NEWSLETTER

Issue 37 September 2009

WEST MIDLANDS BRANCH

DIARY DATES

NEXT BRANCH MEETING

8 th September 2009 at Ledbury. Includes site visit to

Aylton Court. See meeting Agenda for further details.

BRANCH MEETINGS 2009-10

Branch meetings take place in November 2009 and

March 2010. Actual dates will be confirmed later.

Our second speaker will be Nick Hymer of

Staffordshire Stone who will be outlining his

aspirations for a more effective exploitation of the

natural stone which is known to underlie certain

development sites. Rather than see this

scraped/pecked/blasted away and carted to landfill,

he is exploring the commercial possibilities of short

term working of such sites to provide supplies of

locally usable stone for repair/restoration projects. At

face value this appears to be a highly sustainable

approach and it will be interesting to follow progress

on this one.

I’ve often said how conscious I am of the

variety of our work and recently I was fortunate to go

on a tour organised by the Southern Staffordshire

Partnership to Fort Dunlop. It was a most impressive

visit. The scale of the building is hard to appreciate

from the M6 at 70mph, but up close and personal its

bulk and mass is hugely dominant. Several aspects

came through in the two very informative

presentations that we were given by Urban Splash.

The sheer size of the project is mind-

boggling. Each floor covers an acre and there are 6

of them. One of the keys to exploiting its enormous

potential was to drag light down into the core from a

central lightwell and this also provided the central

circulation space. The industrial detailing which gives

the building its basic interest and character has been

retained and expressed throughout. And because

ownership is retained by the developers they

maintain control, strict control, over what tenants can

and cannot do. So lighting has to conform to a

certain format, blinds have to be of a particular kind,

window displays are prohibited, signage is to a set

pattern. In effect, these combine to wrap the whole in

a variant on Article 4 directions but one which

doesn’t need to be enforced. In a word, if you have a

unit here this is what you must do. And its effective –

very effective. Enforcement Officers eat your

collective hearts out.

The views from the rooftop are remarkably

expansive and this area is well used as a social

facility. After watching one of the nesting pair of

peregrine falcons take out a pigeon for its lunch and

consume it on the sedum roof you may think twice

about your chicken sandwich, but it makes for a real

conversation piece. There are seats and a large

permanent BBQ available for hire and it’s a very

popular venue with tenants.

CHAIRMAN'S COLUMN

Dave Burton-Pye

NEW WORDS, NEW WORKS

So now we have it. The long awaited successor to

PPG 15, which in itself succeeded the old circular

8/87. I’m keen that whatever goes back from the

West Midlands to HQ as a response encompasses

as many views as possible from the membership so

I’m hoping that we have a good turn-out at Ledbury

and there’s ample time within the morning’s business

session for us to have an informed debate. And if

that’s not enough to whet your appetite then the

prospect of seeing a very fine market town should

clinch it for you.

There have been some interesting

developments in Ledbury in recent years, lying

cheek-by-jowl with the historic market place and the

roads leading to it. It is a very pretty town and the

archetypal view along Church Lane to the tower of St

Michael’s church, the latter forming what Gordon

Cullen so aptly termed a “full stop”, must be one of

the most photographed, drawn and painted scenes

in the region. So make sure your memory card has

spare capacity.

In addition we have two fascinating

presentations lined up. Jez Bretherton is the

Heritage Advisor to Natural England here in the West

Midlands and is coming along to talk about their

Higher Level Stewardship grants for

repair/restoration of historic farm buildings. For those

who remember the meeting that I hosted here at

Codsall a couple of years ago, the enormous

complex at Chillington Hall has benefitted from this

particular grant regime (and very good the pigsties,

implement store and acorn roasting house look too).

It will be good to hear first hand about the philosophy

and practicalities of these grants.

Newsletter 37 page 1

The second element of the presentation was

a potted history of Urban Splash and although I’ve

seen variations on this on several occasions, this

one somehow seemed better than others and I came

away with a very positive view of the whole scheme.

