The Trust is pleased to announce that it has been successful in its application to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Overseas Territories Programme Fund (OTPF) for the St Helena Archaeology (Built Heritage) project.

The funding provides a contribution towards travel costs, subsistence and provision of necessary equipment to enable three experts to visit St Helena to provide training to St Helena Government (SHG), National Trust staff and the private sector in the recording of historic buildings and restoration planning. The project was developed in consultation with the SHG Legal, Lands and Planning Department (LLPD) and with the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) in UK. It is supported by SHG which is providing accommodation and staff time.

Mr Ian Serjeant, Dip TP; MRTPI; MA (Urban Design and Regeneration, University of Manchester), IHBC, arrived on the 29th July and will be on island until the 18th September.

Mr Serjeant has over thirty years experience in town planning, urban design and conservation and his current appointment as Conservation Officer for the Methodist Church involves processing proposals for the alteration of historic chapel buildings which requires an assessment of their significance and their capacity to absorb change. It is planned that he be joined, for nine days in August, by Ed Simons, MSc.(Oxford) AIFA; IHBC, Historic Buildings and Landscapes Consultant. BA (Hons) Archaeology and Classics, University of Wales; PG Dip and Master of Studies University of Oxford; Associate of the Institute of Field Archaeologists, who has considerable experience of building survey and analysis, hopefully with a colleague, but funding for this second visit is currently presenting problems.

The aim is that all 3 will provide training in basic historic building recording, develop material for the National Heritage Register and as a guide to future restoration and development of historic buildings, assess and collate earlier research, records and reports of historic buildings into one database, develop the resource of information to support heritage tourism and assess historic buildings and fortifications for potential tourism-related development, assess the potential for buried archaeological and relict landscapes, train staff of the Lands Section & Land Planning & Control Agency members & Appeals Board members in assessment of applications to develop historic buildings, provide assistance with development of policies to protect the built environment, assist with the preparation of guidelines for the development of historic houses in keeping with their character and establish a basis from which a further project to train local artisans in restoration techniques can be pursued.

Related Information

Focus on Built Heritage

Our Built Environment Listed Buildings

Who Lived in Main Street in 1839?

Gradings of Buildings in Main Street – approx. dates from Crallan and Teale

From the survey of properties in 1839, which shows the owners of properties at the time

East Side of Main Street

The original Porteous House was destroyed by fire in 1862, when the white ants had ravaged the town. In fact there were a few fires in buildings at that time and it was suspected that an arsonist was at work.

This survey was undertaken after the Crown took over the island from the East India Company in 1834, although the new Governor did not arrive till 1836.
G.C. Kitching reports that Governor Middlemore, in 1836,”approached Jamestown as if he was invading some hostile shore. Almost his first act was to lay hands on the public buildings that he considered suitable for the troops, irrespective of whether they had previously been used for military purposes or not – and these he expropriated for the use of the Board of Ordnance, without payment of compensation – a financial loss to the Government which handicapped it for many years.”
Contributed by Barbara B. George