Historic Totnes Building - immediate threat of demolition

[tlcnews]

One of Totnes' most historic buildings is being made ready to be pulled apart in the next few days... and nothing, it seems, can be done about it. Heritage Champion, Town Councillor Pruw Boswell, was alerted late last night (13 Feb) that Brunel's Atmospheric Pumping House by the station on the old Dairy Crest site was being demolished. Contractors were seen removing the slate roof on both sides. TLC has sought to get to the bottom of this. Totnes Museum Administrator, Alan Langmaid, said that developers had to give 28 days' notice of a demolition, and that has not been done, so they are acting outside the normal procedures. When asked, the site staff said that they were 'repairing the roof' but it is common practice for developers to make holes in the roofs of buildings so that the rain gets in and the building becomes unsafe and this makes the argument to demolish much easier. There is no way they are repairing the roof, as there is no scaffolding up. Neither the Museum nor Cllr Boswell appear able to do anything to stop this scandal.

Brunel attempted to introduce a revolutionary new system to South Devon called the Atmospheric Railway in 1847. Instead of trains being pulled by locomotives, they were pushed by air pressure. Stationary engines, housed in sheds called Pumping Stations, were placed every 5 kilometres along the track. Air was pumped along a pipe laid between the railway tracks which moved the train forward when linked to the leading carriage. Trials took place between Exeter and Teignmouth, but the new system proved unreliable. The project had to be abandoned when rats chewed through leather valves along the line allowing air to escape. Brunel built pumping stations at several places including Exeter, Starcross, Dawlish, Teignmouth, Newton Abbot, Torquay and Totnes. The system was in many ways ahead of its time and was a mechanical method of how electricity is now carried by overhead cables on tramways or electrified railroads. The Pumping Stations of the Atmospheric Railway can be compared to modern day Power Stations. There are few buildings of the Victorian Period in Totnes, and this Pumping Station is of regional importance - so why did English Heritage not list the building, leaving us powerless to stop this disgraceful vandalism. The building is part of a unique experiment - it an asset and the way the contractors are trying to speed its demise is scandalous. Please join in the protest by phoning SHDC Planning Dept. and telling them to take action now before we lose a landmark building in the town.

[the bars]

The news about this has been out there for a while now-Ringo posted about this on this very forum back in December:

http://www.totneslivingcommunity.co.uk/ ... .php?t=159

Someone obviously knew what was happening here, shame it wasn't (until this week at least) Cllr Boswell. Isn't this the sort of thing the towns 'heritage champion' should be aware of before rather than after the fact?

[totnesian]

I think there is a Brunel Society - or somesuch thing - that would be shocked by this and may be able to do something.

Everybody with some time to spare - let's get onto it. Find out what you can about when it may be about to be demolished and get the TV news crews lined up - they would love it if there was a stand-off with protestors.

[totnesian]

I have found what used to be the Brunel Society and have emailed all the addresses I could find. I will report back if I get a response.

[totnesian]

OK, I have had a response and they need pics and more info ASAP. Is there anyone there willing to put some energy into this, or are you all asleep?

[Ron]

Not at all totnesian, watching with interest, but you do seem to be doing very well. Keep it up!

Happy to help if anything specific required that I'm free to do.

[totnesian]

Does anyone have Pru Boswell's number?

I have also been asked for an 'address' for the building in question. Any suggestions?

[totnesian]

I have uploaded the pics I took this morning, including the 2005 shot for reference, here http://www.totnesonline.com/brunel/
Use as needed - pass the url to anyone interested.

It is quite obvious that the roof has been deliberatedly vandalized. There is a meeting of the Totnes Town Council tonight, so I will get them onto it.

Please pass this around.

[JT]

This is looking very bad for the Pumping Station.

Apparently Dairy Crest, or its sub-contractors, put forward a notice of demolition back in late 2007, however it was sent to the wrong authority, namely TTC, who have known about this issue since then.