I did venture to suggest that whilst such undertakings

had proved their worth in towns and cities it would be

good to see a similarly ground-breaking approach to

countryside regeneration – but my suggestion for a

splinter group called “Rural Plop” didn’t obviously

find favour………. Nonetheless I do think it would

make an extremely good venue for one of our urban

meetings and I’m making enquiries along these lines.

I shall look forward to seeing as many of you

as possible at Ledbury.

But these particular premises, given extreme

ingenuity, will survive to give future generations a

very real taste of what could once be found in every

Black Country street.

The Editor

EDITORIAL

INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY

On 8th July, wearing my West Midlands Historic

Buildings Trust hat, I was able to take part in a group

visit to the J W Evans works in Birmingham’s

Jewellery Quarter. This is now English Heritage

property and phase I envelope consolidation work is

on site. The project philosophy is to reinstate ‘as is’ –

that is, to the precise appearance of the works on the

day it closed for business in 2008. After

consolidation, English Heritage have to work out how

to afford public access to this small-scale and tightly-

packed warren of workshops and stores, complete

with every tool, appliance and a large quantity of

stock-in-trade. Even the dirt of 2008 is to be retained.

J W Evans – shafting detail

BRANCH MEETING

Day Theme :

HISTORIC GARDENS IN A

HISTORIC TOWN SETTING

22 nd June 2009

The 22 nd June Branch Meeting and activity took

place at Warwick, organized and hosted by Roger

Cullimore of Warwick District Council, to whom our

grateful and appreciative thanks. The meeting took

place at the Hill Close Gardens Visitor Centre on the

perimeter of the historic town of Warwick, adjoining

the Racecourse. After the meeting we had the

opportunity to explore Hill Close Gardens

themselves, a very rare and unusual survival.

After an hour at liberty for lunch in central

Warwick we went on walkabout, noting the degree of

often covert half-timbered survival and the physical

evidence of the Great Fire of Warwick in 1694. We

went on to explore the periphery of Warwick Castle

itself, that high-footfall tourist magnet on the Stratford

trail, concluding at Mill Gardens with its remarkable

views of the river and Castle.

VIEW OUT OF THE WINDOW

22 nd June 2009

The Branch meeting was held in the Hill Close

Gardens Visitor Centre, a 21 st Century contemporary

style building aimed at achieving low energy

consumption. The building was commissioned to

provide adequate accommodation for the

administration of the Gardens and to provide an on-

site facility for school visits.

Architects Design Engine from the Home

Counties were chosen through an architectural

competition, with their design being superior in

practicality to the other two short-listed entries.

In form the Visitor Centre is a single-storey

flat-roofed box on a triangular plan. The box

interpenetrates with the surrounding space by means

of an open entry passage flanked by a ticket and

enquiry office projecting from the envelope and a

timber pergola at the rear. The East wall is almost

entirely glazed, enabling users of the Education

Room to view the Gardens from where they sit.

The building package includes public toilets

and a kitchen which enables the education room to

be used as a cafeteria. The main public frontage is

J W Evans Works – rear yard detail

J W Evans is not unique in its virtually 100%

degree of survival, but the experience was a salutary

reminder of the immense Industrial Archaeology

resources of the West Midlands. So much has gone.

Newsletter 37 page 2

clad in orange ceramic tiling with horizontal

rustication and engraved lettering. Other frontages

are a mixture of slightly textured render and timber

cladding. There is a sedum roof. A small roof-

mounted wind generator makes a gesture in the

direction of self-sufficiency but only makes a modest

contribution to meeting the building’s energy

consumption. There is a retractable external awning

for the education room’s glazed wall, to prevent

excess solar gain.

Generally, the Visitor Centre proved a good

meeting environment, although the double glazing

was not proof against the noise of garden machinery!

