Tidworth Development Trust

The Tidworth Development Trust (TDT) was in the process of establishing a multi-purpose community resource centre in a rural garrison town. The group had the idea to build a community resource centre after conversations with their management committee: “There is no community heart in Tidworth, there’s nothing for the whole community.”

Tidworth is a rural garrison town in Wiltshire, close to Andover and Salisbury. About 80% of Tidworth’s resident population is army personnel and their dependents and this has a big impact on the town. As one resident commented, “It’s a totally fluctuating population, lots of the lads have been away lately and then their wives go back to mum if they’ve no children. It can halve the population. You notice the single soldiers have gone as the pubs are quiet, it’s quite a dramatic effect.” To try and create more of a permanent community in the area and to redress the balance, local resident groups have lobbied their District Council to build homes for ‘non-army’ families.

In 1991 the County Council and District Council commissioned research into the issues faced by Tidworth with its transient army residents: “Some of the wives have low self-esteem, they married very young, they go all over the place. Some are quite bright but they think they can only work as cleaners.” As a result of this research a project was set up by the county and district councils to help people get back into work. This was called TEMPO – Tidworth Employment Opportunities.

In 1997 Tidworth was allocated nearly half a million pounds of Single Regeneration Budget money aimed at regenerating the local area. Part of this money was used for a community development worker, and the exit strategy in 2000 was to ensure that an organisation would take on and continue this work after the funding ran out.

TEMPO and the community development work was the precursor to the Tidworth Development Trust. Tidworth Development Trust is a community led, not-for-profit enterprise that seeks to generate a source of income to be used for community benefit. The organisation has worked hard to generate community involvement in the Trust, for example, 60 local people have been recruited as members.

The group wanted help in getting their community resource centre project off the ground. In particular they asked for help with facilitating a brainstorming session with the project group, involving the wider community, writing a brief for the project, action planning and appointing an architect. 

The Glass-House facilitated a brainstorming session with members of the project group, to think about the sort of functions the building might contain and to begin to develop ideas about the design of the building. The Glass-House also organised and led a Design Study Tour where some members of the group visited different buildings in London.

Through workshops and discussions, one of the key aims that emerged was that the building should create a new ‘heart’ for Tidworth that links together existing facilities as well as providing a place that people in the community, and those passing through, would want to visit.

In order to make this happen, Tidworth Development Trust made sure that their design responded to the existing facilities and fitted in with town fabric, and also taking into account the needs and desires of the people who will ultimately use the building and the site.

The outcome from the Go-Between Initiative that used the services was the production of a Community Involvement Statement. This was incorporated into a Design & Access statement, completed by CIVIC Architects. The project documents have provided valuable information for use in fundraising.

The Glass-House support was essential. The support was pitched at exactly the right level, allowing the young people to explore touch, feel and sight. It was wonderful to see them learning project management while on the course, and see their skills coming along without them having to learn about it in a literal way. The skills were taught passively and so did not alienate young people; instead it opened their eyes to the possibilities and scope of outdoor design.

Buildings

• Go-Between
• Project Support

• Community Involvement Statement. 
• Design & Access statement completed by CIVIC Architects. 
• The combined dossier of project information is being used to help fundraising.

Buildings by Design

CIVIC Architects