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NEWSLETTER 2006 INTRODUCTION BY THE CHAIRMAN Joe Ballantine What a momentous year this has been. Lots of hard work for your Trustees, tackled with extreme enthusiasm and efficiency, and exemplary dedication. For this I thank them all.
As you know, just shortly before 2004 had ended, the saga of the funicular development surfaced. On Christmas Eve the bundle of documents pertaining to this development was passed to members of the Development and Planning Commission for consideration.
The events that followed have been fully covered in the media and elsewhere and I do not intend to rehearse them here. Suffice to say that the combined efforts of the Trust, the Gibraltar Ornithological and Natural History Society, the Environmental Safety Group and the good sense of the people of Gibraltar ensured that the project did not come to fruition. But it did take some five months of effort, which could have been spent on other matters.
There were of course other projects and events in which the Trust was either involved in or undertook on its own. These are summarised hereunder:
The Programme of Events for the year included two visits to Cape Trafalgar and the Naval Museum in San Fernando, Cadiz - they attracted a lot of interest from our members and were very successful. This event has been included again in the 2006 programme.
The theme chosen for the annual Painting Competition was “Rosia Bay”. As usual the event was extremely popular. The pupils of St Mary’s First School participated, as has now become traditional. It was a useful educational experience as they were able to benefit from seeing and learning about a local site directly connected with an important episode in naval history.
A tour of Rosia Bay was also organised, led by Trustee Denis King. Denis also gave a presentation at Parson’s Lodge Battery prior to the special Trafalgar Day Dinner that took place on 21 October, for which tickets sold out.
The Calpe Conference, organised by the Gibraltar Museum, was held over the weekend of 28 October and was attended by members of the Board of Trustees and of the Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society. It was dedicated this year to “Sentinel of the Mediterranean: Gibraltar, The Navy and the Strait”. The topics on Nelson and Trafalgar were addressed by a group of very eminent academics and were a great success.
A statue to the great admiral was erected to the south of Referendum Gates opposite the Trafalgar Cemetery and was unveiled by the Chief Minister, The Hon Peter Caruana, in the presence of the First Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Alan West and other dignitaries.
As part of the celebrations there was also a very successful exhibition, ‘Trafalgar 200’, held at the Casemates Hall, in which the Trust participated. Apart from providing various exhibits, Trustees Stanley Flower and Denis King set up a ‘classroom’ and gave talks on the subject to over 1000 schoolchildren.
A plaque to commemorate the seamen who died as a result of wounds received at the Battle of Trafalgar and who are buried in a communal grave to the north of the cemetery has been placed on the wall behind which their grave is sited. Taylor Woodrow, to whom the Trust is most grateful, has kindly sponsored the plaque.
King’s Bastion. The old Generating Station has now been demolished, revealing the Bastion, which is being refurbished and restored to its original state. The Trust is being consulted throughout the works.
The Main Guard. Plans for the refurbishment of the whole building to house the offices of the Trust are well advanced and are shortly to be passed to the Chief Minister, through whom the building has been made available to the Trust. The Trust is grateful to architect John Langdon for providing these and other drawings as and when required.
The Victualling Yard. The Trust is currently engaged in discussions with the Government over their request for the surrender of the remaining portion of the lease held on this building. The main issues are the award of a realistic annual grant to compensate the Trust for loss of earnings and firm assurances that this important heritage asset will be protected and preserved, and not damaged in any way in the future.
Parsons Lodge Battery. This historical asset has now been re-opened for over a year and refurbishment works have been undertaken, mainly of a health and safety nature. New toilet facilities have been provided and other maintenance work carried out. The Trust is grateful to the MOD for the assistance provided in this respect by visiting regiments on training assignments and to Terry Penfold, the caretaker of the site, who has organised and supervised these works and carried out many of them himself.
Calendar 2006. This calendar portrays scenes of daily life in the 1820’s from a collection of pen and ink drawings by Lt Sandham, and has been reproduced by courtesy of the Marrache Foundation Trust. The photography is by Professor Clive Finlayson. The Calendar is available to members at £4 each (with envelope).
The Heritage Page in the Gibraltar Chronicle continues to be published on a fortnightly basis, for which we are grateful to that newspaper. It enables the Trust to publish snippets of information on a regular basis and we hope that members will have welcomed this. Should any of them have material that could be considered for publication please make it available at the offices of the Trust.
The Annual visit of the “Friends of Gibraltar Heritage Society” was arranged to coincide with the Trafalgar/Nelson celebrations and was a great success. Over ninety members came out and a varied programme was organised by the Trust for them. This included a visit to the San Fernando Naval Museum and to Cape Trafalgar. Admiral Sir Derek Reffell, the former Chairman of the Friends, took advantage of this opportunity to lay a wreath there. The Friends also attended the Calpe Conference and visited places of interest in Gibraltar.
