We are delighted to announce that our restoration of Winsford Cottage Hospital has won the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ national Social Impact Award for 2020 in the heritage category.
This award is given to projects which recognise the built environment's positive and transformational contribution to society, and follows our win at the regional-level awards earlier this year.
Projects were judged for their human, social and environmental impact, as well as the collaboration and innovation involved in each. Eighty-six schemes from 12 national and regional awards competed for this UK-wide recognition across nine categories, with each successful project commended for positively impacting people’s lives.
Describing Winsford, the RICS judges said: “sympathetically restored & sensitively adapted to reflect its historical past whilst ensuring its future, the project has significantly benefited the local community.”
This award win comes just one month after Historic England removed Winsford from the Heritage At Risk Register thanks to our restoration, and together the two milestones celebrate our charity’s enduring commitment to restoring at-risk heritage and enabling access and enjoyment.
Winsford Cottage Hospital was built in 1899, designed by Arts & Crafts architect C.F.A. Voysey and commissioned by philanthropist Maria Medley to serve the local community. Our two-year rescue project saved the site from advancing decay and transformed much of the building into a holiday let for six people, while preserving dedicated mixed-use community spaces, so continuing to fulfil Maria Medley’s vision and serve the local community.
We’re thrilled that this Social Impact Award particularly shines a spotlight on the extensive involvement of communities local to Winsford throughout the restoration. Volunteers, students, schoolchildren, crafts experts and many others participated before, during and following works. Nurses once based at Winsford, before the site ceased as a functioning hospital the 1990s, generously spent time recollecting their memories of the space. Volunteers spent days meticulously chipping concrete screed off Voysey’s golden mosaic floor, and local blacksmiths, stonemasons and other creatives have been closely involved throughout.
The restoration was lead at Landmark by our senior surveyor Richard Burton and steered by project manager Adrian Stenning. It would not have been possible without the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players, and many other dedicated supporters. We also thank Sophie Ledgard of benjamin+beauchamp architects ltd, local contractor J.E. Stacey and the many others who contributed to this success.
You can read further highlights about our work at Winsford and watch a film about the project or book a holiday at Winsford Cottage Hospital.
Discover Winsford Cottage Hospital
