Heritage centre hope

PLANS to turn Uckfield's Bridge Cottage into a heritage centre were unveiled this week.

The Grade Two listed building could become a centre for displaying items of local historical interest if proposals from the preservation society are successful.

The 15th Century cottage could also be used as a meeting place for local groups and societies and as a centre providing tourist information.

Bob Bonnett, of the Uckfield and District Preservation Society, this week told members of the town council how the cottage could also house various exhibitions and even feature electronic and internet access to local archives.

Mr Bonnett said outline plans had first been drafted to turn the cottage into a heritage centre in 1997 but had been put on hold after the building was flooded in October 2000.

He said new plans would take heavy floods into account. 'We would use the ground floor but just for meetings, exhibitions and small fairs so they could be cleared fairly quicky in a flood. Any damage would be minimal.'

He said the first floor would be used for static displays and to accommodate committee and research rooms.

'One of the main aims of the heritage centre is to make available the very considerable historic material that has been deposited with the society over the years. Much of this is in the form of documents, photographs and maps and it is planned to establish an electronic research archive for the benefit of society members, students and the public.'

The next phase of the project is to identify the total cost of the proposal, said Mr Bonnett. He said that the preservation society would use a 'sympathetic architect who understands listed buildings' to do this.

He said it was hoped that much of the cash required could be obtained through Heritage Lottery funding. However, he added that the preservation society needed to have a mimimum of a 25-year secured tenure on the cottage for any grant application to be successful. At the moment, the society only has a renewable annual licence from Uckfield Town Council, who own Bridge Cottage.

Council members agreed in principle to give the preservation society a 30-year licence on the cottage.

Cllr Martha Whittle said: 'Bridge Cottage is utterly wasted at the moment. I'm very glad that somebody is prepared to raise funding not only to preserve but also to use the building. As far as I am aware, we (the town council) have no plans for that building.'