The visible beams in the ceiling of the education

room looked rather odd, as though they were a kind

of chipboard glulam.

As already noted, the view out of the window

was indeed the Hill Close Gardens themselves,

rising up the slope towards central Warwick.

Unfortunately, the modern social housing

immediately to the south of the Gardens was of no

architectural interest whatsoever and detracted from

the interest of the view.

HILL CLOSE GARDENS,

Warwick

22 nd June 2009

Introduction

The Listing Description (Grade II*) provides a

succinct summary of the qualities and development

history of Hill Close Gardens. So here it is. All text

quoted from the Listing description appears in italics.

Development History

In the late Cl8 and early Cl9, many larger towns had

groups of small rented gardens forming a ring

around the densely developed town centre. These

pleasure garden plots were typically subdivided by

hedges into individual gardens of between an eighth

and a sixth of an acre. The gardens were laid out for

ornament and the comfort of the owner and were

used to grow a mixture of productive and ornamental

plants. The expansion of towns in the C19 destroyed

the majority of the Cl8 rented garden sites, but a

number of gardens of similar size and function were

laid out in the first half of the Cl9 , including

Westbourne Road Leisure Gardens, Edgbaston,

Birmingham (qv). A national survey (Lambert 1994)

has indicated that very few of these sites survive

either in their original form or, indeed, at all.

In the early C19 Warwick was hemmed-in by

Warwick Castle and Castle Park (qv) to the south,

the Common to the west, the grounds of Warwick

Priory to the north, and St Nicholas’ Meadow to the

east, which restricted the expansion of the town.

This resulted in much in- filling of the town centre

and consequently a need for gardens on the edge of

the town for those able to afford the c £100 (f50 for

the freehold and about the same sum for fittings left

by the previous owner) needed to acquire such an

amenity. The addresses of the occupants of the Hill

Close Gardens in the Cl9 are predominantly in the

part of the town where the degree of in-filling was

greatest.

Before its development as gardens, the site

was a field, Hilly Close, on Linen Hill, bounded on

the north by Linen Lane (now, 2000, Linen Street),

on the east by the gardens of houses in

Cocksparrow (now Bowling Green Street), and on

the west by the Common Brook, with further fields to

the south. In the later C18 it seems to have

belonged to William Wilson. The Close was first

divided into gardens in 1845, by Edward Wilson of

Exhall, making it one of several similar plots of

gardens around the town. By 1851 the site has been

named Hill Close Gardens, and the eastern side had

been laid out with a service lane running south from

Linen Street, off the eastern side of which were nine

plots, and to the west, in two rows a further four

plots, making a total of thirteen plots. The west side

of the Close was still pasture but the fields to the

south had become gardens and the churchyard of St

Paul’s church.

In the I860s the whole Close was put on the

market. An advertisement in the Warwick Advertiser

(14 July 1864) refers to the sale by John Margetts of

‘highly valuable building or garden ]and ...

subdivided and let in 35 lots as garden ground, the

whole 4a 3r 2p’. Through the sale. the land came

into the ownership of Mark Philips of Welcombe,

Stratford-upon- Avon. By this date the division of the

gardens was complete, making a total of thirty-two

plots surrounding the churchyard on three sides This

had involved the construction of two further lanes

running south off Linen Street, parallel and to the

west of the original access lane. Following the sale,

most of the gardens were sold off as individual units

until by only six still belonged to the Welcombe

Visitor Centre – main frontage and Reception Office

View over Hill Close Gardens through glazed wall

Glazed wall from outside. Note poor quality

residential development to left.

Newsletter 37 page 3

estate. This division of freehold made development

of the site difficult.

The basic layout of the site remained

unchanged until the early C20 when some housing

development, St Paul’s Close and St Paul’s Terrace,

encroached. This resulted in the loss of eight plots

along the northern edge of the site, the previous

layout of the gardens being reflected in the

development. Additional stabling for the race course

replaced the two plots in the south-east corner of the

site in the mid C20, and caused a slight modification

of the boundary of the adjacent garden to the north.

