Historic England to prevent stain on King Arthur legend
THE home of modern-day “Arthurian knights” is among nearly 200 sites to be added to the heritage-at-risk register over fears its stained glass windows will decay.
King Arthur’s Great Halls were built in 1927 in Tintagel, Cornwall, for the Fellowship of the Knights of the Round Table, a group aimed at reviving medieval chivalric orders as well as the study of Arthurian legend.
Its Great Halls are Grade II listed and include 73 stained glass windows designed and crafted by Veronica Whall from 1930 to 1933, which are considered among the finest pieces of Arts and Crafts glasswork in the country.
The halls are located in Tintagel because of its historic association with the birthplace of the mythical king. Urgent repairs were required to avert structural collapse. However, there is not enough money left to fix the roof, which is rapidly deteriorating.
Also added to the register were the Old Mint House in Pevensey, East Sussex, a 16th-century hall built with medieval timbers, and pioneering concrete workers’ cottages from the late 19th century in Maldon, Essex. The register, maintained by Historic England, contains 4,919 sites in total and covers historic sites at risk from decay, neglect or inappropriate change.
The latter issue is of growing importance as historic buildings undergo updates to make them more environmentally sound. However, Historic England said that heritage buildings also provided an opportunity to cut emissions by avoiding the need for demolition and new construction.
While dozens of buildings, places of worship and archaeological sites have been added to the register, more have been taken off.
Buildings are taken off the register if remedial work to halt their decline is completed or if unsuitable development is halted or amended. Often this is expensive and Historic England distributed £8.66 million in repair grants to 185 sites on the register in 2021-2022.
In total, 223 sites were removed, having been saved, including the Wisbech & Fenland Museum in Cambridgeshire, one of the first purpose-built museums in Britain, and home to the original manuscript of Charles Dickens’s