e-mail: civic@salisburycivicsociety.org.uk

Update: Friday 19th June 2009

Welcome!
Objectives of the Society

To promote high standards of planning and architecture
To educate in the architecture, history and geography of the area
To secure the preservation, development and improvement of features of public interest
within the former Salisbury District

The society is a registered charity(No 293143) and has some 400 members and three committees whose members give their time voluntarily.

If you would like to help us achieve our objectives, please

JOIN US

Our Programme of Events for 2009 is available through the tab on the left.

   ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The AGM will be held in the Sanctuary of the Methodist Church in St Edmunds Church Street starting at 6.30pm on Wednesday 24th June.   There is ample room and there will be no overcrowding this year so please come along.   Salt Lane car park is close by.

Afterwards Derek Jones and Hugh Abel, long standing members of the Studio Theatre Company, will give a talk:  “The Studio Theatre: the Phoenix Rises”. As there is no time limit on our booking you are very welcome to stay behind afterwards and talk to committee members and your friends.

CIVIC TRUST/CIVIC SOCIETY INITIATIVE

As some readers may be aware the Civic Trust, to which we subscribed, very sadly recently went into Administration. Since then the Civic Society Initiative has been set up as descibed by them below. To find out more please visit their website at www.civicsocietyinitiative.org.uk.

What is the Civic Society Initiative?
In essence the purpose of the Civic Society Initiative is a simple one – to establish the means
within twelve months to ensure provision of a national voice and support for the civic society
movement.

The loss of the Civic Trust has prompted a groundswell of support for the civic society
movement. Messages of support and practical offers of help have been received from a large
number of professional bodies, local authorities, voluntary and charitable organisations and
others. Over 500 civic societies have already said they want to be kept in touch with the
future arrangements for supporting societies and providing a champion for the movement.
It is clear that many share the view that the civic society movement is too important for it to
lose its national voice. The role of societies and local community action is as important now
as it was when the Civic Trust was set up. This is the sentiment at the heart of the package
of measures now being put in place to allow a range of options for the future health of the
civic society movement to be explored and assessed.

A full range of options will need to be examined but three things are clear:
• the civic society movement needs an independent champion
• the movement needs to be supported as a network where the voice of individual
societies and local groups can be strengthened
• the future needs to be rooted in what the societies want and they need to drive the
way forward.

The core package for establishing the Civic Society Initiative which has emerged is as follows:
• one year’s funding donated by the National Trust for Tony Burton to lead the Initiative
• office accommodation and in-kind support donated by CPRE (in London) and the
RIBA (in Liverpool)
• a charitable ‘home’ to receive funds and provide governance through the North of
England Civic Trust
• a civic society convention supported by Blackpool Council and hosted by Blackpool
Civic Trust in October 2009.

English Heritage will deliver Heritage Open Days in 2009.
The Civic Society Initiative will take an open approach and explore a full range of possibilities
for the movement and include development of the mission, vision, values, funding,
governance and name of a new organisation, or the means to do this, if it is determined one is
required. The outcome will be a set of proposals combining immediate practical viability with
a 3-5 year plan of the future. There will be a sounding board drawn from the civic society
movement and beyond.

The History of Salisbury as told by its Plaques

For some time the Society has been intending to publish a new guide to plaques in Salisbury which will include not only our Blue Plaques but also all other plaques of interest located within the central area. We are fortunate in that we have a member, Alan Clarke, who has volunteered to take on this daunting task.

His work has borne much fruit and you should click on the plaque to go to to the website he has set up

Here you will learn more about the project which has made excellent progress. He would welcome any contributions by email to jac314159@mac.com but points out that the contents have not yet been reviewed in terms of accuracy, capital letters, correct English etc.

At the site there is available for download a full colour 8 page Plaque Guide with map to enable you to walk around Salisbury and trace the history for yourself. You can print it in colour or in greyscale to suit your requirements.

Salisbury in Detail

Thanks to a very generous bequest The Society is planning to publish a book with the working title of "Salisbury in Detail".

The intention of the book is to draw people’s attention to aspects of the architecture of Salisbury that they might otherwise miss, in an enticing, attractive and colourful manner. This will be done by highlighting details of buildings within the city, excluding ecclesiastical buildings, which can go largely unnoticed. 

We anticipate a high quality book, with the material predominantly colour photographs, essentially 'coffee table' in approach rather than academic. Our hope would be that the selling price can be kept to a level that enables a fairly wide market to be reached.

There will be around 20 different categories and a selection of photographs from each category in turn will be shown on this site.

Updated 19th March 2009

Click on picture below to go to the selections from the "Door Furniture " and "Brickwork" categories.'

Public Realm - Salisbury Streetscape - Streets for People

A copy of our 2006 report is available on this site in Adobe Acrobat format. To reach it please follow this link - Streetscape Report

Equal Opportunities Policy

The Society has a formal Equal Opportunities Policy and it can be read at this link.