Sunday, 31 October 2010

Saturday, 30 October 2010

Project letter of intent and negotiation to Caring Homes

To:Caring Homes

Norman Dolling
ndolling@caringhomes.org

Dear Norman & Management Group of 'Caring Homes',

We are a community group,who have set up projects since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, we care-take and repair disused buildings to reinvent them as working arts, community and environment projects.

We have begun to set up a project at the Priory on the High Street, Thames Ditton and would like to gain your support and input for this exciting social, not-for-profit enterprise.

The outline for this project is to set up a local community centre running various workshops and activities based on the creative arts, self-awareness and environmental issues:

We would like to:

provide a creative space to reinvigorate the local community.
care-take and maintain the building named The House of Compassion and its grounds.
keep unwanted visitors from damaging the building further and to keep out anti-social elements.
hold regular workshops and exhibitions.
raise awareness of the current environmental and social conditions and present solutions to these global and local issues.
provide access to the gardens and river for local residents.
set up recycling projects.
provide space for local self employment and social enterprise.
provide theatre, cinema, arts & craft and activity space for both young and old.

We are open and willing to work with the local community on ideas and projects that they feel would be beneficial to their local environment and community. We are consulting with people within the local community and so far they have suggested that the following would be a welcomed addition:

Nursery/day care run by mums.
Carol singing in the chapel at Christmas and space to rehearse.
Live music events.
A gym & exercise equipment.
A charity shop similar to the one that was within the property to raise money for the community.
Re-establish the Summer Fete.
Community access to the gardens and river
Use of car parking spaces.
A space for Yoga and meditation.
Start a community garden project.

In order to be able to carry out these projects we have a large network of volunteers. Who are willing to repair and maintain these local landmark buildings, we have builders,plumbers electricians,qualified First Aiders and Health & Safety Consultants as well as many professionals within the fields mentioned.
So far we have started cleaning, tidying and repairing the premises and we have temporally repaired the roof to stop a major leak. We fully intend to continue to repair and maintain the buildings and grounds.

We would like to invite you to an Open Day, tea in the garden, next Friday 29th Oct 2pm-8pm to discuss how you would like the building to be used and any concerns you may have.

We have already liaised with the police in a friendly manner and are building a good rapport , they have informed us that the building has been broken into many times, vandalism has occurred and metals have been removed. Therefore we are providing care-taking, security and maintenance to this listed building.

We also have a relationship with Artspace /Lifespace in Bristol who have provided a successful model of arts groups looking after buildings for property developers – www.artspacelifespace.com; Another of our recent projects in London was care-taking a building owned by the Jewish Community Centre for which we can provide good references.

Please contact Ben Rich from the JCC on 07713509134

We look forward to hearing from you regarding this exciting opportunity, we sincerely hope we can reach a mutually beneficial relationship .

Kind regards,

Priory Community Circle

Contacts on previous neighbours letter.

Letter to neighbours

Dear Neighbours/Residents of Thames Ditton

We are a community group whose primary concern is to the environment and developing sustainable solutions for planet earth.

The House of Compassion, a historic listed building has been allowed to deteriorate considerably due to vandalism and neglect.

We have moved into the Old Priory Thames Ditton.

Our intentions are simple:

To Caretake and restore the house of compassion to community use.
By setting up a community and environmental arts project.
We have been running projects for the last 20 years since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. We are very open and willing to work with the local community on ideas and projects that you feel would be beneficial to your local environment and community.
We have a large network of volunteers willing to repair and renovate old buildings.
With residents support we would like to provide Workshops on sustainability and environmental awareness, permaculture gardening ,Creative Arts, exhibitions,Yoga, meditation, and healing etc.
Something for young and old as well as any events you suggest.

So far we have;

Started cleaning, tidying and repairing the premises.
We have temporally repaired the roof to stop a major leak, and intend to continue to repair and restore.
We have begun negotiations with Caring Homes.
We have said we are willing to discuss and agree a date to vacate the premises without need of the courts.
We hope to negotiate an agreement where we can use the property in the interim period until caring homes starts development.
In the interim period we can provide free caretaking,security and maintenance. .
We have liaised with the police in a friendly manner and are building a good rapport, they have informed us that the building has been broken into many times, vandalism has occurred and metals have been removed.

We will be having exhibitions/workshops over some weekends and weekdays while we are here,calling in many people from our network to help start this exciting co-operative project.

We appreciate you may have concerns so we are having the following:

We would like to invite you to an Open Day, Tea in the garden next Friday 29th Oct 2pm-8pm to discuss how you would like the building to be used and any concerns you may have.

Possibly some residents have suggested to us opening up access to the garden and river.

