Memorandum by Nancy Hollinrake (HIS 14)
MORLANDS FACTORY SITE—GLASTONBURY
Although I am not an elected town councillor,
I have been co-opted onto the Glastonbury Town Council's Morland
Committee. This committee provides guidance to the Town Council
on its dealings with the re-development of the 40 acre, Morland
site, formerly a tanner, where the famous Morland sheepskin jackets
were once made. Also included in the development area is the former
Baily's leather goods factory, once producers of bearskin hats
for the Brigade of Guards and of Mohammed Ali's boxing gloves,
among many other products.
This development site has been derelict for
nearly 20 years. Regeneration has been marked by a series of failed
plans, hampered by the severe pollution created by hundreds of
years of tanning on waterlogged ground composed of peat mixed
with alluvium, and complicated by the course of a medieval millstream
running past both factories. The town was, therefore, delighted
when, just less than two years ago, this difficult and complicated
site was acquired by the SWRDA.
Even before the involvement of the RDA, there
had been a vigorous campaign to recognise the architectural value
of several of the factory buildings. The millstream runs past
a late-medieval mill, a Victorian brick-built office block and
three storey factory building, a factory built in the early 1930's
to a Bauhaus style (probably one of the earliest Bauhaus-style
building in England), a 1970's pre-cast concrete and steel building
enclosing an exceptionally large floor area (designed by Jack
Hepworth, a cousin of Barbara Hepworth and a noted architect and
sculptor in his own right), and the 19th century Baily's three
storey factory block. Of these, the medieval mill and the Baily's
factory are listed buildings.
These two factory complexes contain purpose
built industrial buildings ranging from the 16th century through
to the 1970's ranged alongside an 11th/12th century millstream
constructed by Glastonbury Abbey; a group of industrial premises
almost unequalled in the country. However, quite apart from the
aesthetic and heritage considerations, these buildings are worth
preserving for purely pragmatic reasons: All were in reasonably
good state of repair with deep foundations which have permitted
high buildings, something impossible on other parts of the site
where the peat and alluvium is very deep. These foundations protect
the millstream from pollution making it very difficult, if not
impossible, to construct other buildings in their place.
It was the recent (August 2003) listing of the
Baily's factory which alerted the SWRDA to the value of all of
these buildings and allowed the Prince's Foundation/Regeneration
Through Heritage to take an active part in advising the Town Council
on their renovation, rather than the demolition which had originally
been intended. Listing alerts the world to the value of heritage
buildings; it acts as a quality control and enhances the possibility
of grant aid for renovation and repair. Without listing, hundreds
of valuable buildings would be lost forever.
At the present time, the Glastonbury Town Council
are hoping to establish a trust to take ownership of the town's
factories and use them for the benefit of the town and the wider
community. Since the closure of Morlands and Bailys, the Clark's
shoe factories in Street, two miles away, have also been closed
and the jobs relocated to Portugal and then the Far East and the
area is suffering from the highest unemployment rate in the county.
At least one of the leather-trade factories—Baily's—has
been saved from demolition or change of use thanks to listing,
along with probably two other unlisted factory buildings on the
Morland site.—allowing the unemployed leather workers of
the area a chance to revive their high-quality, craft-based industry.
Any factory buildings converted to other industrial uses will
also ensure a high-quality architectural and industrial landscape
which will add diversity and interest to the whole re-development
project.
Renovation of these factories will allow Glastonbury
to retain an industrial base, one that it has enjoyed for hundreds
of years, originating with mills owned and developed in the medieval
period by Glastonbury Abbey. The tanneries and sheepskin factories
of Morlands and Baily's were, and still are, a matter of great
pride to the local community and despite recent setbacks, they
could, with some modern industrial additions, provide a new focus
for the high skills and crafts which have been nourished in this
town for almost a thousand years.
The renovation of the surviving factory buildings
adds character and inspiration to the development and enhances
the marketability of the new business premises. We owe the survival
of these buildings to the listing process and to the participation
of the SWRDA.
|
