National Heritage Register

Michel Martineau, the Hon French Consul, has now returned to the island, and will help the Director go round SHG houses and stores to digitally photograph antiques. I am not knowledgeable in this area, so need his help in this very important effort to catalogue our heritage, and prevent it disappearing. There is a law in place preventing any item before 1911 from being taken away from the island. This law was made after a collector took many Boer artefacts away. Once this is done, hopefully people will be willing to include items in private collections. The valuable books and prints in the libraries in Jamestown, Prince Andrew School, ANRD and Plantation have been listed al ready in Access.

Historic Buildings

Dr. Cairns-Wicks, and myself represent the Trust on the newly appointed Environmental Advisory Consultative Forum (EACF), and we hope this body is going to be able to take a lot of our recommendations forward. This would include our recommendation for a visit from a restoration expert, and recognition of the need to find the money to protect the built heritage, which is unfortunately not included in the Environment Charter.

Related Information

Related News January 2004

Related News August 2004

Related News November 2004

Related News February 2005

Archives

The Trust Council expressed its concern to SHG about the need for consultation on the way forward for something as important and irreplaceable as our Archives, as SHG planned to move them to a new building. Mr. John Pinfold from the Bodelian Library in Oxford came on holiday for two days, and was asked to meet with SHG regarding the Archives. He promised to send his views to the National Trust. Nothing is happening to date, as the plan for the new building has not been finalised.

Illegal Fishing in St. Helena Waters

Those of you who read St. Helena Herald on the Net will know that this is very much in the news. Particularly illegal fishing in our territorial waters. There are lots of ships fishing illegally, but it seems to be a difficult subject to tackle, and we are not sure what we can do, to help the effort the local Government Fisheries Department is making. Green peace articles on the Web indicate that they can be plundering rare species, as well as regular fish stocks, so we are concerned. I did write to Damon Stanwell - Smith, whom I met in Bermuda, for advice, and had a reply promising to find a South African contact. I believe it is exceedingly difficult to bring these things to court There is also local concern for the future of the local fishing industry in general.

Tree Preservation

This is our latest cause for concern. There has been a lot of tree felling/lopping recently, which has stimulated much discussion. We are hoping to get some agreements with all parties through EACF, so that we can all identify what needs protecting, and everyone will know which areas and trees are protected. In our own lifetime the trees around us become like friends. They give us a sense of familiarity, identity (a sense of place) and enjoyment. It is perhaps not surprising that tree felling or pruning generates so much emotion irrespective of whether the decision for the work has been based on informed or rational decision processes. We welcome the support of Land Planning to establish tree preservation orders, and the commitment of ANRD to maintain consultation on the development of future forestry policy.

Discussing trees from the 1790’s in the former Graveyard/ Duke of Edinburgh playground. The playground is to be re-located, and there are many ideas for this space.

Business Plan

The Business Plan has now been completed, and we are grateful to Dr. Rebecca Cairns-Wicks for her help with presenting it in an accepted format.

The Objectives are as follows:-

Ongoing:-

• Manage Office at Broadway House.

• Manage Inaugural Projects

Continue and maintain National Heritage Register

• Continue Communications strategy – Membership Register, publicity, promotion etc.

Key issues for September 2003 – October 2005

• Identify and pursue sources of funding to achieve objectives and provision for the Trust after the present Project. This includes achieving Charitable Status in UK.

• Commission saleable merchandise and develop services to create sustainable stream of revenue.

• Recognition of the SHNT by all branches of SHG, private sector and civil society as a partner in the conservation of the island’s cultural and natural heritage, terrestrial and marine

• Set criteria for National Heritage Register

• Optimise capacity of member groups and affiliates

Future Funding

Charitable Status is still high on the agenda, and we are in communication with UKOTCF on this matter. We have a few donors waiting until this is achieved. Our legal officer also informs us that this can be achieved locally in the near future.

St James Church

The church closed in September last year for essential renovations inside. Most of these have been completed, and it was opened specially for Father Fred George to take his last service there on the island, prior to his departure. It is hoped that all works inside will be finished and the church can re-open at the end of the year. The next step is restoring the outside of this historic building, the oldest Church of England in the Southern Hemisphere, dating from1774. The clock was given by the E.I.C.  in 1787, and a steeple was added in 1843, and removed when unsafe in 1981.

Promotion

Monthly lectures at the Consulate started in July, when Dr. Dan Yon from York University in Toronto, a St. Helenian who was a founder member of the Heritage Society in 1980, offered to give a talk on The St. Helena – South African Connection. This was very well received and people asked us to continue such evenings. In August, Dr. Danny Shreier, a linguist, married to Karen Lavarello from Tristan da Cunha, was visiting the island, and agreed to give a talk on Tristan history and language. Both these talks have set a very high standard, and we hope they can continue. Drs. Philip and Myrtle Ashmole are here for 3 months from the end of September, and have offered to give some talks, and Dr. Ian Baker will arrive in November on holiday, and we hope to be able to persuade him to give one also.

Dan Yon with Director at July Lecture

Regular monthly articles and radio programmes promote the Trust locally. The television idea is proving more difficult, as we have to remember copyright on films such as “Atlantic Realm” which it would be great to show on local TV., and it is more costly than anticipated to produce our own. However we are working on this. The radio programmes have good feedback, and hopefully enthuse more people to preserve their history.

Protection of Wrecks

This is also a matter of concern to SHNT and we hope that laws will be in place soon to ensure that any diving on these historic sites is also strictly supervised. The RAF divers came for our Quincentennial celebrations, and were diving on the wreck of the “White Lion”. They presented a plate from the Ming Dynasty to the new Museum, so we do have some valuable relics to protect.