KEY TO 7 VICARAGE STREET HANDED OVER TO THE TRUST
Warminster Preservation Trust Ltd. are about to save another house in the town from dilapidation. Work will begin on Monday 29th January 1900 on 7 Vicarage Street, the former residence of the Minster School caretaker.
The house, which the Preservation Trust has bought for £50,000 from the Salisbury Diocesan Board of Education, was built in the 1840s. It will be renovated ready for private re-sale, with restoration costs and fees amounting to another £40,000.
The renovation will be designed and supervised by the Trust’s architect, Ray Kenzie of the Radley House Partnership in Warminster. It is the second project of this kind; the first one having been the restoration of 8 Vicarage Street which was finished a year ago.
The "house rescue" by the Trust, a subsidiary body of the Warminster Civic Trust and a charitable, non-profit-making association with the sole purpose of preserving old listed buildings is supported by English Heritage.
The project is financed by a grant from English Heritage of over £17,000, no-interest loans of over £7,500 from Civic Trust members, a low-interest loan of over £53,000 from the Architectural Heritage Fund, and home-improvement grants of £6,300 from West Wilts District Council. Money is still coming in from Trust members, providing cash flow until the grants arrive.
Warminster Civic Trust members and invited guests will be able to see the house, in its condition before work commences, during a visit at noon on Saturday 27th January.
Canon Roger Sharpe, Chairman of the Governors of the Minster School, handed the key of the house over to Elisabeth Collyns, Chairman of the Warminster Civic Trust, on Thursday 18th January 1990, which was the completion date of the sale of the house to the Trust.
Canon Sharpe says that he is pleased that the investment income on the capital from the sale of the building to the Trust, will be coming back to the Minster School and will be used for such equipment as cannot be provided by the local education authority.
Report by Danny Howell.
