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Warrington is being destroyed!


Sha

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A list of buildings with heritage value already lost in Warrington.

 

Middle portion of Bridge Street.

 

The Old Grammar School.

 

Winwick Tower, last Old Stone House.

 

The Birchdale Hotel (referred to as the Old Cottage on the heath in the early 19 hundreds)

 

A whole section of the conservation area (south east section) on London Road (been irreparably mismanaged and damaged and could well lose it's Conservation Area status in future reviews)

 

The Old Workhouse, Church Street.

 

The Bay Horse public house (Statutory Listed building)

 

The Old Quay at London Bridge (Statutory Listed) one of only two remaining in the country.

 

The Old Prospect House (hillcliffe Hydro)

 

Undercliffe House.

 

The Rockfield Hotel.

 

The old lock up, Winwick Street.

 

The Old National School, Church Street (only the facia left - the worst kind of conservation).

 

The Segar Watt Designed Victoria Hotel (complemented the Segar Watt designed Mulberry Tree lying opposite in the conservation area).

 

The character property lying in the Conservation Area commonly referred to as "Miss Turton's House".

 

The old character cottage 85a Walton Road (antique shop).

 

The Victorian Baths in Leigh Street.

 

The Horse and Jockey public house, Winwick/ Kerfoot Street.

 

Stockton Heath Community Primary School, Victorian building with rare Cheshire Arts & Craft features, Site of Roman settlement, Temple. Portion of Roman Road destroyed.

 

Buildings left to decay.

 

Daresbury Hall.

 

Buildings left to decay....now proposed to be offloaded for 'modernisation/conversion' which will result in lack of opportunity for public access.

 

Bewsey Old Hall, home of the Lords of Warrington.

 

Walton Hall. The jewel in the crown!

 

Buildings marked next for the chop!

 

Evelyn Street School, Solid Victorian building, architect (same as Stockton Heath Primary) Joseph Holt.

 

 

Any more for this list of shame?

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Left to Decay and currently under threat :-

 

BANK QUAY Transporter Bridge. 1913/4.

Engineers: Sir William Arrol and Coy

said to be only 2 other such major transporter bridges in Britain.

Garde II Listed

 

Gone (well sort of as it was quite literally 'moved' as part of the Bridge Foot road widening scheme and was then rebuilt :roll: )

 

The Old Acandemy, Bridge Street

Built c1757

Grade II listed

 

and the

 

Old Market Hall and Fish Market

1855-6 by James Stevens

Grade II Listed

 

Sure some more will spring to mind :cry:

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Sha, don?t you mean Warrington has been destroyed?

 

I think the rot set in once they knocked down the old fish market and replaced it with the Golden Square shopping complex, the other monstrosities include the green skittles dotted about the poorly and unprofessionally designed town centre, which isn?t user/shopper friendly, which prat/planner decided that was a good idea?.

 

Warrington has not much in the way distinguishing features anymore, with the build of purpose built warehousing for example Cockhedge Shopping Centre, car dealerships around the town and flats around Mersey Street to name a few. You can go from one town to another and think you are still in the same place. I think the town planners have a lot to answer for by choosing or the allowing of second rate architecture to be built in Warrington.

 

Maybe we can get rid of the planners and replace them with some one more professional/creative or at least with some good ideas?

:roll:

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Inky has a point: nothing wrong with retaining "old" buildings, BUT they still need to have a function ( EG; the Old Accademy) - part of the problem has been; a failiure to integrate our heritage into a cuture and tourism plan (EG tourist/history trails); a failiure of the Gov Dept to list buildings in time and then provide the funding to save them; and the failiure of planning law to sustain draconian penalties on cowboy developers for accidentally knocking them down (EG Bay Horse). :cry: Church St was lost even before it was designated a conservation area, with the building of Sainsburys and the retention of garages. :cry:

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I was going with the flow on this one until I saw Walton Hall described as "the jewel in the crown." It is simply a beer baron's "mansion" - of little if any architectural or historic interest at all.

 

Maybe none to you Egbert or Wolfie but enough for English Heritage to give it Grade II listing status and for others to see it's value :wink::roll:

 

Why don't you give EH ring and put them right... :lol:

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part of the problem has been; a failiure of the Gov Dept to list buildings in time and then provide the funding to save them;

 

Not entirely true Obs as the Local Authority has a big part to play in the statutory listing of local buildings especially those buildings that are only on the 'local list'.

 

Where statutory listing does not exist but a building is at risk the LA can instruct the Government Departments(EH) to temporarily 'protect' if necessary from any works. :wink:

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part of the problem has been; a failiure of the Gov Dept to list buildings in time and then provide the funding to save them;

 

Not entirely true Obs as the Local Authority has a big part to play in the statutory listing of local buildings especially those buildings that are only on the 'local list'.

 

Where statutory listing does not exist but a building is at risk the LA can instruct the Government Departments(EH) to temporarily 'protect' if necessary from any works. :wink:

If you mean a Building Preservation Notice, the sting for the authority is in the tail. A BPN gives 6 months during which EH can look at it and the Secretary of State can decide whether to list the building. But "if it is not listed, compensation may be payable if loss has been sustained as a result of the BPN".

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Why don't you give EH ring and put them right... :lol:

 

Well it wouldn't be the first time English Heritage had got it wrong.

But even they give it Grade 2 listing, which puts on the same level as, say, some three-storey properties in Bewsey Street.

Grade 2 is not much and seeing as Warrington has a number of Grade 1 listed buildings, how can Walton Hall be "the jewel in the crown"?

 

A lot of the building was demolished years ago, anyway.

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  • 1 year later...

Just remind you that, so far as I can recall, in the last 20 years the Council has only given consent for two listed buildings to be demolished (the derelict house on Winwick Street next to Greenwoods, and the bit of stone wall in the old Legion building).

 

How about all the mysterious fires to listed buildings in the last 20 years? Then low and behold they are then quickly redeveloped.

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:blink: In 2111, I can see young algy, descended from today's algy, posting old photos on here of Warrington today and asking, 'where was this building and what was it used for?' :D

My feeble attempt at a 'mickey take' not my thing really I should leave it to the Pro's. :oops::D

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All what mysterious fires?

 

Quite recently the Band stand at Walton Hall, (replaced with a modern one which looks more siutable for a hotel).

Also part of Bewsey Old Hall, (development of which had been held up due to them being ordered to relocate the bats).

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I rather like the new bandstand as the old one was basically a scruffy wooden box and certainly not anything remotely associated with being a listed structure or of importance (unlike the other buildings of course).

 

Bewsey Old Hall... well that is a damn shame and it should never have happened but it was left empty, unused and boarded up for so long it didin't suprise me.

 

There have been a heck of a lot of other buildings in Warrington that have myseriously caught fire over the years though, not necessarily listed buildings, but certainly ones which have been, or may have been, standing in the way of new development in some way.

 

It's suprising how many of these then got palnning permission for housing developemtns when in reality had the original building still been standing approval to demolish and build houses would have probably been refused.

 

Of course that is probably just coincidence.

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Quite recently the Band stand at Walton Hall, (replaced with a modern one which looks more siutable for a hotel).

Also part of Bewsey Old Hall, (development of which had been held up due to them being ordered to relocate the bats).

 

Ah yes the bats ! I guess that's removed the epediment to profit!

Now that Hall has been seriously singed perhaps it's time for a rethink on the enabling developementwhich will plonk a three story block of apartmrnts in the adjacent woodland.

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