Help sponsor a masterpiece (From Stroud News and Journal)

Help sponsor a masterpiece

Woodchester Mansion, the unique Victorian masterpiece nestling in the Stroud valleys, is in need of money if its full potential as a major tourist attraction is to be realised.

Last week the News & Journal outlined the history of the building and its colony of bats, this week David Price, chief executive of Woodchester Mansion Trust, and Julian Wathen, fundraising chairman, explain what the money is needed for and how people living locally can help)

THE Woodchester Mansion Project is a leading example of how the conservation of a nationally important monument can be undertaken by local people with limited resources and set the pace which others now attempt to follow.

This is so much more than the preservation of a major listed building. Here we have a nationally important Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) where for the first time in Europe, visitors can watch hundreds of bats in their roof space breeding colonies.

The building conservation work is now directly linked to our nationally-recognised training programme that gives trainee stone masons the unique opportunity to develop their traditional skills and make a real contribution to the restoration work on the mansion.

The house and grounds provide the perfect setting for quiet contemplation and offer unlimited potential for artists, naturalists and walkers.

Conservation work on the mansion itself is a long-term challenge and we need to raise 3million to complete the project. However, everyone can make a positive contribution.

Sponsor a stone Building work over the coming years will require the replacement or repair of huge amounts of eroded Cotswold stone but for 35 we can purchase one cubic foot of material and continue to make headway into arresting the decay.

Mark Hancock, the trust's master mason, has drawn up a plan of the North Range which shows the extent of work needed and was excited by the thought of seeing work enabled by community investment.

"We would continually update the conservation plans and let individual donors know of the progress being made and exactly where there contribution had been used" he said.

"Unlike modern buildings, the characteristics of the mansion will allow us to accurately document when and by whom an individual piece of work was undertaken and a sponsorship programme of this nature allows us to write another chapter of the house's history".

Pay a bat's rent The current residents of the mansion, the Horsehoe bats, are fortunate not to have to pay rent or rates but their occupancy costs the trust an estimated 6p per bat each day to cover heating of the breeding lofts and hibernacula, running the CCTV and staff costs.

This amounts to 21.90 a year each or nearly 9,000 a year for the whole colony.

Although we accept these costs as essential any support we can generate towards this important work would be applied to improving the conditions within the house for the bats, updating heating systems (500), installing an audio link to the lofts so that visitors could for the first time see and hear the colony (3,000) and undertaking internal modifications to the building and creating a purpose-built bat door to provide a secure and disturbance free entrance to the house (5,000).

Public access Most people visit the mansion on one of the regular open-days organised by the mansion's volunteers between Easter and October and the income generated by these events is a crucial part of the day-to-day operating budget of the charity.

The closure of the mansion forced by food and mouth diusease in the spring meant that a quarter of the open days were lost and daily numbers of visitors are still lower than last year.

Although it is now impossible to make up the 2001 deficit, ongoing costs still need to be met.

Running and maintaining the buses for example, that provide an easy means of getting to the mansion for the disabled, elderly or parents with small children costs 2,000 per year.

As part of the trust's plans to widen the mansion's availability and scope for visitors, we hope to raise funding to improve disabled access to the ground floors (12,000) create disabled lavatories (15,000) and begin work on the production of an interpretation centre in the extensive cellars under the mansion (100,000) that will tell the story of the house and the surrounding parkland owned by the National Trust.

Funding challenge Funding for the capital projects will be a major challenge, but obtaining core-running costs is extremely difficult. Certainly without grant aid from Stroud District Council, the trust would find it impossible to operate.

The Heritage Lottery Fund have provided a generous grant for the next major phase of restoration but release of this will be only possible when £100,000, representing 21 percent of matching funds, has been raised.

Community support for the project will be essential if it is to achieve as much over the coming decade as it has in the past.

Stephen Davis, WMT's chairman, hopes that everyone will be able to make some form of contribution to the mansion project and feel that they are part of a long term initiative.

"Major donors are always welcome" he said, "but by becoming a Friend of the Mansion for only 15 a year (20 for families), you have unlimited access to the house on open days and underpin the infrastructure of this local charity.

"If only 15 percent of SNJ readers were to sign up to the Friends scheme we'd boost our income by 50,000 a year which amounts to over half of our existing annual budget!"

Volunteers Support doesn't necessarily mean financial commitment. The work of the Mansion Trust is dependant upon its most valuable asset, the volunteer team.

This dedicated group organise and run the open days and work hard through the winter undertaking essential repairs and maintenance.

New members are always welcome and should contact the Mansion Office for further details. For further information please contact the Mansion Office on 01453 750455 or visit us on one this year's remaining open days