36 YEARBOOK 2024 perseverance and ability to show you can produce the money and not waste their time may be all that you can offer – sometimes it works! LORRAINE BELL, FIFE HISTORIC BUILDINGS TRUST, DUNFERMLINE, FIFE At Fife Historic Buildings Trust, this is seen from different perspectives: as a project manager working with clients and specialist consultants to develop a business case for a potential project; and as a property owner or end user, which the trust is itself. Three top tips stand out: Do your research: challenge your assumptions by getting to the facts. Gaps in your knowledge create risk. Get an independent view: work with experienced consultants who understand the pitfalls and opportunities. Talk to others who have succeeded, or failed, with similar projects. Revisit your case often: circumstances change, and your thinking will need to with it. A sound concept can survive this and may even be improved. At St Margaret’s House in Dunfermline, the first phase of works with Fife Council has repaired the exterior and reinstated lost architectural detail. The building has been transformed externally and this has raised its stock locally as a building of interest with a role to play in the future of the city centre. The challenge previously was that the building had been overlooked by many. Happily, this is no longer the case. The challenge now will be to assess the varied ideas put forward for the space, and to work with stakeholders to identify the right viable end use and end user. LOOKING AHEAD These four viewpoints highlight how much these projects have in common, both in terms of the challenges faced in the different corners of the United Kingdom, and in terms of the need to research and fully understand the resources available. Voluntary organisations like these can draw on funding sources that are unavailable to the private sector, successfully bridging the viability gap. They are able to draw on the expertise and energy of local communities to ensure that projects are better suited to local needs. And, perhaps most importantly, the trusts themselves represent a unique resource, bringing skill, determination and vision to address the increasing threats posed by changes in society, our economy and our environment to the historic built environment. Once associated with places of relatively high levels of deprivation and need, the heritage trust model is increasingly being seen as key to new challenges facing the historic environment everywhere, not least in the high streets of many of our historic town centres, and in a growing wave of redundant churches and chapels. Gavin Richards is Heritage Development Trusts Programme Manager at The Architectural Heritage Fund (www.ahfund.org.uk). The article was prepared with the help of Ross Williams, Director, Redruth Revival Community Interest Company; Helen Quigley, Projects Advisor, Inner City Trust; Jennifer Summers, Director, Haverfordwest Heritage Ltd; and Lorraine Bell, Trust Manager, Fife Historic Buildings Trust. St Margaret’s, a grand mid-19th century villa in the heart of Dunfermline, which has been rescued by Fife Historic Buildings Trust (Photo: Heritage Development Trust)
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