The Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) is pleased to announce that it has awarded a Project Viability Grant to Autism Together to explore plans for the redevelopment of three Grade II-listed buildings in Bromborough Pool Village. This was one of 10 awards made at the latest grants meeting, where projects across the UK were awarded funding totalling £90,450.
Bromborough Pool Village in Wirral, Merseyside, is an early example of a model industrial village, originally created to provide homes and services for workers of the Price’s candle factory. The Grade II-listed Enterprise Centre, Giles Shirley Hall and the former St Matthew’s Church were all constructed in the 1850s as part of the village.
Images: Autism Together staff and some of the people they support in front of The Enterprise Centre and St Matthew's Church building. Credit - Autism Together.
Established in 1968, Autism Together (AT) is a charity which provides a wide range of specialist support services to autistic people and their families. Having been leasing the Enterprise Centre, Giles Shirley Hall and the former St Matthew’s Church for a number of years, AT has recently been gifted the freehold of all three buildings. Now, AT wishes to reconfigure these buildings in a way that will not only enable the charity to support more people with autism but will also make them accessible to the local community.
More specifically, AT hopes to improve its care services by creating functional rooms adapted for effective autism care. It also wants to tell Bromborough's story by creating a community hub where local people can come together for activities, events, meetings and more. Additionally, it is hoped that this hub will become a point of interest for the Wirral Heritage Trail.
The AHF grant, made possible by funding from Historic England and the Pilgrim Trust, will enable AT to engage with an architect to establish the most appropriate way to reconfigure the three buildings to better suit the needs of people with autism, as well as open them up for commercial and community use.
