Dawe’s Heritage Lottery Funded Restoration 2017-20

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We were delighted to hear in September 2016 that the ten documents totalling 375 pages delivered to the HLF South West office in Exeter on May 31st. were worth the effort. Costed plans for all the physical work, and for our future visitor-related activities were included – the HLF had to be convinced that the project was deliverable, is viable in the longer term, and that there will be benefits to the community and visitors.  After all, it’s public money. HLF people  visited us in early September, and we heard of the positive outcome in late September.  More formalities and paperwork followed and then we had ‘Permission to Start’.

Progress is shown here.  Click on any photo to see it full size. The latest photos are at the top. Aaron and Jason (who carried out the restoration of the main walk roof and other buildings in 2013-14) came back again, working hard, as did the Machinery Team (Chris, David and David) and other volunteers.

With the engine house complete – everywhere now has power and lights – attention moved to the north side. A fence was built along the edge of the strip of land generously leased to us by neighbour David Windsor. The strip was cleared of undergrowth and tree stumps, the earth was reprofiled, and a drain was laid under the surface. Further drains were laid under the main walk to take water to the stream. The brick retaining walls on the north side were rebuilt, as was the old original size boiler.  Bricklayer Grant even tested it. All the 42 inner posts supporting the main walk were repaired or replaced and given new foundations.  We now have gutters.

The full length of the walk

July 26th 2017 was a Big Day as the walk was finally unveiled WITHOUT scaffolding.  All the posts, trusses, joists and floors were repaired or, in a few cases, replaced. Now we can see the whole walk as it should be.

The machinery team restored a second twine treatment idler and a twisting head frame. They also restored three further treatment machines and put back the two which were outside – removed in the 1980s.  With the walk clear, they turned attention to setting up twisting and treating demonstrations over the full length of the walk. We have been able to set out a complete working twine-treatment lane all along the ground floor of the walk with 24 loops of twine – 4000m in all. See HERE

On October 23rd 2017, we were visited by Helen Wheatley of the Heritage Lottery Fund, and she started the first full length twine twisting process since 1968.  This occupies the whole length of the upper floor of the walk. See HERE

The Trust’s old documents and books are now properly stored and arranged in our ‘Archive Building’.  We now have custody of all the old documents and files of Gould’s ‘West of England’ twineworks which operated in East St, West Coker. These date back as far as 1850. Local historian Richard Sims used the Archive to write the definitive  book on Coker Canvas, which we have been delighted to publish. He has also, with museums in Crewkerne, Bridport and Beaminster compiled leaflets of walks to visit old sites of the twine, rope and canvas industries. We have published 6 ‘monographs’ on Coker Canvas, twine-making, the Shanks engine installation, WW1 Land Girls, Glove-making sites in Yeovil, and the story of saving the roof of Dawe’s main walk. All this activity has been supported by the HLF grant. We have collected other material on  aspects of West Coker history, including old maps and census records in our Archive and display area.

The Trust set out to replace the old condemned bungalow with a new Visitor Centre in a style to match the old buildings.  The aim was to provide essential visitor facilities and to allow everything modern to be moved out of our Victorian factory. Architect Paul Ferdinand  produced the Visitor Centre design and drawings, and Planning Approval was secured in September 2018.

The derelict bungalow was demolished in July 2018 – see HERE,  making room for the Visitor Centre, shown below, built over the following winter by Aaron and Jason, who have restored all the old buildings.  See HERE for details of the new build.

In April 2019, the project reached the 90% spend point.  To release the remaining 10% funds, an ‘Evaluation Report’ was required.  This was submitted and accepted at the end of April and was followed by a very happy and successful visit by our HLF Project Officer, Helen Wheatley. She was also the PO for the Church Roof project and visited the church and team there.

On August 4th, we joined with the people involved in the repairs to St Martin’s church roof – another project funded by the Heritage Lottery – for Songs of Praise and a Hog Roast. Helen from HLF and her husband Tim were our guests, and 100 villagers and friends attended.  A great celebration.

Work continued through late 2019 and early 2020 to add to our historical material archive, to improve the site and make it easier to maintain in the future and to undertake the restoration of all the twine treatment ‘trolleys’ at the west end of the walk. The installation of a sophisticated fire alarm in the old buildings was an important step, and the visitor centre now has a security alarm – necessary if we are to borrow material from national collections.

Dawe’s was removed from the ‘Heritage At Risk Register’ in 2019 after about 20 years. Historic England used a drone to take aerial photos.

Heritage at Risk 2019.
Dawes Twine Works, West Coker, Somerset.
General view from the south west.

 

The Lottery Heritage Fund process requires reports (with photographs) and claims – you can only claim money once it’s been spent.  On March 30th 2020 we submitted our 25th and final claim and report and it was accepted the following morning.

And then it all stopped because of Covid 19, but we are now coming back