The Vision for Chedham's Yard.

The development of this site into an Active Heritage Centre.

The Yard is an exceptional example of a traditional rural craft-shop combining the rarely surviving wealth of collections within their original surroundings. The collective value of the site, therefore, is particularly significant. Chedham's Yard is deeply embedded in the social and historical fabric of the local community and was once a vital part of the rural economy. In addition, the survival of both the buildings and the collections within their original context gives the site an important role in furthering regional and national understanding of 19th century rural crafts. The original leather bellows and the early horizontal sawing bench are potentially of national significance as examples of 19th century technology.

It is a clear deliverable of this project that we can protect and enhance this role in the development of the site into an active heritage centre.

The creation of an active heritage centre at Chedham's Yard is the agreed vision for this project that has been refined by the work produced by the local community and visualised in the Saturn imagery and walkthrough document.

Telling the story

Chedham's Yard will become a living heritage attraction telling the story of how the forge and the wheelwright played a central part in the village, bringing to life the skills and stories of the generations that worked in the buildings and the yard in a way that will engage and educate the visitor. The site will also provide the home for a number of small businesses with a strong heritage, educational and interpretive element. These businesses will be firmly interwoven into the interpretation of the historical base of the centre. The businesses will focus on the retail of products made on site by the traditional methods of the wheelwright and blacksmith and by other local producers of crafts and trades.

The future visitors to Chedham's Yard will be a combination of locals learning about their own history, school visits, guided tours by groups and general tourists from outside of the area attracted to this unique venue.

The renovated Chedham's Yard provides public access to the site, to the collections, to the history of the site and enable visitors to enjoy the work of an historical craft. This will preserve and enhance the atmosphere of the site and provide conservation of the historic fabric and collections.

Training and tourism opportunities

Working alongside the local schools and colleges the centre will also offer training opportunities for young people and local communities and educational benefits for people of all ages, abilities and interests.

As a fundamental, the restoration of the buildings and the creation of the active heritage centre will be an enhancement of the tourism product of the area by partnership and development with local businesses and other attractions whilst creating of a living, working environment that will be able to be operated in a way that will also provide for a reduction of the current financial burden on the Parish Council.

It has also been decided that Chedham's Yard should be run and managed by a Buildings Preservation Trust with support from a Friends of Chedham's Yard group.

Wellesbourne Parish Council stated vision for the sustainable future of the site contains the following deliverables:

1. To preserve as far as practicable, the existing atmosphere of the Yard
2. To maintain the Yard within the context of Wellesbourne and its environs
3. To create a living, working environment
4. To enable members of the wider community access to understand and enjoy the work of an historical craft
5. To include the Yard in the broader tourist aspect of Wellesbourne, which would require development of walking routes and significant promotion of the existing areas of interest within the village and its surrounds in addition to work on the Yard itself