BAALHS CONSERVATION PAGE

I was recently flattered to have been asked to join the committee of The Bedford Society and following the Society's merger with BALHS, became secretary of the Conservation Sub Committee of BAALHS. As someone who had previously taken an outsider's view of the conservation of Bedford and its buildings it was stimulating to find myself in an insider's position.

As such I was suddenly in the company of a small group of people who not only take the time and trouble to find out what horrors the 'powers that be' have in store for the undeserving people of Bedford, but also know enough about the system, to stand up to them. Having said that, it was depressing to find that the more one looked behind the scenes, the more obvious it became that some of the people who are charged, by accident or design, with an obligation to preserve our built environment are among those who seem to disrespect it most.

Back in 2008, St.Luke's United Church, (James Horsford, 1864), was offered for sale. The owners, the United Reformed Church, ordered the sale by auction of much of the moveable furniture and soon after put in place plans to saw up and remove for sale the pews, pulpit and other fixtures. In what was to become its last act of rescue, and in the nick of time, the Bedford Society was successful in obtaining a Grade II listing for the building, which has now been sold to Bedford School. We believe that its listed status will protect this fine building and trust that that the new owners will treat the fabric and interior with the deference they deserve, so that future alterations are carried out in sympathy with the historic structure.

More recently, the Borough Council which recently invented something called 'Pride in Bedford' and rightly bemoans the continuing degradation of the High Street, cheerfully instructed a contractor to smash up the seating that surrounds the 'Chinese Bungalow' in De Parys Avenue in an act of casual vandalism that defies its own planning laws and destroys the visual harmony of one of Bedford's better buildings. In mid March letters were written to the Mayor and the acting Chief Planner requesting that the seats are reinstated. Depressingly, but typically, the sub committee has had replies from neither. We intend to review the position after Easter and will consider requesting the Borough Council to make a retrospective planning application as, technically, it is required to do.

More cheerfully I can advise that the sub committee have greeted with enthusiasm plans by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to carry out repairs to the Prison, including the replacement of the partly vanished faux-quoins (corner decorations). We are also relieved that an outline planning application in respect of the Lansdowne Road redevelopment has been dropped, although in principle the sub committee had no objection to some of the proposals.

A blanket application has been made to redevelop the Bedford College (former Mander College) site. The sub committee notes that three listed buildings including College House, (1694) are to be preserved, as are the former St. Mary's Church Schools in Cauldwell Street. We will submit our comments shortly and will express a desire that the monumental steam engine, removed from the former Bedford Waterworks and currently preserved on the site should be protected and kept in the immediate locality. We also consider that the tower block, (County Architect S. Vincent Goodman, 1957-65), is probably worthy of retention.

Other matters in hand, which we are watching, are the proposed 'restoration' and 'cleaning' of the former Dame Alice Street Almshouses, and a proposal to clad Riverside Towers, (surely anything would be an improvement).

The Bedford Waterworks Beam Engine.

The engine was manufactured by Goddard and Massey in Nottingham and installed in the waterworks in 1878. It is a condensing, rotative, double acting, duplex compound pumping machine, fiited with flat single ported side valves. The engine worked continuously for 81 years from 1878 until November 19th 1959.

This was one of two engines employed to pump water almost 150 feet from river level to the top of the neighbouring hill (above what is now Manton Lane). The treatment works on the hill top then supplied the water to the town.

( Bob Ricketts, Bedford Sewage and Waterworks. BAALHS Newsletter April 2009. Geoffrey Sands, Industrial Archaeology in Bedfordshire 1967 )