will walk for an hour taking photos of buildings and places that may be of interest for local listing. At 7pm there will be a workshop in the Jacobean Room, Llandoger Trow, on how to use the photos taken. You can join the group then if you wish. For more information, contact Alan Morris or Mariateresa Bucciante at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

More details may be found in the spring 2013 issue of Better Bristol, the BCS magazine, pages 10/11, 12, 21 (available also online).

Information about the past activities of the Historic Group is available in our archive.