You may also contact us on the numbers below or via the Thames Ditton residents magazine forum online.

1) Rich 07737 527247 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07737 527247 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Guild of Guardians) (office hours as I have two small children)

2) Charlotte 07903 422310 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07903 422310 end_of_the_skype_highlighti

3) Tom 07799 630952 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07799 630952 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

We hope that this clarifies our intentions and we can build up a positive community relationship.

Looking forward to your input and a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Guardians of The Home of compassion

Contact Priory Community group

If you would like to get involved in any way or just leave a comment or express an opiunion.
Then you can contact us via .

1) Rich 07737 527247 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07737 527247 end_of_the_skype_highlighting (Guild of Guardians) (office hours as I have two small children)

2) Charlotte 07903 422310 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07903 422310 end_of_the_skype_highlighting

3) Tom 07799 630952 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 07799 630952

or email: priorycommunitygroup@gmail.com

History

Boyle Farm

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Coordinates:

51°23′31″N 0°19′52″W / 51.392°N 0.331°W Boyle Farm was the earlier name of the 'Home of Compassion', a mansion on the banks of the River Thames in Thames Ditton, Surrey. The house was built on the site of Forde's Farm by Charlotte Boyle Walsingham in the late 18th century. Although the estate has been sold and divided into expensive building plots over the past century, some of the farm buildings and outhouses remain. There is a small island in the Thames, which the Home of Compassion almost overlooks, called Boyle Farm Island.

Boyle Farm as today's Home of Compassion

[edit] History

The foundation stone to Boyle Farm, formerly known as Forde's Farm, was laid by Hon. Charlotte Boyle Walsingham, the then new owner in 1786. Mrs Walsingham, a widow, was a close friend of the author and diarist Horace Walpole who also took a great interest in gothic architecture and made several diary references to Boyle Farm. From Walpole's letter 312 To The Earl Of Strafford (Strawberry Hill, July 28, 1787):
'...Mrs. Walsingham is making her house at Ditton (now baptized Boyle-farm) very orthodox. Her daughter Miss Boyle who has real genius, has carved three tablets in marble with buoys, designed by herself. Those sculptures are for a chimney-piece; and she is painting panels in grotesque for the library, with pilasters of glass in black and gold.'
Although the builder and architect are unrecorded, he may have been Walpole's chief architect, John Chute, who was responsible for several similar gothic villas of that period. Mrs. Walsingham's daughter, Charlotte Boyle, who inherited the farm in 1790, was particularly skilled in verre eglomisé. Her 28 black background and gold leaf glass panels—one signed "C. Boyle November 2nd 1786" -- still exist in the first-floor library. The carved frieze and door surround bearing her monogram are also her work and this room has been regarded as one of the finest of its period in Surrey.
Miss Boyle married Lord Fitzgerald in 1791 and adopted the title 21st Baroness de Ros in 1806. Their eldest son Henry, who inherited the farm, was noted for his lavish society lifestyle and held "The Dandies' Fete" on 30 June 1827 in the grounds for 450 guests. This was described in 'The Summer Fete' by Thomas Moore (1779–1852):

Accordingly, with gay Sultanas,

Rebeccas, Sapphos, Roxalanas--

Circassian slaves whom Love would pay

Half his maternal realms to ransom;

Young nuns, whose chief religion lay

In looking most profanely handsome;

Muses in muslin-pastoral maids

With hats from the Arcade-ian shades,

And fortune-tellers, rich, 'twas plain,

As fortune-hunters formed their train.

Sir Edward Sugden Bt, the highest-paid member of the English Bar and noted for his legal textbooks, purchased Boyle Farm in 1834. Sir Edward was MP for Weymouth. On his appointment as Chancellor of England, he was raised to the peerage as Lord St Leonards. During his time at the Boyle Farm mansion, he had the gothic castellation largely replaced by an over-tall gabled roof with attic rooms above a cloak of early Victorian stucco in a loose gothic perpendicular style. Upon his death the estate passed to his son Hon. Rev Frank Sugden, who lived quietly at the farm for six years.
The estate went to auction in July 1890 and was purchased by Herbert Robertson of Hampton Court. Within three years he had the Victorian stucco and external detailing removed, refacing the mansion with a classical pediment of well laid red brick, with fitted brick window surrounds all under a complex hipped gable roof of green slate.
However the property remained unoccupied and some 11 acres (45,000 m²) of the grounds were subdivided for building plots and sold. The house and stables, together with the outbuildings, were purchased by a Church of England religious order, renamed and dedicated as the 'Home of Compassion' in 1905. The stables, renamed 'The Priory', were converted to staff accommodation and the house adapted as a nursing home. The present chapel was built in 1925 of stock brick with stone windows and is still prominent in Thames Ditton High Street.
In the 1960s, the religious order ceased on the death of the last surviving Sister, but the Home of Compassion has continued to care for the frail and elderly as a registered charity run by Trustees, led by Rosalind Goodfellow.
The house remains the finest mansion on the Surrey bank of the Thames between Windsor and Ham House.

