The Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust is launching a Heritage Lottery Fund bid this month to build an Archive and Study facility at Knebworth House. Whilst the charity continues to address outstanding restoration issues, it still has to ensure adequate public access. The HLF currently does not support structural repair, but encourages applications for new and improved access.
Knebworth House’s museum and literary heritage is the beacon that attracts academics and students from around the world, as well as inspiring local education programmes. The archive’s current dissociation (much is kept off-site) and storage inadequacies (a cramped attic) compromise this. School and study groups are further compromised by a lack of holding and teaching areas. Currently there is an over-reliance on fine weather and the use of the gardens. To better accommodate school and other groups – and enable year-round educational and study visits – Knebworth House needs a dedicated archive and teaching facility.
We have consulted English Heritage on how this might be achieved, and a plan has been drawn up. The bid needs local support, so if you are happy to lend yours, I’d be very grateful if you’d address a letter to the Knebworth House Education and Preservation Trust (at “Knebworth House, Knebworth SG3 6PY”, or via my email below). Letters can be simple, but ideally say three things: 1) What you, or the community, have gained from the heritage assets at Knebworth House; 2) Why they should be supported; and 3) How you, or the community, would gain from an improved Archive and Study facility at Knebworth House. The bid is an 18 month process and the form-filling dauntingly complex, but with your support the charity has a good chance of securing this investment and creating a valuable local facility for our and future generations. Many many thanks.
Henry Lytton Cobbold
www.knebworthhouse.com