More about this project can be found at https://bexhillheritage.com/category/projects
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NewsTranscript
00:00Okay, so here we are at Shelter 4 on Bexhill Seafront and it's a grand opening today with
00:09Richard Thomas, the Chair of the Council, cutting the ribbon and this project has taken Bexhill
00:15Heritage 17 months but before that Rother District Council were in here working on it
00:21as well and they then asked us to finish it off which was a big, big job I can tell you.
00:27We were, for example, needing to dry the wood out, it had been pop-marked with the sandblaster
00:33and it was down to Burwood, sanding it took about two or three months and what's been great
00:39is having such a wonderful team of people, male and female volunteers, who just come down
00:45here every Monday and Friday and finished it and as you can see, I hope, the result is
00:51absolutely magnificent and testament to their skills and their determination.
00:56Behind us there's a photo gallery of Bexhill past and present.
01:02Some of the buildings actually we've lost and we've lost to neglect or stupidity I think
01:08you could say and Bexhill Heritage didn't want this building to be lost as well so that's
01:14why we got stuck in and made sure that it was preserved hopefully for another hundred years.
01:20It was built in 1921 by Frederick William Parker. Now Parker was a local undertaker and he had
01:28a joinery shop up the hill in the old town and he employed a lot of apprentices who needed
01:35to hone their skills and so he got them building these wonderful latticed windows altogether 310
01:43pieces of glazing. Now because they were apprentices the windows aren't all the same size. That caused
01:50us one or two problems. They all had to be hand cut by Diane Johnson who did a brilliant job and the
01:57person responsible for showing what we've lost in heritage terms with these magnificent panels
02:04behind me is Alex Markwick our historian. He's done painstaking research and everybody should come and have a look.
02:11We can't let any more heritage just be trashed. We have got to preserve it for future generations.
02:19To give a sense of place to the people of Bexhill. To give them a sense of what our ancestors did
02:27and to respect their work and hopefully to build on it too. So this opening really does mark a triumph I think
02:38for Bexhill Heritage is volunteer restorers men and women who put so much time in to this project.
02:46Now anybody can join Bexhill Heritage we're a registered charity it's £10 a year you don't have to paint
02:54you don't have to get the sandpaper out but if you want to do that that's fine or you can just be a supporter
03:00and come along to our meetings. We have lots of meetings with people who talk about history and heritage
03:08and we have a damn good time usually as well and we have trips to places of interest. So anybody who'd like to join
03:14all you need to do is go to our website bexhillheritage.com and find out about our other projects.
03:20We'd love to hear from you all.
03:24Seriously he's been also very generous on behalf of the council in funding our paint supplies,
03:30coming along and encouraging us and giving us wise counsel. So I'm really grateful to Lee.
03:36He's been behind Bexhill Heritage all the way through our restorations on the seafront.
03:42So he couldn't have done it without him and his team. I think possibly Robert couldn't have done it without Bexhill Heritage as well.