Thames Ditton's Priory / Home of Compassion Reopens

In the Early hours of Monday 18th October a small intrepid band entered the grounds of the PrioryThe Home of Compassion Thames Ditton an Old 18th century Manor House that had been used for the last hundred years as a care home for the elderly, the Poor and needy.
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."
Margaret Mead
The small band secured the perimeter of this large and impressive property that has laid empty for 2 years.
The property has a long and intresting history,dating back to the 1780-90s as a Georgian mansion .one of the finest it is said between Hampton and Windsor.This is just one of the many listed parts of British heritage that are gradualy deteriorating due to lack of funds or neglect.Also suffering from vandalism and gradual degredation.There are nearly a million empty buildings in the Uk that should be used for homes ,communiuty and project spaces.www.savebritainsheritage.org
There is also untold people with skills and ideas who need space to manifest them,start up business or projects/workshops

This small band is part of a much wider network that has worked ceaselessly since the 1992 Rio Earth Summit to create environment and community centres and projects in all manner and sizes of buildings.From theatres,schools,factories,churches,warehouses,offices and houses.Voluntarily run on donations out of the goodness of our hearts and for the good of community and environment.
Some of our work over the years can be viewed in the archive of www.circlecommunity.org
Last year we squatted a Mercedes garge that turned out to be owned by the Jewish Community centre for London who after negotiations allowed us to stay for 5 months after a court case possesion order and then asked us to return to the site for a further year as caretakers who wore yellow jackets and received health and safety training,We were provided with other accomodation and eventually paid for our Earth Caretakers Services.good references can be provided.
A similar story can be seen with one of our sister organisations Artsspace/lifespace who after squatting for many years,have now been given a number of properties in Bristol to turn into thriving arts projects http://www.artspacelifespace.com/

During the last 2 weeks we have worked very hard to clean tidy and repair the space in order to gradually open it up section by section to communityu use.
We have liased with the Police ,residents association and local young and old people who have made a number of suggestions on how this hub of the Thames Ditton community could be used.
If a co-operative and legal framework for careataking could be worked out with Caring Homes the current owners of the premises.
We are currently negotiating with Caring Homes over a possible trial interim period caretaking use of the building.
We can provide free voluntary caretaking ,security and maintenance to a property.This stunning building is gradually deteriorating and the community liason Police officer Richard Platt informs us it has been broken into 6-7 times,with vandalism occcuring and theft of lead which has lead to major roof leak and flooding in some areas.We have effected a temporary re-covering and repair to these areas.We have a large network of electricians,plumbers,builders even plasterers willing to work voluntarily to renovate the building to allow a temporary interim community use until Caring Honmes have the funds to redevelop.

There is a fascinating history to be discoverd from the original early owner Lord St.Leonard who wrote a famous early Law book on property and estates,Charlotte Boyle Walsingham who remembered his will granting it to her from memory,there was a Lord who drunk it away,Then later it was passed to church of england and an order of nuns of compassion who ran it as an NHS care home then due to cuts in budgets it was closed and sold to caring homes to be turned into luxury care flats for the elderly.
We need help to research the covenants on this property.
There is an very openn minded discussion going on in the Thames ditton online forum check it out and join the debate.Keith fom the residents mag has been over twice and we do offer limited guided tours of the chapel and health n safety cleared areas of the mansion,to view the potential of this historic and community space.
We are a group that believes there needs to be more cooperaytion at all levels of our society to create the community and environment we all want to see for our children in the future.

The Priory and church are the empty central hub of the Thames Ditton Community,where yoiung and old could meeet and interact passing on much needed skills from generation to generation.
We have already had the 14-16 year olds in who want to build a skate ramp in the car park instead of getting into the chapel to skate.The older folk have requsted a return of the Tues and Thurs charity shop which we will be starting again.Some local residents have requested access to the garden and river be opened up.which with a small fence health and safety fence repair we can begin to facilitate in daylight hours.Also possibly negotiate temporary use of car parking space.

This space and new project could be closed and evicted in the next 2-4 weeks or with a lot of community help the space could be used in the interim for the good of the community and environment.
Monday nights 7pm is a community/project organising meeting with a facilitator and agenda.
Please contact Paul Jeffrey Managing Director of caring Homes to share ideas and input on this community hub..

Tea garden report open day next chapter