£1.5m plan to refurbish Druitt Hall - and then replace it (From Bournemouth Echo)

Don't really go along with White Knights,
they run the KKK!
.
I also don't get "an effectively a proper museum"
.
What the foghting heck is The Red House???

What are his real motives??

The KKK reference is really unworthy the White Knight reference is a standard and widespread term for a friendly business supporter for a struggling firm but the heraldic reference is of a knight fighting for the good of the underdogs and often downtrodden. Check the man's record of huge donations to worthwhile projects not least the local history society.

The sick Bs of the KKK follow an oft used stratagem of misappropriating a positive term for evil purposes.

twynham wrote:
Don't really go along with White Knights,
they run the KKK!
.
I also don't get "an effectively a proper museum"
.
What the foghting heck is The Red House???

The Red House.

In 1837 the government of the day passed the Poor Law Reform Act. This Act of Parliament was designed to alleviate the poverty which existed in British society by forcing the Church, Councils and other organisations to create paid employment for the poor.

The Red House, now a museum, is one of the early Work Houses built in Christchurch.

Remember how we got here?

The leader of the Council in his blog October 2011 proclaimed that Druitt Hall should be removed forthwith, and in February the Councillors of the Resources Committee voted unanimously to do his bidding.

The report to the Committee noted that in the current economic climate a replacement was unlikely. Initially running costs were used to justify demolition.

But at the next council meeting the Leader cited "a long stated aim of the Council to improve the entrance to Druitt Gardens from the High Street by opening up the Gardens to be visible from the road.’" as the reason the hall could not stay, even if it could be made economically viable! Previous reference to this ‘long held’ Council aim has yet to be located.

Now we have an amazingly generous offer of funding ensuring continuity of a Town Centre Community Hall. This is what the Christchurch townspeople have called for over the past decade. Count me in!

Hello Alistair - good to see you following public opinion on here. I think the brunt of Twynham's post was that The Red House already constitutes what you describe as 'effectively a proper museum'. What exactly are you proposing for the Druitt Hall site? A rival facility?

Further to your post, by the way, there was no Poor Law Reform Act of 1837. I suspect you were thinking of the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, passed by Lord Melbourne's administration. The Christchurch workhouse - only dubbed 'The Red House' many years later - was not set up in the wake of this Act. It had existed since the eighteenth century; Robert Cox had used its inmates in his fusee-chain-manufact
uring business as early as 1794.

Alex - you are absolutely right. In fact, it first opened as a parish workhouse in a barn in 1745; it did not open as a Union workhouse under the 1834 Act until the following year. Is Alistair confusing museum with the Library's chucked-out archives? Either way, a new community hall could not accommodate either, which need extensive space. The archives ought to be in a county archive - those identified as actually being archive material, as opposed to printed or transcript material etc. Let's stick to a community hall as a social, community and educational meeting place.

Thank you all for your comments and observations.

Having owned and renovated one of the fusee-chain Workhouses in Christchurch and having commissioned Sue Newman, ten years ago, to produce a text on the industry, I should have got the Poor Law Reform Act date correct! My apologies.

Economic Development:

The need to address the deteriorating condition of Druitt Hall was but one of many community issues recognised in 2001 by the Town Centre Forum (TCF) Steering Committee.

The TCF was a CBC initiative and consisted of a group of local Christchurch businessmen who met on a monthly basis. The Forum produced some seriously good ideas which, if acted upon, would have improved the economy of the town and improved the lives of many of those living and working in the Ancient Borough.

The Council of the day was in full agreement over the vast majority of the proposals, including the need to replace Druitt Hall with a new building, but took no action, citing a lack of available funding.

As I'm sure you know, Christchurch Town Centre went into economic decline when the two anchor tenants, Pontins and the Model Village sold up but no action was taken to find new 'products' to address the diminished 'footfall' in the town.

A new economic development strategy, long overdue, is now needed in order to re-establish and increase visitor numbers to both the town and to East Dorset.

One part of the strategy involves the development and marketing of the area's History & Heritage.

A Team has been working on this for the past eight years. The success of the work undertaken todate is evidenced by the income streams now being generated by those organisations which have been participating in the Project.

Community Development:

The British public have not yet realised that the UK is bankrupt. The country's debts exceed those of Greece and life is going to become very, very difficult, particularly for the aged and the retired as benefits and support systems are removed from them.

Druitt Hall, or its replacement, is fundamental to the continuing success of building both the economic and the social needs of the new East Dorset community in which we now live.

All of you are now in a position to drive this initiative forward. Think about joining the Christchurch History Society, we can use your skills and your knowledge. AF.