Coming to a screen near you - a major restoration project!
Published Wednesday 13th October 10 in Council - news and information releases news
Film footage of the exciting renovations under way at Prittlewell Chapel and North Road Cemetery in Southend can now be seen on the internet.
The redundant chapel is being transformed into a community resource for the Southend Association of Voluntary Services (SAVS) and new social enterprise businesses.
The £1,020,426 project is being funded by a £998,714 Community Assets Grant from the Office of the Third Sector, managed by BIG Lottery.
A further £21,712 is being provided by the Southend Economic Participation programme through the East of England Development Agency.
Once completed, the refurbished Chapel will be transferred to community use when it is leased to SAVS.
The dilapidated building's dramatic revival into a sustainable, energy-efficient building, will be the subject of four short films being made by Blade Education.
Funding for the films has come from the Build with CaRe (Carbon Reduction) partnership of which the Council is a partner.
The first of the four films is being broadcast from this week on Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's website and also on You Tube.
Mark Flewitt, Southend-on-Sea Borough Council's Executive Councillor for Transport and Planning, said: "This series of films is an excellent way to demonstrate how this innovative restoration programme is developing.
"When completed this refurbishment project will benefit Southend residents by helping to kick-start new social enterprise businesses as well as assisting the voluntary sector.
"It will also show people how to save energy and reduce their own carbon footprint. We are delighted, too, that the work will help preserve an historic Southend building."
North Road Cemetery was originally created to provide extra burial capacity for St Mary's Church in Victoria Avenue .
The chapel was built in 1879 within the grounds of Prittlewell cemetery, and the Council bought the freehold for £900 on 15th November that year.
Although the cemetery itself is currently near capacity and rarely used, internments are still carried out into family graves.
There are a high number of military graves within the cemetery, and there are also plans to provide information boards to give more details about the background of these.
The first of the four films can be viewed at http://www.southend.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=1131&documentID=1104 or on You Tube.