Work at The Prince's Regeneration Trust for a Charity Next secondee

Posted 22nd December 2008 15:43pm by Sarah Fisher

It has been a really busy couple of months at The Prince’s Regeneration Trust. We purchased our first building! It’s the Old Duchy Palace in Lostwithiel, Cornwall, a fantastic Grade I listed medieval building. Meanwhile, we are working with a whole array of other buildings and communities up and down the UK, including a new project at Cleveland Pools in Bath, the only surviving Georgian pools in England. 

A particular highlight for me was having the opportunity to spend a day observing an ‘Enquiry by Design’ where The Prince’s Regeneration Trust and The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment are working together with other organisations to masterplan the future use of a former military hospital and surrounding area. It was a fantastically hands-on event, with all sections of the local community getting involved. I came away really inspired by the enthusiasm, collaboration and creativity which will get this exciting, albeit highly challenging, project off the ground.

Meanwhile, my research into improving the environmental performance of listed buildings has taken me across the UK on visits to an ‘energy village’ in Essex, tenement buildings in Edinburgh and – somewhat closer to home – the London Transport Museum, where solar photovoltaic panels have been installed on the roof. While in Edinburgh, I also spent a day learning about work being done to support the supply and demand of traditional building materials and crafts, like Scottish roof-slating, carpentry and joinery and stonemasonry. It was fascinating to see how stonework is forensically examined at the Scottish Lime Centre to find an exact match for repairs and restoration work.

For now, though, I’m really looking forward to a relaxing Christmas break, and returning in the new year with batteries recharged! 

Bringing government and charity together: a Charity Next secondee's experience at The Prince’s Regeneration Trust

Posted 20th October 2008 11:47am by Sarah Fisher

I joined The Prince’s Regeneration Trust in August, on a one-year secondment from DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) through the Charity Next initiative. I really can’t believe I’ve already been here two months – it’s gone so quickly!

My role here is extremely diverse, ranging from fundraising, business planning and implementing our education strategy, to drafting publications and helping develop our sustainability policy. I think it would be virtually impossible to have that kind of job in a big government department so it’s a fantastic opportunity. I’m going to have to get much better at juggling so many things at once though!

Now that I’ve had a chance to settle in, it’s been great to get out and about and speak to people working on related projects. For example, in the last couple of weeks I’ve visited a ‘superhome’ in Camden where a listed Victorian terraced house has been refurbished to impressively high environmental standards whilst retaining its special historical character, and I attended a workshop on the future of the UK’s ‘places of worship’.

I’ve also been meeting with staff in the other charities about working together to encourage the take-up of traditional building craft skills, which are so important for adapting the UK’s many historic buildings in a sensitive way. I’ve been really struck by the knowledge, passion and energy of the people I’ve spoken to – it’s infectious!

Finally, following the recent machinery of government change (creating a new “Department for Energy and Climate Change”) I’m not sure quite where I will be going back to at the end of my secondment. But I’m not worrying too much about that at the moment - I’ve got plenty to get my teeth into here!