This reduced the number of plots to the nineteen

which exist today (2000).

In the 1970s the freehold of the gardens,

with the exception of the three eastern plots adjacent

to the Bowling Green Hotel (later the Westgate

Hotel), was gradually acquired by Warwick District

Council for a housing and car-parking scheme; the

gardens became almost entirely uncultivated.

Planning consent for the housing lapsed in 1994

and, as a result of community interest, the District

Council encouraged volunteers to undertake the

clearance of the site, and a restoration plan was

commissioned in 1997-8. One of the plots and a

summerhouse adjacent to the former Westgate

Hotel was restored for a television programme in

1999. Today (2000) the site remains in divided

ownership, the majority belonging to the local

authority.

The survival rate for this type of site is

extremely low, with most examples having

disappeared under built development. Where they

do survive, it is generally as allotment sites with

hedges and buildings removed.

Description

The c1.25ha site comprises nineteen individual plots

containing an average of 500 square metres which

are now (2000) divided by hedges of hawthorn, holly

and privet, brick walls and iron railings. It is likely

that all plots were originally enclosed by hedges,

although individual ownership from the 1860s led to

a greater diversity of boundary treatment. Today the

majority of the site is enclosed by green-painted

metal security fencing c 3m high. The eastern plots

which remain in separate ownership are enclosed to

the north by a property in St Paul’s Terrace, and to

the south by the race course stables. To the east,

these plots are today enclosed by temporary fences

which separate them from the Westgate Hotel which

is the subject of redevelopment. The site occupies a

west- facing slope which falls from the eastern

boundary to the Common Brook which forms the

western boundary. From the higher, eastern plots

there are extensive westerly views across the race

course and properties in Linen Street to agricultural

land west of Warwick.

The Garden Plots

The garden plots are arranged in five blocks of

various lengths which run from north to south.

Service lanes or paths separate the three western

blocks, while a further service lane runs between the

two most easterly blocks. Plots in the second and

third blocks from the east share a common

boundary, and are not separated by a path. Late

C20 clearance of undergrowth on the site has

revealed many of the boundary hedges of hawthorn,

privet and holly which enclosed the gardens,

together with a Cl9 brick wall to the east of plot 25

and C19 spiked iron railings to the north of plot 12.

The gardens retain a collection of mature standard

fruit frees, some of which are of Cl9 origin, while

some new fruit trees have been planted (late C20)

on cleared plots in the positions of trees indicated on

the 1886 OS map. A large mature vine is trained on

metal posts and wires parallel to the southern

boundary of plot 25.

Clearance has revealed the late C 19 path

layout in some gardens (plots 17, 18), while

elsewhere the late C19 path layout is now (2000) in

the process of reinstatement. The southern half of

plot 19, adjacent to the southern boundary of the

site, is today used as a nursery area, with the

remains of a late C19 or early C20 range of brick

and timber glasshouses and frames surviving on the

west side of the plot. A mid C20 metal and timber

shed is today used as a garden office, while further

mid and late C20 sheds stand on plots 23 and 24

which have remained in continuous cultivation to the

present day. Today only the most western group of

gardens, plots 29—31, remain in an overgrown

condition.

Eight brick-built summerhouses of various

designs survive on the site. Of these, that on plot 18

dates from before 1851 (Board of Health map), and

four on plots 7, 17, 19 and 25 from before 1866 (plan

annexed to 1866 deed; three are listed grade II).

Two further late C19 summerhouses are shown on

the 1886 OS map (that on plot 5 listed grade II),

while a further building was constructed c 1900. All

the summerhouses occupy sites at the eastern end

of their plot, so exploiting views across the race

course and Common. The summerhouses were

decorative buildings, equipped variously with

fireplaces, stoves, gas lights, and, in one case, a

‘patent earth commode’. The remains of two other

buildings survive comprising a mid C19 brick bothy

and a late C19 or early C20 brick-built pig-sty on plot

16.

