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Viva Mill Project
For over 20 years the Viva has focused on cultural outreach, award-winning multi-generational theatre productions, arts engagement and heritage projects. In 2010 Viva received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service – the MBE for Voluntary Groups. Viva stages around 10 productions a year in a variety of hired local venues and achieves audiences averaging 18,000 per annum. The organisation has considerable heritage experience having successfully delivered three projects funded under Heritage Lottery Fund's Your/Our Heritage programme - From the East End to East Cambs, Rich Soil Rich Heritage and most recently, StreetLife 1939-45. The organisation is currently delivering a National Lottery funded project about Cambridgeshire’s unique village college education system. As a result of these projects, Viva has developed a great deal of expertise and understanding of heritage interpretation and associated activity programming. Viva is demonstrably at the heart of its community and has acquired a profound and detailed understanding of the local marketplace and audiences and is therefore ideally placed to lead on community projects.
To generate funds for Viva, a charity shop and trading company was established in a former Methodist chapel in the town, appropriately and sensitively renovated and converted by Viva from scratch, turning an outdated, inaccessible and unheated building into an accessible two-floor charity shop and pop-up cafe that has thrived and continues to provide important funds for the organisation. This demonstrates an important track record of relevant experience and achievement for the organisation.
The Spencer’s Mill Project
Despite Viva’s achievements, it has never had a ‘home’. It has been largely peripatetic which has limited the number of young people and vulnerable adults and wider community members who could be involved at one time. The costs associated with hiring venues has also restricted the organisation’s reach but the regeneration of Spencer's Mill will change this forever.
Spencer's Mill is a three-storey former mill building dating from the late 19th Century. Standing in an area of the town where milling took place for centuries, it was used in the production of flour then animal feed. It is a very rare survivor of a once-thriving industry that employed many people from Soham and the district and was a major contributor to the local economy. The Mill ceased production in the 1980s, has been vacant since that time and has become more derelict as the decades passed. It stands as an eloquent testimony to a time and way of life long passed, but without an intervention in the near future will be beyond saving.
Other mill buildings in the area have either been demolished or incorporated into residential schemes through conversion and either way, their heritage significance has been lost. Although the mill is not listed, it is acknowledged by East Cambridgeshire DC (ECDC) Conservation Officer due to its rarity, to be a non-designated heritage asset “..as a result of its historic significance and links to the historical development of the town. It is an important remnant of Soham’s industrial heritage. Heritage assets are a finite resource that are irreplaceable once lost and this is an example of one such building that if a scheme and funding cannot be
secured, will eventually be lost."
Viva seeks to appropriately renovate the derelict mill and bring it back to life for the community as a self-sustaining business run by a successful social enterprise. Viva currently uses hired venues and the only limit to Viva's programme of accessible arts activity has been space availability and hire costs. Through 'spend to save’, the Mill will enable Viva to do more work with the local community and provide more opportunities for participation. The project will take a derelict building and create a viable, accessible community facility with main auditorium and rehearsal area, upstairs events space (all of which are hireable), a new build foyer/box office area, toilets, gallery, offices, bar and cafe, dressing rooms and backstage/storage areas. An exciting programme of training, skills-building and participation for the local community.
Rare original fittings survive and will, together with any salvageable materials, be incorporated into the renovated building. The building’s heritage will be celebrated through innovative interpretation and heritage-linked activity planning.
The project will create jobs, help local people develop transferable skills and once again position the Mill building as an important contributor to the local economy. This project will be transformational for the town and district through its positive impact on the local population.
The project has received support from various funders, including Power to Change, Arts Council England, Architectural Heritage Fund, The Amey Community Fund and many more local and national charities and donors. It is now thanks to The National Heritage Lottery Fund that the renovation work can commence. Viva was awarded £608,200 from the fund, matched by East Cambridgeshire District Council. The Spencer's Mill project was one of six projects across the Midlands and East of England which drive diversity, inclusion and wellbeing in local areas.
To generate funds for Viva, a charity shop and trading company was established in a former Methodist chapel in the town, appropriately and sensitively renovated and converted by Viva from scratch, turning an outdated, inaccessible and unheated building into an accessible two-floor charity shop and pop-up cafe that has thrived and continues to provide important funds for the organisation. This demonstrates an important track record of relevant experience and achievement for the organisation.
The Spencer’s Mill Project
Despite Viva’s achievements, it has never had a ‘home’. It has been largely peripatetic which has limited the number of young people and vulnerable adults and wider community members who could be involved at one time. The costs associated with hiring venues has also restricted the organisation’s reach but the regeneration of Spencer's Mill will change this forever.
Spencer's Mill is a three-storey former mill building dating from the late 19th Century. Standing in an area of the town where milling took place for centuries, it was used in the production of flour then animal feed. It is a very rare survivor of a once-thriving industry that employed many people from Soham and the district and was a major contributor to the local economy. The Mill ceased production in the 1980s, has been vacant since that time and has become more derelict as the decades passed. It stands as an eloquent testimony to a time and way of life long passed, but without an intervention in the near future will be beyond saving.
Other mill buildings in the area have either been demolished or incorporated into residential schemes through conversion and either way, their heritage significance has been lost. Although the mill is not listed, it is acknowledged by East Cambridgeshire DC (ECDC) Conservation Officer due to its rarity, to be a non-designated heritage asset “..as a result of its historic significance and links to the historical development of the town. It is an important remnant of Soham’s industrial heritage. Heritage assets are a finite resource that are irreplaceable once lost and this is an example of one such building that if a scheme and funding cannot be
secured, will eventually be lost."
Viva seeks to appropriately renovate the derelict mill and bring it back to life for the community as a self-sustaining business run by a successful social enterprise. Viva currently uses hired venues and the only limit to Viva's programme of accessible arts activity has been space availability and hire costs. Through 'spend to save’, the Mill will enable Viva to do more work with the local community and provide more opportunities for participation. The project will take a derelict building and create a viable, accessible community facility with main auditorium and rehearsal area, upstairs events space (all of which are hireable), a new build foyer/box office area, toilets, gallery, offices, bar and cafe, dressing rooms and backstage/storage areas. An exciting programme of training, skills-building and participation for the local community.
Rare original fittings survive and will, together with any salvageable materials, be incorporated into the renovated building. The building’s heritage will be celebrated through innovative interpretation and heritage-linked activity planning.
The project will create jobs, help local people develop transferable skills and once again position the Mill building as an important contributor to the local economy. This project will be transformational for the town and district through its positive impact on the local population.
The project has received support from various funders, including Power to Change, Arts Council England, Architectural Heritage Fund, The Amey Community Fund and many more local and national charities and donors. It is now thanks to The National Heritage Lottery Fund that the renovation work can commence. Viva was awarded £608,200 from the fund, matched by East Cambridgeshire District Council. The Spencer's Mill project was one of six projects across the Midlands and East of England which drive diversity, inclusion and wellbeing in local areas.
