Cottages enter final phase of renovation fundraising
News Archive > General > Cottages enter final phase of renovation fundraising
The Trenance Cottages restoration project is in its “eleventh hour” as three years of hard work near the final £10,000 needed to start work by Christmas.Managing director of Trenance Cottages Newquay Ted O’Dell said he can now, “see the light at the end of the tunnel” after the company gained charity status allowing them to proceed to the final rounds of the Heritage Lottery Grant.
The ambition to restore the unique 17th Century homes has been a huge team effort with the community raising £30,000 so far through Friends events.
Ted said: “We’re delighted, now everything is in place and we just need to raise that final amount and we’re away. If all goes well work could begin by the end of the year.”
The Trenance Cottages Company is the first in the South West to get a freehold off a local authority so it has taken time to get permission from the government.
The project has also gone under an administration change and split into three in order to protect the buildings for future use. The Friends of Trenance Cottages is now the fundraising and events arm of the project with Mavis Warman as chairperson; Trenance Cottages Newquay is the charity company that owns the freehold while the Trenance Cottages Community Interest Company will be the trading arm of the project. Ted O’Dell is managing director of both the latter.
He added: “We’re getting there slowly, we started supporting the former Restormel council but that fell through so we decided to get the cottages from the council. That was three years ago and it feels like a lifetime.”
Friends of Trenance Cottages secretary Chris Blount said: ‘We believe these cottages are unique, there’s nothing else in Cornwall like that open to the public. Two out of three of the cottages have the original Cornish ranges which is very interesting for a heritage point of view.”
The original ranges will help the bid for the Heritage Lottery grant, Chris said: “This is the eleventh hour but we have been told that 90% of people who pass the first round get the grant so we are very hopeful.”
The restoration will include a small museum with changeable exhibition depicting Newquay’s history, such as wartime, tourism and the harbour.
There will also be a tea room in a Victorian style to suite the ambience and opportunities for local artists to display their work.
A modern extension will be built to offer an inexpensive meeting room for local businesses and organisations. Plans for a premises wedding licence have been temporarily shelved.
The company will continue to hold fundraising events to subsidise the maintenance of the buildings.
The first of these will be an Easter Sunday Mad Hatters’ Tea party with a Teddy Bear and Easter bonnet parade and guest-star James Churchfield from BBC Radio Cornwall.
Chris Blount said: “More details will follow but it will be held on April 4 from 11am until 4pm.”
In April the cottages will be opened to the public for a ‘before and after’ restoration effect.
Ted added: “The project has been hours of work both from our brilliant volunteers who have organised the fundraising events and the trustees who have to put together the Lottery bid. In particular, I would like to thank Jill Willmott for her help in achieving charity status from the charity commissioners. This project will be great and in the community’s hands forever.”
