02/06/2008 09:24:00
Basildon will be home to a brand new heritage trail this autumn, as plans get underway to create a new way for guests to explore the town.
Lottery funding has been awarded to fashion a 10km heritage trail in the east England town, according to the Guardian. The city will benefit from £100,000 worth of signposts, maps and information panels designed to aid navigation.
Vin Harrop, the project's leader, is currently establishing what will be included in the trail following in-depth research into local history. He told the Guardian:
"If you stand with your back to Toys'R'Us and look back along that straight line of shops towards the Town Square and Brooke House, that to me is the classic view of Basildon, I think it's a magnificent sight. That's Basildon, that's '60s architecture."
Harrop has reportedly experienced apathetic reactions from some residents - when he asked local schoolchildren to take photographs of local landmarks, he was met with bemusement until he told them to look up and their eyes were opened to mosaics, tile decorations, and sculptures gracing building exteriors.
Certain to feature in the tour is Brooke house, a 14 storey tower of flats designed by Sir Basil Spence - the architect of the Coventry Cathedral - in 1962. The building has a Grade II listing and graces the town centre. Gloucester park, boasting streams, fishing ponds and boating lakes, will be another highlight of the trail.
Basildon's new heritage trail will join a plethora of established trails in some of the UK's most popular cities, including numerous exploration opportunities in Edinburgh, Oxford and Bristol.