The Price of not Understanding Heritage
- Mark Huitson
- Jun 12
- 2 min read
'A Cautionary Church Tale'
We suspect every developer, seeking to convert a discarded church, has a story of woe to tell. Buying any ancient building to convert into new use is fraught with danger—to your peace of mind, your bank account, your savings, and even your relationships as you descend into the never-ending credit trap often required to complete a project appearing to be a good prospect... at the time. But the price of dreams often costs more than money—sometimes they require sacrifice, dedication and fortitude—particularly when dealing with the unknown. And then there is officialdom—planning bureaucracy—endless hoops to jump through and hurdles to clear, while money falls from your pocket to feed an overpriced heritage industry, gorging on opportunity.
There will be as many horror stories as there are happy endings, with beautiful new homes and businesses built within old, discarded churches and chapels—ensuring the surfeit of old spiritually diminished architectural souls are reborn into the new. However, in amongst good old stone sold off at bargain prices, there is rarely economic success—that is the price of owning heritage—it is a commitment of the heart, not the head.
Our purchase may have been constrained by our own economic realities, but it was definitely a purchase of the heart. Our church, however, would never become our intended home. Instead, we were left to question why fate brought us to the church’s doors, to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds, not to home make, but in the name of discovery, protection, and challenge to an iniquitous delinquency of historical understanding, fostered by indifferent and incompetent governance.
Why would a church initially estimated to cost a few hundred thousand pounds to redevelop, be reappraised to cost a few million pounds, and why would its architectural fittings be worth twenty, thirty, forty times that? It is the price for not understanding heritage—and in the case of Holywood Church, it is hard to see the merit in its former keepers, and those historians who corrupted the site’s history through ignorance rather than competence.
[Full article to follow]