Two C19 inventories show that the Hill Close

Gardens had a recreational as well as a productive

role, and this continued into the 1920s, although

during the early C20 the growing of vegetables had

increased in importance. This process was

encouraged by the Dig for Victory campaign during

the Second World War and austerity during the

I940s and early 1950s. Today (2000) the gardens as

revealed through late C20 clearance and

reclamation closely reflect the layout shown on the

1886 OS map with summerhouses of various

designs, fruit trees, complex path systems and

terraces.

Further Information & Walkabout

The gardens have been recreated to a scheme

prepared by landscape architects that more evokes

than exactly reproduces the totality of the layout and

planting before abandonment. As the Listing

Description point out, some the trees and shrubs are

survivals, as of course are the structures and some

of the boundary treatments. Some paved paths also

seemed to be authentic.

The Gardens are managed by a very small

paid staff, including the Site Manager. The greater

part of the maintenance and presentation work is

undertaken by volunteers. Volunteers have a degree

of choice in species planting to suit their own

inclinations.

Public opening takes place on Saturdays,

Sundays and Bank Holidays Spring-Autumn, with

pay access. Groups may visit by appointment at any

time during the week. A range of plants and

souvenirs can be bought on site, as can light

refreshments. Visitors are free to wander around the

complex access path network.

Maintenance and upkeep is to a high

standard. The new landscaping scheme has

included some spectacular plants such as giant

artichoke and giant hemlock as well as more homely

flowers and vegetables. One plot is cultivated

Newsletter 37 page 4

according to WW2 ‘Dig for Victory’ principles.

Decorative use has been made of uprooted dead

tree stumps.

The gardens occupy a west-facing slope,

and the higher plots command a view of the

Racecourse to the west. The IHBC walkabout took

place on a ‘non-public’ day with only staff and

volunteers present on site. It was a remarkably

tranquil experience walking through intricately

compartmented greenery listening to copious

birdsong.

permitted development in the interests of protecting

and enhancing the amenities of the Gardens

themselves.

(Untenanted) pigsties

Hill Close Gardens – shed detail

Gazebo with terrace

Small summerhouse

Exotic planting!

Another member was concerned at the

visual dominance of modern housing to the SE and

south of the Gardens. Their visual contribution was

negative and they were not screened off in any way.

Overall, the reinstatement and operation of

Hill Close Gardens is an enterprise that is largely

community-led and community operated, ticking all

the right HLF boxes and guaranteeing continuing

maintenance.

View of Gardens down the slope to the Racecourse

Comments

One member rather regretted that no single plot had

been retained in its ‘wild’ state, as an example of

how deeply overgrown the Gardens were before

reclamation.

Housing overlooks the Gardens to the east and

south. Terrace houses in Bowling Green Street

overlook from above. Some retain their late C19

features and are a positive amenity, but others have

modern glazing and concrete interlocking tiles which

ultimately detracts from views over the Gardens from

the west. There might be scope for designation of a

Hill Close Conservation Area (unless one already

exists) with an Article 4 Direction restraining

WARWICK TOWN CENTRE

22 nd June 2009

Town

The afternoon walkabout started at the Market Hall

(William Hurlbutt, architect/builder) of 1670.

Originally possessing an open ground floor arcade,

the hall was strikingly reminiscent of that at Abingdon

(Oxon) with hipped roof and central lantern.

Execution was in stone. In the C19 the arches had

been infilled with tracery reminiscent of that

Newsletter 37 page 5

appearing in the late C17 rebuild of St Mary’s

Collegiate Church. The building was currently in

museum use but was closed for refurbishment.

Discussions about partial conversion to a tourist

office had taken place without any firm conclusions.

