Shrewsbury Drapers Company
Contents
The Drapers' Hall
10 St. Mary's Place,
Shrewsbury
SY1 1DZ
Charity No's: 213372 233903
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The Shrewsbury Drapers Company took on the responsibility of the management of the five almshouses at Holy Cross by mutual agreement with the former trustees in July 2010.
This was done after careful consideration by the Shrewsbury Drapers Company with the full co-operation of the former trustees of the Holy Cross alms houses and it followed three years of discussions between the two bodies.
The land and buildings were transferred into a newly created charitable company, limited by guarantee: Shrewsbury Drapers Company Holy Cross Limited Registered Charity No 1132671.
The day to day management of these almshouses is done by the Shrewsbury Drapers Company who operate other sites in Shrewsbury in Coleham and near St Giles Church. The company has some experience in this having run almshouses since 1444 but of course in 2011 there is more legislation that applies to the care of residents, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable people.
The care of residents is our prime responsibility.
As one of the many steps prior to the transfer, the Shrewsbury Drapers commissioned a full structural survey of the buildings and later, following the severe frosts last December, a further close inspection of the chimneys revealed severe erosion to the chimney bases which threatened their stability.
There was a danger that the chimneys would collapse! The Company took immediate action to erect scaffolding to support the chimneys and to eliminate risk to residents and the general public.
It should be noted that these are not really chimneys as they have no function as chimneys as there are no solid fuel fires in any of the properties. They remain purely decorative and are an obvious and important feature of the original design of the building.
Having made the chimneys safe and secure, we then entered into extensive discussions with our appointed architect, structural engineers and Shropshire Council Preservation Officers. There are many conflicting opinions as to what should be done.
However after several meetings, discussions and proposals the trustees decided that the chimneys should be rebuilt or repaired using as much of the original brickwork as possible.
This involves the use of specialist skilled builders and the procurement of unique hand made bricks and appropriate sandstone mounting plinths to match with the originals.
The costs involved to replace all the chimneys are very high and to date we have committed over £80,000 to make safe and rebuild all but two of least conspicuous chimneys which have been capped. This money has largely used up the reserve that was transferred from the former trustees.
It is our intention to rebuild the remaining chimneys at some time in the future but at present we do not have funds available to do this.
The present work will continue until January 2012 and in the meanwhile we will continue to raise funds to assist with the repair bills.
It is disappointing to note that VAT at 20% is payable on this type of repair work and the Company is NOT able to recover this from HMRC
The Company is grateful for the support we have received from Shropshire Council who have committed £5,000 towards the repair bills. We are hoping for further local grants from bodies such as the SPAB.
If anyone would like to help us it would be appreciated.
Please send a donation to The Company Secretary, Shrewsbury Drapers Company Holy Cross Limited, C/O 46 Port Hill Gardens, Shrewsbury Shropshire SY3 8SQ