PROUD community volunteers are celebrating after 50 years of serving Chester and the surrounding area.
More than 400 members of Chester Civic Trust, which was founded in 1960 to help guide developments across the city, will be holding a series of events this year to mark its key anniversary.
Next Friday, on January 15, organisers are holding a gala dinner at the Queen Hotel which will be attended by a range of high-profile guests, including the Lord Mayor of Chester Cllr John Ebo, the Sheriff of Chester Hilarie McNae, city MP Christine Russell and guest speaker, author and broadcaster Lucinda Lambton. Two founding members, Jim Latham and Cyril Morris, will also be present at that event.
The following week, on January 20, there will be the first of their Jubilee Lecture Series at the Grosvenor Museum at 7.30pm.
Vice president of the trust, Stephen Langtree, said more activities would take place over the remainder of the year, including a book about the development of Chester since 1960.
He said: “The trust has always recognised the need for change and has tried to influence changes within the city that both respect the heritage and also promote high quality modern design. The ethos today is the same as it was when we were first founded, which is a combination of respect for the past and a desire to see changes that promote the best effects for the city.”
The idea for the trust first came up in 1959 when a number of local people decided Chester should follow the example of other towns and form an amenity society.
There were already two societies in the city interested in preservation but people thought it was necessary to have a new one which would preserve the past while recognising the need for replanning and rebuilding.
In its early days, the trust campaigned for contemporary architecture where new building was necessary in the centre of the city, but with the provision that it should be of “a high quality of design and must relate in scale and character to its surroundings”.
Mr Langtree added: “One of the most significant achievements of the trust in that period was to persuade the council to appoint a consultant architect-planner.
Eventually in 1962 the council went even further and appointed George Grenfell Baines to advise them on replanning the city generally.
“A street improvement scheme had been carried out in Norwich, sponsored by the national civic trust. Noting its success, Chester Civic Trust proposed a similar scheme in Bridge Street, which was completed in the summer of 1964. The result was so well received that a similar scheme was planned for Eastgate Street in 1966.”