Dairy Crest are now in the process of re-submitting a notice of demolition to SHDC, the correct authority, who will need only 28 days to issue a ‘determination order’ which is not about ‘if’ it can be demolished, only ‘how’ it will be pulled down!!

They are apparently trying to get some plant out of the building and have found brown asbestos whatever this implies.

The only way this building can be saved is if it has some sort of preservation order awarded to it, so all eyes to English Heritage.

English Heritage
customers@english-heritage.org.uk
08453 010 007 Conservation Team

Planning offices at SHDC:
Rick Crombie – 01803 861 234
Richard Gage – 01803 861 234

Historic Info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Devo ... 46-1876%29

[totnesian]

Ms A Jeffs
Po Box 569
SWINDON
SN2 2YP

Thank you for your email

The Pumping Station at Totnes is a former atmospheric railway pumping house and has been part of a milk processing factory, since the 1930s. The factory closed in September 2007.The pumping station was assessed as part of a review of railway structures in 2000 and was reassessed last year after calls for it to be spot listed, following plans to demolish the building and redevelop the site.

English Heritage were consulted, as advisers to the Secretary of State, and following our advice the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) decided not to list the pumping house at Totnes because; despite having historical interest through its association with Brunel's unfinished and unsuccessful South Devon Atmospheric Railway, the building has been altered considerably since it was first constructed. It is incomplete having lost its original machinery and its chimney.

DCMS have subsequently been asked to review its decision and English Heritage has been asked to comment on the points raised in the review request.

We have now returned further advice to the DCMS and they are considering the evidence before making a determination on the review.

Yours sincerely

Anita Jeffs
Customer Services

[JT]

SAVE CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE LISTING OF IMPORTANT BRUNEL PUMPING STATION FACING DEMOLITION – ROOF BEING REMOVED

SAVE Britain’s Heritage is calling for the immediate listing by Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport Andy Burnham of Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Atmospheric Pumping House in Totnes, Devon.

Its owner, Dairycrest, started the illegal demolition of the building. Last week contractors removed part of the roof without the use of scaffolding or protective clothing, claiming they were removing asbestos in preparation for repair. An application to demolish was lodged with the local authority, South Hams District Council, shortly after.

SAVE’s Secretary, Adam Wilkinson said “This extraordinary relic must be listed now. It is an incredible reminder of an era of amazing innovation and inventiveness. One could hardly imagine a railway company coming up with, and executing, an idea like this nowadays. It is hugely important both nationally and locally - Totnes is up in arms at the threat to the building - and to top it all it could easily find a new use. The Secretary of State must act fast to list the building, allowing the local authority to act to prevent demolition.”

Totnes Museum Administrator Alan Langmaid said “The Atmospheric Pumping House is one of the very few heritage sites outside the main town and is a great landmark - it would be a tragedy to lose it. It isn’t fair game. The heritage of the town spreads beyond its Saxon defences and mediaeval boundary– our history didn’t stop in 1066 with the Normans.”
ENDS

Contact: Adam Wilkinson 020 7253 3500, 07973 382 948
Totnes Museum Administrator Alan Langmaid 01803 863 821
Councillor Pruw Boswell, Totnes Town Council 01803 862 870

Images: http://www.totnesonline.com/brunel

SAVE Britain's Heritage
70 Cowcross Street
London EC1M 6EJ

t: 020 7253 3500
f: 020 7253 3400
m: 07973 382 948

http://www.savebritainsheritage.org

[totnesian]

The Association for Industrial Archaeology strongly supports the efforts of
local people in Totnes to prevent the demolition of the Brunel Atmospheric
Railway pump house in Totnes. There are so few relics of this interesting
railway system left and it would be a great pity if a use could not be found
for the building, given its situation right next to the railway station.

Surely, when Brunel came second to Churchill in people's choice as the
greatest Briton in the BBC series in 2002, the area cannot afford to lose a
relic as important as his pumping station? It is a pity that this building's
importance was not recognised in 2006 when the bicentenary of his birth was
being extensively celebrated.

