Church on wheels

[i_love_rocks]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7058366.stm

[BAJR Host]

An entire stone church is being lifted and rolled to another location, 12km (7.5 miles) away from its original home in the German village of Heuersdorf.



if only all historic buildings were like this... we could trundle them out the way of development

:face-huh:


"No job worth doing was ever done on time or under budget.."
Khufu

[Paul Belford]

Of course the principle of moving buildings away from redevelopment is not entirely new.

Several open-air museums have resulted from this principle, for example at the [u]Ironbridge Gorge Museum</u> (http://www.ironbridge.org.uk/our_attractions/blists_hill_victorian_town/exhibits/), at [u]Beamish</u> (http://www.beamish.org.uk/about.html) and at [u]Singleton</u> (http://www.wealddown.co.uk/historic-buildings-index-domestic-agricultural.htm) , to name a few. Other rather impressive structures have also inched their way across the landscape in recent years, such as this [u]lighthouse</u> (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/specials/set99/298123.stm). As we all know it is certainly common practice in America, their own National Trust even has a [u]"how to" leaflet!</u> (http://www.nationaltrust.org/help/downloads/Moving_Historic_Structures.pdf)

The open-air museums at least try to display their rescued buildings in some kind of appropriate setting. However the loss of the associated landscape context is one of the problems with this approach. Presumably this church sat within a long-established landscape with a churchyard, houses (or their remains), roads and field systems. In its new location, the church will have none of these broader associations and so, arguably, some "group value" will have been lost despite saving the building itself.

[1man1desk]

Pretty horrifying really, in these days of EIA and climate change, that a whole village, including historic buildings, can be removed to gain commercial access to brown coal, a terribly polluting fuel.

I know villages have been destroyed in the past in Britain (drowned under reservoirs etc), but generally a long time ago. We still demolish individual houses or groups of houses to allow for public infrastructure projects, but I can't think of a case where we have removed an entire community in recent years, or where it has been done for a commercial development.

I don't really think it could happen here nowadays - but does anyone know of a comparable case in Britain, and how recent?

1man1desk

to let, fully furnished

[kevin wooldridge]

quote:Originally posted by 1man1desk I know villages have been destroyed in the past in Britain (drowned under reservoirs etc), but generally a long time ago. We still demolish individual houses or groups of houses to allow for public infrastructure projects, but I can't think of a case where we have removed an entire community in recent years, or where it has been done for a commercial development.

I don't really think it could happen here nowadays - but does anyone know of a comparable case in Britain, and how recent?

Not quite comprable to the German example, but there are a number of cases from the 1980s and particularly in London, where whole communities were removed from local authority housing projects and their declared 'derelict' housing refurbished and sold on to 'private' tenants. One such project in North Westminster was I believe the cause of the Lady Porter affair and I can think of similar projects in Wandsworth, Tower Hamlets and Lambeth.

I was one such person 'removed' from a housing project in South Lambeth and rehoused in one of the roughest estates in Brixton. Our former house and those of the 200 odd people who lived around us in social housing are now privately tenanted properties.

[Gog]

quote:Originally posted by 1man1desk

I know villages have been destroyed in the past in Britain (drowned under reservoirs etc), but generally a long time ago.
1man1desk

to let, fully furnished


Define a long time ago - this is still a raw issue in Wales, mind. Cofio Tryweryn as they say.

[Curator Kid]

quote:Originally posted by 1man1desk

I know villages have been destroyed in the past in Britain (drowned under reservoirs etc), but generally a long time ago. We still demolish individual houses or groups of houses to allow for public infrastructure projects, but I can't think of a case where we have removed an entire community in recent years, or where it has been done for a commercial development.

I don't really think it could happen here nowadays - but does anyone know of a comparable case in Britain, and how recent?


Sadly, I think all you have to do is look at the current debate surrounding the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Should either of those projects go ahead as has been suggested, then the situation you've described above is precisely what will be happening to certain unfortunate villages and communities in Surrey or Middlesex in the not too distant future.

[kevin wooldridge]

quote:Sadly, I think all you have to do is look at the current debate surrounding the expansion of Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Should either of those projects go ahead as has been suggested, then the situation you've described above is precisely what will be happening to certain unfortunate villages and communities in Surrey or Middlesex in the not too distant future.


According to today's BBC news, it appears that the village of Sibson may indeed disappear to make way for Heathrow T6

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7106524.stm