CONTEXT 187 : MARCH 2026 23 INFRASTRUCTURE Somerset Building Preservation Trust (SBPT), a small charity and company limited by guarantee, acts as an organisation of last resort to restore and repair buildings of historic interest, particularly those on the Heritage at Risk Register, and return them to meaningful public use. Without this intervention, many of these buildings would be lost. We operate in the historic county of Somerset, except in Bath, which has an active building preservation trust of its own. The trust, with a single employee, a diverse board of trustees and a membership of around 80, is led by chairman Patrick Stow. SBPT is dedicated to this cause, bringing together communities, specialist expertise and sourcing the appropriate funding to make these projects possible. As public funding for heritage continues to tighten and competition for grants intensifies, the challenge for securing funding for heritage projects is increasing. This makes a building preservation trust’s role more important now than ever. Typically, the buildings that are most at risk, and of most interest to the trust, will have some form of conservation deficit. Historic England defines this as ‘the amount by which the cost of repair (and conversion to optimum viable use, if appropriate) of a heritage asset exceeds its market value on completion of repair and conversion, allowing for all appropriate development costs’. This deficit can often be the beginning of the end for a building, leaving it vacant and decaying WESSEX GREG VENN AND JANE ST JOHN WEBSTER Saving Somerset buildings The Somerset Building Preservation Trust restores at-risk historic buildings for public use, applying specialist expertise and finding imaginative ways to overcome deficits. from lack of maintenance and prey to vandalism. In some cases it will be possible to fund the conservation deficit by creative proposals for enabling development, and these are less likely to be of interest to us. It is also possible that the optimum viable use will not be one that produces any income, for example a monument or memorial in a landscaped garden. Buildings come to a building preservation trust through both public and private owners, or may come as a result of enforcement action in the form of a back-to-back agreement with a local authority. Sometimes a building will need urgent intervention, but presents no obvious community use because its size or historic significance limits any alteration or extension. An example is the Temple of Harmony at Goathurst in Mill Wood, a 17-acre pleasure garden in the grounds of Halswell House, Somerset, which was built in 1767. A replica of the 1st-century Temple of Fortuna Virilis in Rome, it is listed Grade II*. For many years the Temple had been used as a cattle shelter, and by the time Somerset Building Preservation Trust acquired it in 1993, the building was derelict. It was restored with grants from what is now Historic England and others. A replica of John Walsh’s statue of Terpischore was made to be placed in the repaired building, the original now being in the Museum of Somerset. To ensure the building’s long-term interest to the community after restoration, the Temple was The Temple of Harmony at Goathurst before restoration (Photo: Somerset Historic Environment Record)
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