More giant pilasters (St Mary’s Church to right)

Market Hall, Warwick

The walkabout swiftly took us into that part

of the town which had been rebuilt following the

Great Fire of 1694. The rebuilding scheme had

involved the specification of ‘anchor’ three-storey

buildings at the street corners. These were imposing

stone structures in English Baroque, with both giant

corner pilasters and sometimes broken pediments.

Most were startlingly reminiscent of Francis Smith’s

Baroque work at nearly Stoneleigh Abbey. English

Baroque buildings are quite rare, so Warwick was

revealed as having unusual architectural interest in

this regard.

Six-bay corner block

Castle

Warwick Castle is on the international tourist trail

focussed on Stratford-on-Avon. It remains in the

ownership of the Madame Tussaud organisation and

is run purely as a visitor attraction with an average

entrance fee of almost £20. However, the Castle has

a lot to offer, from peacocks in the gardens to the

ability to wander through an enormous and still

largely medieval structure, including climbing to the

tower tops.

Warwick Castle is unusual in that its then

owners declared for Parliament in the English Civil

War, thereby safeguarding the building from the

slighting that so severely damaged the majority of

English Castles, even Kenilworth nearby with its

dazzling Henry Yevele apartments. Thereafter,

successive Earls of Warwick had refrained from

major alterations. So the Castle retains its medieval

outline with the massive Guy’s and Caesar’s towers

intact to their highest battlements.

Corner property with broken pediment and giant

pilasters

Warwick Castle – sunken carriage drive

The IHBC walkabout took us through the

Castle perimeter, including the ticket office courtyard

(formerly a stone stable block) and over a timber

bridge that ‘grade-separated’ the children’s

playground created for use by paying visitors from

Newsletter 37 page 6

the general public on the footpath. This took us into

an early C19 carriage drive cut into the stone of the

crag on which the Castle is sited.

Another stone gateway let us out on to the

alignment of the former Town Wall. From there, Mill

Street led down to the River Avon. This street is

largely half-timbered, albeit very heavily made-over,

and was clearly occupied by seriously rich people.

Mill Street is now a cul-de-sac.

Mill Gardens – ruined medieval bridge over Avon

Mill Street, Warwick

Mill Gardens

Mill Street is a cul-de-sac. But it is possible to walk

further on by paying a £1.50 admission fee for Mill

Gardens at the far end. This is another beautifully

kept garden. But a garden with a wonderful set of

views.

It is immediately below and to one side of

riverside cliff on which the Castle stands. So the view

from the garden is up and along the immensely tall

and long river frontage of the Castle. At the closest

angle of the Castle is the immense Caesar’s tower

on top of a tall battered plinth.

And then there is the River Avon itself. The

garden is only just above water level and adjoins a

weir, so the single most important sound is that of

falling water. There are views over and along the

river.

south wall of the Castle from Mill Gardens

Here is the key to Warwick’s existence. The

Garden adjoins the substantial but decaying

remnants of a medieval bridge. This is the ancient

crossing point on the Avon that the castle was built to

control. This is the reason for the existence of Mill

Street, which was simply the bridge approach on a

diagonal line avoiding a steep slope.

The bridge was suffering break-up of its

upstream cutwaters through long term water action,

and the growth on top was clearly loosening joints

and accelerating decay. Here is a highly significant

structure, with no functional use, that will require

substantial sums of money and a lot of practical

difficulty to repair and consolidate. Being over and in

a river, there is an Environment Agency dimension

as well as the wildlife issue. And, once consolidated,

the structure will need regular maintenance to

safeguard it. So, at very least, any scheme ought to

include a sensitive footbridge conversion to afford

regular, easy access.

In the Mill Gardens, there was another

wonderful plant, a sort of giant (and indeed gi-

normous) rhubarb right out of the C20 English

Garden plantsman’s vocabulary for waterside

locations. A little notice said that seedlings of this

striking plant were available on sale.

The Mill Gardens were a sensory and scenic

delight. The current admission charge is used to

raise funds for charity.

