It’s official – a bid seeking nearly £1m towards building Saffron Walden Museum’s Heritage Quest Centre has been submitted this week.

On Monday (10 September) curator Carolyn Wingfield (pictured right) delivered the lottery funding application form for formal signature to Uttlesford District Council Chief Executive Alasdair Bovaird (pictured left) at the Council Offices on London Road in Saffron Walden. It is now winging its way to the Heritage Lottery Fund for consideration and a decision is expected next March.

The museum has many thousands of items of ‘hidden heritage’ in its reserve collections, and needs to improve access to them for all sorts of uses in activities and learning, as well as research and display. Some are kept in the museum, which is already overcrowded, but many more have to be kept in an offsite store which is flood-prone, difficult to access and lacks basic facilities.

Launched in August 2005, the Heritage Quest Centre will provide a new home for the museum’s reserve collections, and extend ‘outreach’ services by taking collections and activities around the district as well as enhancing services for schools, local societies and researchers. The centre to be built on Thaxted Road will be open for a guided introduction to ‘collections and work behind-the-scenes’ on two days per week plus one Saturday per month. The building will be fully accessible and is designed to be low carbon whilst providing optimum temperature and humidity conditions to preserve our heritage for future generations.

Curator Carolyn Wingfield said: “We have kept to our timeframe and already have two-thirds of the match funding.  The signing and submission of the official form signifies the end of round one and the start of round two. We’ve been talking to lottery officers for sometime and now a raft of documentation has been submitted in pursuit of the funding, including representations of local support and fundraising for the centre.

“We are intent on raising at least another £100,000 from business and local contributions to seal the project by mid next year. This, together with the help of grant giving foundations and charitable trusts, will help to complete the match funding and realise our goal. The total project cost at present is £1.7m and includes inflation and contingency allowances. We hope it will be operational by the end of 2009.

“We would like to say a big thank you all those who have contributed to date and appeal for them to remain generous on behalf of the project.

 “The museum is proud to be one of the oldest in the country with a collection unparalleled for its size. It is one of the jewels in our crown at Saffron Walden and we now need to fast track it for 21st century needs and give it the standard of storage it justly deserves.”

Cllr Keith Eden, chair of the Resource Centre Project Team, which is driving the scheme forward, said: “We are delighted Alasdair Bovaird has signed the document after much hard work by the team. We want to encourage all to play their part in becoming an active and generous custodian. We now appeal to residents and businesses in the town and the district to complete the donation form in the forthcoming Autumn edition of Uttlesford Life to ensure this exciting project starts well in 2008. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to contribute towards preserving our cultural wealth – step forward and be a part of it.”

E-mail heritage@uttlesford.gov.uk for details on how to support the Heritage Quest Fund – every £1 raised locally will release another £3 of lottery funding.