HIEROGLYPHICS, GRAFFITI OR INSCRIPTIONS?

Words by Mark Heaton
Pictures by Pat McDonaugh

Overgrown shrubbery dotted here and there, a rotten door leaning haphazardly against its frame, the sunlight timidly peering through a broken window, and walls embedded with graffiti from years past. No, this isn’t the setting of your local council estate. It is, in fact, the locale for the 2006 winner of the BBC’s Restoration Village. That’s right; Chedham’s Yard. Originally a wheelwright and blacksmith dating back to the 19th century, Chedham’s Yard unfortunately went both into disuse and disrepair from the 1960s.

Since having been bought by the Wellesbourne Parish Council in the early 1990s, the intention has been to restore this historical site to its former glory days, as a working heritage site. However, there have been numerous set-backs over the years, with rumours abounding of “contractual complications” for the proposed building work. However with the formation of Chedham’s Yard Trust the light is now at the end of the tunnel and the project can move along.

It is only on closer inspection that one sees their true nature: the scribbled note takings of a wheelwright and blacksmith. It doesn’t require much stretching of the imagination to picture a workman hurriedly scratching down the orders of an impatient customer, with one in particular asking for a “24-rung ladder”, the wall serving faithfully as the receipt to this very day.

And so it is these very inscriptions that make up the essence of a once, bustling working environment. That is why it is vital to ensure their preservation and the Trust is doing all it can to ensure this including making a full photographic record of all pieces of graffiti.

Restoration work is set to commence next month.

In March, the Trustees signed the contracts for the restoration works on the existing buildings and the erection of the new building with an anticipated start on site in the next few months. The first stage will include a final archaeological exploration of the site. A meeting will be held with the neighbours to meet the Trustees and the contractors before work starts. The building work is likely to take up to six months to complete, after which work will start on moving the artefacts back and putting up displays. All being well, we plan to start opening the site to the public in Spring 2012.

Wellesbourne’s winning restoration project Chedham’s Yard celebrated the news that it has been awarded charitable status with a visit from MP Jeremy Wright on February 18th.


Jeremy Wright with Trustees chair Heather Cox and District Councillor David Close

The Kenilworth and Southam MP, whose new constituency covers Wellesbourne, was shown around the yard, which won the BBC’s Restoration Village competition in 2006, and taken to see where its artefacts are being restored.

One concern of the Trust is that when the builders do appear, they ensure the survival of the graffiti – or should I say, inscriptions. For this is no ordinary doodling. Within the grounds of Chedham’s Yard are numerous writings on the walls of the former workshops.

“Suppose that a tool, e.g., an axe, were a natural body, then being an axe would have been its essence, and so its soul; if this disappeared from it, it would have ceased to be an axe, except in name.” (Aristotle).

previous page home April 2011 page eight menu next page