Watercolour by
Helen Allingham
Reasons and Core Principles.
Core Principles
So the main objective of this Project is to re-establish that lost English Village, as indistinguishable in its aesthetic beauty, as from that of any other village around the period of the 1870's, with historically accurate buildings as authentic in their creation as their appearance and true to the local vernacular Sussex style.
Secondly, it is vitally important that these buildings are lived in by being both rented out to the village in the form of affordable rental cottages, and to the general public in the form of rest and relaxation cottages in order to bring " life" to the Project.
This gives everyone who takes up residence at the Project the chance to wake up to a misty summer's morning, not just on a Sunday but any day of the week, hear St. Mary's Church chime the quarters just a few hundred yards away, and encounter one of the many horses that call the Project their home as they go about their daily routines.
In many ways, the project becomes something of a social experiment by providing a tangible alternative to the only kind of Village life any of us have ever known, giving us for the first time a real chance to differentiate between the two.
There are three major ingredients that are needed to make this project successful :
- Unusually, the Project has to remain small (an explanation of this can be found in Question No 4 in the FAQ's section )
- The Project needs to be a seamless extension of the Village, providing a beneficial community asset set within a peaceful environment.
- It needs to capture the ambiance and spirit of a Village typically depicted by the likes of watercolourist Helen Allingham, composer George Butterworth or novelist Thomas Hardy.
Lastly, and in accordance with the proposal's beliefs and principles, it's hoped that the project could be set up and managed with both a charitable status, with at least four residents elected from the Village( hopefully more ) to sit on the board of trustees, and also become a social enterprise, e.g when the project profits, society profits both through re-investing and donating.
Reasons for Designing the Project
There have always been two extremely powerful main reasons in designing this project.... both equally as important as each other.
The first lies in the fact that the English Village before the emergence of motor vehicles....no longer exists in this Country.
That unmade grassy winding Lane that linked such wonderfully appealing architectural gems, that seemed to nestle effortlessly into the landscape around every corner....has been lost to us!
We can see it in paintings or catch it on film and television, but the stark reality is that somehow this most cherished part of our National Heritage has been allowed to slip away from us....
Only Clovelly on the North Devon coast lies blissfully unaware, unchanged, and unaffected by this mandatory change affecting all Villages, in all Counties in the British Isles over the last 130 years, due solely to its topographical location, sited in a ravine within the cliff... and yet its equivalent in the countryside no longer exists.
The Island of Sark in the Channel Islands is the closest we come, where the sight of horse-drawn vehicles in this self-governing crown dependency is commonplace.
Five generations have now passed since the arrival of the motor car in the English Village, and over that 130 year period, every one of those Villages had to change and adapt in order to accommodate all the benefits that this new form of transport could bring to the outlying Villages and Towns.
But the change over those intervening years has been so gradual that our detachment as a Nation from this vital part of our cultural Heritage has almost gone unnoticed, and yet it remains strongly evocative in most people's minds.
This is of course all part of the natural cycle of evolution in the English Village, it has always had to make way for modern life in all its forms, railways, canals, the industrial revolution anything that bought newfound freedom and made life easier couldn't be ignored.
But the real sadness comes in the fact that every one of those five generations has gradually become further and further detached from the sights, sounds, and spirit of a true English Village towards the end of the 19th Century, and as our new digital age advances so rapidly now, that detachment will only be allowed to drift even further away from us...
Nationally, this will have a significant detrimental effect on our society and the education of our children now and long into the future because in order to have a grasp of the atmosphere of such a place,
they would have to rely on books, the internet, or period dramas.
Secondly, as we all go about our daily lives the pressures on every one of us have gradually become more and more intense, we're all trying desperately to achieve more, try harder, fit more in, stretch ourselves just that little bit further, get there on time to pick the kids up from their after school clubs, fit in a bit more overtime to pay the bills.
All of these outside social, economic, and media pressures one way or another start to take their toll on our mental wellbeing, and with a few possible exceptions most of us are really not built to absorb so much anxiety and tension.
This is why we all need to take some time for ourselves .....to redress the balance, peaceful country walks, socialising, pursuing hobbies, exploring new activities, and meeting new friends.
With this in mind, one way or another the Lost England Project is ideally suited to redress that balance, and would really give us all the chance to 'just step out of the circle' for a little while....
Mental Health and Wellbeing
....'Could The Past be the Future?'....
The realisation over the last decade or so that our mental health really needs to be talked about and addressed is so incredibly important because it is so intrinsically linked to our physical wellbeing, and there are so many fantastic people and initiatives available out there ready to help as much as possible.
But maybe we're starting at the wrong end, maybe the Lost England Project's initiative to give everyone the chance to either live, visit, stay, or work in such a simple and peaceful environmental setting could just be the smallest glimpse of light for our natural wellbeing, in what sometimes can be a very dark tunnel....
.....If we don't try, we may never know!
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details and accept the service to view the translations.