Garfield Weston Foundation
2007 Annual Report and Accounts
Other – £904,500 in 14 grants

The grant of £500,000 to World Monuments Fund in Britain is in response to their appeal for the rescue of Strawberry Hill House. Horace Walpole’s Grade 1 listed 18th century gothic villa is in urgent need of restoration and is on the Fund’s world’s 100 Most Endangered Sites list. This was the birthplace of the Gothic revival movement in architecture, art and literature. It remained in the family until the late 19th century and from 1923 has been used by the Catholic Education Council (St Mary’s College). The house is no longer appropriate for use by modern students although they continue to use the adjacent site and will have access to the house for ceremonial occasions. The College currently organises private tours and the house is open to the public four days a week. The lease on the house is now being transferred to the Strawberry Hill Trust. This important heritage building is in danger of extensive and irreversible structural damage, as well as losing important decorative features and fittings. Damp is penetrating the walls, wall coverings have been destroyed by over exposure to sunlight and plasterwork is cracked. Original features and decorations still exist, even if hidden under later accretions, and research is underway to create a comprehensive picture of the original interiors.

The Cowdray Heritage Trust has brought another rescue appeal to the attention of the Trustees. The remains of a Grade 1 Tudor mansion damaged by fire in 1793 remain a fine representation of Tudor architecture but have been suffering deterioration over a period of years and are now in danger of collapse. The post-Reformation origins of the private Chapel interior by Italian craftsmen during the early 18th century, the only decorative scheme of this type and date in England, is particularly at risk, although remarkable traces of gilding and wall painting still survive. The local and county councils, English Heritage and the Cowdray Estate are all major contributors to this extraordinary ruin and the Trustees have agreed to help complete the funding with a donation of £50,000.

At a more modest level, £5,000 is provided to the Wheal Martyn China Clay Country Park (Mining & Heritage Museum) for the conservation of the granite chimney stack and the same amount to Westray Heritage Trust towards an annexe for their Visitor Centre. The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Association (Newcastle Branch) receives a grant of £2,000 to enable them to take veterans and their partners on a pilgrimage to the Italian Battlefields of Anzio Cassino, Monte Cassino and associated cemeteries.