Caesar’s Tower & plinth from Mill Gardens

Newsletter 37 page 7

Mill Gardens – giant rhubarb detail

West Gate – detail of Doric VR pillar box

CAPE MAY, USA

The Editor

At the end of my visit to the USA I spent two days in

Cape May, New Jersey. Cape May is something of a

mini-Florida. It is a low-lying peninsula at the

southern extremity of New Jersey state, with the

Atlantic to the east and Delaware Bay to the west.

Geologically, it seems to have been built up by

coastal drift in the same way as Orford Ness in the

UK. Back in the 1860s it was developed as one of the

first seaside resorts in the Eastern US.

Being at the end of a ‘road to nowhere’ Cape

May seems never to have faced major

redevelopment pressures, with the result that a great

deal of the mid-late Victorian resort still survives,

typified by a substantial collection of detached villas

fronting narrow tree-lined streets.

Economically, Cape May town continues to

function as a seaside resort, with a long promenade

fronting a wide, sandy beach. In fact, the original

town was built slightly inland from the beach, so that

the promenade area is of mostly C20 origin.

However, much of the marketing is based on the

historic interest of the Victorian resort itself. There is

a portfolio of trail leaflets, guided walks, hire

quadricycles and horse carriage hire.

Cape May Town is flanked by a more modest

settlement at Cape May Point. Again developed in

the 1860s, a series of detached villas line wide

streets laid out in the standard US grid pattern. I was

told that winter inhabitants totalled no more than 400,

whilst summer population was as much as 4,000. So

the picture is, clearly, of a settlement of holiday

homes for the well off. A number of original villas

survive in good condition. There is no shop of any

kind but there is a Post Office and a mini town hall,

as well as a (volunteer run) fire station. A lighthouse

and a WW2 fire control tower are managed and

opened to the public as historic monuments. Cape

May Point is astonishingly quiet and peaceful.

Mill Gardens lawn

WARWICK - Other Notes

22 nd June 2009

There are significant reminders of the Medieval

Walled Town. The east and west ends of the High

Street and Jury Street feature surviving medieval

gateways, both of which are topped by chapels, the

West Gate chapel having a much imposing tower

than that at the East Gate. The East Gate chapel is

partially occupied by an operational school

classroom and is in increasing need of repair, so we

were told on 22 nd .

Warwick – West Gate Chapel to left, Lord

Leycester’s Hospital to right

Warwick has two wonderful ‘Doric Column’

pillar boxes dating from 1856. These are located at

the West Gate and East Gate respectively. Street

furniture at its finest.

Cape May Town – former railway station

Newsletter 37 page 8

Villa, Cape May Town

Two storey verandahs – shade optimised

Gingerbread work – fretted arches

Ground floor verandah only

Villa balcony in fretted wood

Shocking pink décor

War Memorial with more villas

Newsletter 37 page 9

Tracks in the redundant Railway station- the station

is now the Bus station.

Art Nouveau villa on Promenade

sidewalk hitching post, Cape May Town

EDITOR'S SHOPPING LIST

Your Editor welcomes, for the next Edition of the

Newsletter (No 38), to go out in November 2009, the

following:

 Personal news of moves, retirements, arrivals;

 Copies of announcements and press releases;

 Case Studies;

 Letters;

 Articles on Law and Techniques;

 Book Reviews.

Material for inclusion in No 38 should,

preferably, arrive not later than the end of October

2009. Please contact your Newsletter Editor :

Peter Arnold, 16 Elmbank Road, Walsall WS5 4EL;

01922 644219; pdarnold@care4free.net

Cape May Town, Carriage mounting block

PICTURE POSTSCRIPT

Christchurch (Episcopalian) at Cape May Point.

Shutters instead of windows. Only used for worship

in the summer.

Hill Close Gardens Visitor Centre – from site

entrance

Newsletter 37 page 10