Battlefield Tours. Three tours were organised by Hugh Arbuthnott, a member of the Trust based in Spain, and were this year led for the first time by a member of the Board, Trustee Denis King. This involved the visit to sites of military and naval history connected with the Battle of Trafalgar. It was innovative, well worth doing and highly successful. The participants were most enthusiastic and their appetites for more knowledge on sites like the Victualling Yard and other sites in that area were amply whetted.
Rosia Tanks Housing Development. The Trust has been deeply disturbed by the approval of a scheme to build a block of flats over the Rosia Tanks. The Tanks, which date back to the mid 1700’s, form an integral part of the Victualling Yard/Rosia Bay complex, which provided the logistic base in Gibraltar, in support of the Fleet. It is the only remaining system of its kind and therefore an extremely important and unique facet of British naval history. The Yard stored the food, clothing and spares for the ships, and the roofs of the Building provided the catchment area for the water, which was channelled into these tanks for subsequent supply to the Fleet. For some to say that the tanks have no heritage value is a total misrepresentation of historical realities. In fact the whole of this area should be declared a listed site in the Gibraltar Heritage Trust Ordinance. The Trust is actively pursuing this.
There are still a number of unfinished projects from last year:
The Rooke Statue still needs to have the enclosure completed, and floodlighting installed. This is currently being pursued.
The Sacred Heart School Chapel. A contractor has been asked to render the exterior walls in order to deal with the dampness. Some interior works are also to be carried out. Once these works are completed, the restored stained glass windows will be re-installed.
Heritage Awards. The awards this year were:
Senior Award: To Joseph J Rosado ED, in recognition of his unstinting support for Gibraltar’s heritage over the years and in particular for his research into and organisation of tours of The Convent for both local and overseas visitors, which has enhanced the knowledge of this heritage site.
Group Award: To Royal Air Force Gibraltar (General Engineering Section), in recognition of the retrieval of the memorial plaque to General Sikorski and its donation to the people of Gibraltar. Other works such as the refurbishment of the Boyd Memorial near King’s Bastion are also recognised by this Award.
Junior Award: The Pupils of Bayside School, in recognition of the very successful project entitled “Walk Through History” carried out by the school’s history department during the Tercentenary Year.
Participation in the business of the Development and Planning Commission keeps our Chairman and other Trustees quite busy. The Heritage Action Committee, which is chaired by the Minister for Heritage, meets every other month. Three Trustees are members of this Committee and the other members are provided by the Heritage Division of the Government, the Archivist, the Town Planners and the Ministry of Trade, Employment and Communications.
Concerns have been expressed within this committee about the increase in unauthorised works carried out on premises and a plea has been made for these transgressions to be dealt with. Suggestions as to how this may be effected have been made and we trust are being considered. If a remedy is not found, the credibility of the authorities concerned will be severely undermined to the detriment of the law abiding!
Our relations with the Government’s Heritage Division continue to be good, and this year in particular this relationship was enhanced by the collaboration between our two entities in organising and setting up the bicentenary exhibition ‘Trafalgar 200’ mentioned above, which was such a resounding success.
Once again the Trust acknowledges the support given by Gibtelecom for its sponsorship of the Heritage Journals which I have been assured will continue into the future; the Editorial Committee of the Journal; Gibnet (now Sapphirenet) for free Internet access; the Ministry of Defence for the continued assistance given to the Trust by Major David Seed and the visiting Service Units. This year these were the ’35 Signals Regiment (95 Signals Squadron)’, the 3(V) Military Intelligence Battalion and the 168 Pioneer Regiment, and many other persons who wish to remain unnamed.
Our thanks are also due to our members without whose co-operation and assistance the task of the Trust would be even more difficult. Amongst these we especially appreciate the support of Richard Garcia, Tito Vallejo, Pepe Rosado, Keith Farrell, and John Murphy in providing the lead in various events in our programme. Also John Frendo who is always ready and willing to step in as our ‘multi-trade’ craftsman and handyman. Thank you all.
Thanks are also due to our hardworking Secretary, who bears the brunt of our day-to-day operations and without whose knowledge, experience and expertise, the work of the Trust would be increasingly difficult to perform. This also applies to our Honorary Treasurer whose meticulous account keeping and good advice is much appreciated. To you both, my most grateful thanks.
Finally, may I wish all our members a very Happy and Prosperous 2006, and thank them for their continued support in the unending task of looking after our unique heritage.
The Chairman, Joe Ballantine presents a farewell gift to Eric Canessa, who has served as a Trustee since 1991.
[In the background, left to right – Marjorie Hoare, Doris Torres, Anita Flower, Stanley Flower (who was also presented with a farewell gift after serving as a Trustee for the past 2 years), Joe Desoisa and Laurie Canessa] |
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