Stoke-on-Trent City Council has announced that it will transfer two council-owned Business Enterprise Centres – CoRE and Roslyn Works – to Re-Form Heritage, one of the AHF’s Heritage Development Trusts, on a leasehold basis.
Located in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent, the Grade II*-listed Roslyn Works, which sits adjacent to the iconic Gladstone Pottery site, and the nearby Grade II-listed CoRE site (also known as the former Enson Works), both date back to the nineteenth century. Re-form Heritage will manage and maintain these listed heritage sites to benefit local businesses and the surrounding community.
In December 2023, Re-Form Heritage was appointed as a Heritage Development Trust for Stoke-on-Trent. It is one of 12 charities and social enterprises across the UK to benefit from the Heritage Development Trusts programme, made possible by a £5 million partnership between the Architectural Heritage Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which is empowering communities to take over and transform a portfolio of historic buildings, including those that are deemed ‘at risk’. As part of this, Re-Form Heritage aim to work with stakeholders, including Stoke-on-Trent City Council, to help kickstart the regeneration of key heritage sites within the Stoke-on-Trent area.
In an article released by Stoke-on-Trent City Council on Tuesday 3rd December 2024, Councillor Jane Ashworth, Leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “We are delighted to be working with Re-Form Heritage to develop a long-term plan for some of our most important heritage buildings.
“Re-Form has a strong track record of regenerating key sites in the city and we are committed to working closely with them to bring even more sites back into use and preserve them for generations to come.
“We want to create a clear plan for all our valued heritage assets and are prioritising a programme of restoration and re-use, this includes transferring assets to community organisations, at the heart of our city, who have proven success in heritage regeneration.”
Dr Alasdair Brooks, Re-Form Heritage Chief Executive, said: “The strong partnership we are building with Stoke-on-Trent City Council will form an important part of our longer-term planning in building our sustainability as Stoke-on-Trent’s Heritage Development Trust.
“We warmly welcome the opportunity provided by the transfer of CoRE and Roslyn as an important early step in strengthening our capacity to work with a range of partners to regenerate Stoke-on-Trent’s internationally significant built heritage.
“We will be appointing a project manager in the new year to help move the transfer forward, and to consult with existing tenants at both sites prior to completion of the process.”
Matthew Mckeague, Chief Executive of the Architectural Heritage Fund, said: “We are very pleased to see the partnership between Re-Form Heritage and Stoke-on-Trent City Council developing with the transfer of Roslyn Works and CoRE.
“Re-Form Heritage already has a strong track record of regenerating heritage assets in Stoke, including Middleport Pottery and the adjacent Harper Street. These new sites will help the organisation to begin strengthening its sustainability as a Heritage Development Trust and enable them to further develop more heritage-led regeneration projects in the city.”
For more information about the Heritage Development Trusts programme, please visit our Heritage Development Trusts page.
To learn more about Re-Form Heritage, please go to their website