As an Adjudicator of the National Railway Heritage Awards, which includes
awards for innovative projects re-using railway buildings, could not some
local enterprise consider a use for the building? The South Devon Railway
won one of the awards this year ( see
http://www.southdevonrailway.org/News-a ... Railway_of
_the_Year_2007.html ) and an award was won, for example, by the conversion
of a disused signal box as a studio apartment. I appreciate that there is
the problem of the Dairy Crest site, but could the firm be involved in
finding some heritage-related use for the pump house and so earn the
prestige of having helped to save an historic building?
See the National Railway Heritage Trust at
http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/ ... ay/br.html

Do please let me know if there is anything else that the Association for
Industrial Archaeology can do, We have already sought help from English
Heritage - to no avail as you know - and have been working jointly with the
CBA in York.

Professor Marilyn Palmer
Association for Industrial Archaeology

[totnesian]

(to Dairy Crest)

I am writing to you about the intended demolition of the engine house and shed at Totnes, which I gather your company is planning to undertake in the near future. I though it would be courteous to inform you of the major national importance of these buildings, as I believe that your company may well be unaware of this, and your plans to demolish them would be seem by many in the nation as a clear breach of your corporate social responsibility. I am writing as an industrial archaeologist who is currently working on the papers of Brunel preserved in our University library at Bristol University, which include many details of the South Devon Railway.


These structure form part of the South Devon Railway, whose chief engineer was Isambard Kingdom Brunel, constructed between 1845-7. This line is of considerable importance for two reasons - the dramatic coastal stretch at Dawlish (which I featured in a recent edition of BBC2's COAST) and the use of the atmospheric system of propulsion. This was a revolutionary method of propulsion - often seen as Brunel failure as an engineer, but recently reassessed as forward thinking, and a model for later electric railways. The key element in the atmospheric system were the stationary steam engines, housed in large engine houses - most of which were demolished shortly after the system was abandoned in 1848, but only those at Star Cross, and apparently at Totnes survive intact. The history of technology is the history of aborted projects as well as success, and this surviving element of one of Brunel's 'failures' is absolutely crucial in understanding and reassessing what is generally considered to be our greatest engineer.


I hope therefore that you will immediately put on hold the plan for demolition. Literally millions of people voted for Brunel to be the Greatest Briton, and he was only beaten at the last by Churchill. In 2006 there was a huge celebration of his career on the 200 anniversary of his birth, and there are discussions to turn part of his railway system into a World Heritage Site. For you are a company to even consider demolishing one of the most important pieces of Brunel heritage in the light of this widespread public interest will do lasting repetitional damage.

I hope that you can personally intervene in this matter, so that these important structures can be preserved, and that a proper discussion can be undertaken on their future.

Yours sincerely
Mark Horton

Dr Mark Horton, FSA
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology,
University of Bristol.
BS8 iUU

[totnesian]

The DCMS has ruled AGAINST listing the Brunel buildings.

See http://www.totnesonline.com/brunel/DCMS/1050_001.pdf for the full ruling.

This is a major blow to the campaign to save the buildings, but we are not beaten yet.

Watch this space http://www.totnesonline.com.

[TV]

I would like to commend Marilyn Palmer and Mark Horton for their efforts, as well as those of many others who have been campaigning to save this unique building.

I would just like to let Marilyn know that there are plans at a local level to renovate this building as part of a greater scheme for a carbon-neutral Sustainable Business Park on the 8 acre site. DairyCrest have been made aware of these plans.

One idea put forward is that the Pumping House becomes an educational resource centre and visitor's attraction, showcasing the ways we have used 'Carbon' fuels to pioneer the technological and engineering advances of the past centuries, to the present need to go beyond petroleum and the ways we can (and have) developed sustainable energy technologies and fuels.

Let's hope that our all our efforts haven't been in vain. Demolition of this building would be an act of gross cultural vandalism!