You will have received the latest issue of Wessex News and the National Trust magazine and probably picked up the message that the Trust is encouraging members to “Go Local”. As a supporters group, the Quantock Centre is making every effort to back projects which are being undertaken by properties in our own area.
The £100,000 we donated to Barrington Court is now being used, and we anticipate some publicity in the near future. We want to build on that publicity by extending information about us and our activities. Hopefully, anyone who lives locally but is not a Centre member may be encouraged to join us.
Other small donations are made regularly to properties we visit, and you will have seen details in the annual accounts. In addition, we have been able to make large donations to:
Tyntesfield – a camera for the Learning Department and help towards the cost of installing a lift.
Lytes Cary – restoration of the fireplace in the hall.
Montacute House – a ramp for wheelchair users.
From surpluses made in the last financial year, a cheque for £1,800 is on its way to Montacute House for the Learning Department. Of this, £1,500 will enable an account to be started to help children from under-funded schools to visit the property by paying travelling expenses, thus ensuring “inclusivity” for all. The other £300 will go towards the purchase of replicas of Tudor artefacts to be used by visiting schoolchildren.
We are keeping a close eye on what is happening at Coleridge Cottage. Plans are afoot to re-establish the garden (not previously open to the public), renovate the garden well, and recreate the kitchen as it would have been in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's time. This whole scheme is likely to cost more than £100,000, and the Trust is seeking grants to fund most of this amount. We, as a group, will make a modest contribution to help towards the cost and, as soon as some figures have been worked out, we will be able to decide what our donation should be put towards – for example, planting of an orchard, a seating area, or benches with poetical inscriptions.
We have established a rapport with the management at Fyne Court and have been invited to have a stall to publicise the Centre and give out information. We may see some of you there, perhaps, during the summer. Bring the family!
This is all very positive and bodes well for the future of the NTQC – as long as we can get enough volunteers willing to give some time to keeping the wheels turning.
Kay Robins
Vice-Chairman