GETTING STREETS AHEAD

WHAT Historic England says about some of the areas that will benefit from the High Streets Heritage Action Zone

Gloucester Cathedral Quarter (£1,905,000)

Westgate is one of the oldest and best preserved areas of Gloucester and the main commercial route linking the cathedral to the rest of the city.

The street is a grand wide street with historic facades hiding even more historic timber-framed survivals behind buildings such as The Fleece Hotel, the Dick Whittington, the Judges Lodgings and the former Folk Museum.

The HSHAZ will fund the repair of a number of historic buildings and bring unused floorspace back into commercial use. Four buildings will be removed from the Heritage at Risk Register and a number of historic shop fronts and facades will be restored. Public spaces will be improved with art installations, outside dining space, and improved lighting and planting, all designed to increase the area’s appeal to visitors and shoppers. The Cathedral Quarter is rich in stories, and there will be plenty of opportunities to celebrate them through events, workshops, tours, art projects and through volunteering.

Tewkesbury (£1,478,000)

Tewkesbury is an historic market town located where the Rivers Severn and Avon meet. It is known for having one of the best timber-framed townscapes in the country, and for its abbey, a major visitor attraction.

Tewkesbury already trades on its historic appeal and has much more to offer. The HSHAZ will help repair historic buildings to bring them back into use, and improve public spaces to attract shoppers, visitors and businesses into the town. A cultural programme will bring new and bigger audiences to Tewkesbury to enjoy its heritage, especially in 2021 with celebrations to mark the 900th anniversary of the abbey’s consecration and the 550th anniversary of the Battle of Tewkesbury.

Midsomer Norton (£793,000)

A medieval market town, Midsomer Norton prospered as a coal-mining settlement from the 1750s, becoming the commercial centre of the Somerset coalfield in the 19th century. Midsomer Norton’s civic buildings, breweries and public houses were built at that time, along with distinctive terraces of miners’ cottages. Many of the small-scale domestic buildings flanking the High Street were converted for commercial use at that time.

The High Street Heritage Action Zone will improve the historic fabric of Midsomer Norton high street, making it a more attractive place to live, work and visit. There will be improvements to historic shopfronts and public spaces, including around the town hall, and four key historic buildings on the high street with be repaired.

Keynsham (£1,100,000)

A modest medieval market town between Bristol and Bath, Keynsham expanded rapidly in the 19th century with the arrival of the railway and Fry’s (later Cadbury’s) Chocolate Factory. Keynsham High Street is a typically wide market street dating from the 13th and 14th centuries, characterised by two- or three-storey shops with office or residential occupation above. Upper High Street has the best preserved grouping of older and attractive 19th-century buildings featuring local blue lias stone.

Alongside repairs to historic buildings and shopfronts, the street and public spaces will be improved to reduce the impact of traffic and be more pedestrianfriendly and boost trading performance.

Chard (£1,000,000)

This market town in rural South Somerset was an important wool, weaving and lace-making centre. Chard’s High Street and Fore Street are the focus of the HSHAZ, rich in historic character with over 120 listed buildings.

Whilst the town centre is architecturally attractive, it is lacklustre and not a pedestrianfriendly zone, with heavy traffic, poor pavements and a general lack of well-signposted routes to help people find their way around.

The HSHAZ will fund the repair of a number of historic buildings including the grade-I listed town hall and refurbish some distinctive shopfronts, providing local training opportunities in construction craft skills. The streetscape will be improved to be safer and more attractive to shoppers and visitors.

Weston-super-Mare (£1,100,000)

The west end of Weston-superMare’s High Street is characterised by a unique and unusual group of 20th-century buildings. Its shops, offices, churches and art deco Odeon cinema – the first in the country – form an extension to the adjacent 19th-century town centre, and offer an architectural contrast to it. Twentieth-century Weston offers ‘glimpses of 1920s and 1930s seaside fun, post-war 1950s

Festival of Britain optimism and even some 1960s space age idealism.’

Following on from the existing Heritage Action Zone, Weston’s HSHAZ will focus on repairs to historic buildings and key architectural features, improvements to public spaces, and the conversion of key 20thcentury buildings to provide new housing and business premises.

The High Street, Chard