C O N T E X T 1 2 2 : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 1 11 College on Millbank to Chelsea College of Art in 2001. In exceptional cases, the government has used public endowments to support the transfer of nationallyimportant heritage sites to charitable trusts, beginning with ChathamHistoric Dockyard and Portsmouth Naval Base Property Trust in the 1980s. These were followed in the 1990s byWalthamAbbey Royal Gunpowder Mills Trust and the Greenwich Foundation for the Royal Naval College.The enlightened use of public funds has secured these sites for public enjoyment, and helped to meet the costs associated with backlog repairs and decontamination works. Even successful regeneration schemes can have a long and difficult period of planning. In some cases this process has taken more than a decade to resolve. Delays in the regeneration of former defence sites are not unusual, due to difficulties in obtaining planning permission for development or downturns in the property market, especially since the current downturn in the economy began in 2008. Changes in the MoD’s estate development plans and the rights of former owners under the Crichel Down rules can hold up or prevent the sale of surplus sites. These delays can leave heritage assets vacant and vulnerable to neglect, resulting in them being identified as being at risk. Details of all listed buildings and scheduled monuments at risk on the MoD estate are published in English Heritage’sBiennial Conservation Report on the Government Historic Estate. Buildings on disposal sites have often been functionally redundant for years prior to sale. If they have been neglected, the backlog of repairs can be a deterrent to potential purchasers. However, the viability of regenerating surplus defence sites has been demonstrated by numerous examples around the country where historic buildings have become the focus of successful new neighbourhoods.The RoyalWilliamYard at Stonehouse and the Royal Arsenal atWoolwich (see the case study below) are two well-known examples which have been the subject of major, long-running regeneration projects. At Gosport, Hampshire, there is an extensive mixeduse regeneration area which encompasses the ordnance buildings of Priddy’s Hard and the navy victualling buildings of Royal Clarence Yard. Two adjoining groups of barrack buildings (St George Barracks, North and South) have been sympathetically converted to residential use. At Shoebury in Essex, the former barracks site has become a new residential area, with the historic buildings successfully converted to new uses and complemented by well-designed new housing. In some cases, historic buildings have been incorporated in new industrial parks.The former Royal Aircraft Establishment Factory Site at Farnborough is a successful example, where key listings were put in place and refined at the beginning of the development process. English Heritage wishes to learn from and build on the integrated techniques adopted for the evaluation of military heritage since the late 1990s³.The National Heritage Protection Plan (NHPP), published by English Heritage in April 2011, has identified defence disposal sites as a priority for action. A pilot study has already been completed examining 21MoD sites inWiltshire (see the article by Jeremy Lake on p22). Further stages of this NHPP activity will focus on refining the methodology and rapidly assessing selected military sites across the country. The heritage significance of military sites is often poorly understood while they remain operational, due to restricted access to them and the specialist nature of many of the assets they contain. Once declared surplus, they face a much greater level of scrutiny and public interest. Many pose significant challenges for Shoebury: the former barracks site has become a new residential area, with the historic buildings converted to new uses and complemented by new housing. Farnborough: key listings were put in place and refined at the beginning of the development process.
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