Historic Coventry Trust

Updated: 15/01/2018

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Historic Coventry, leading economic regeneration through heritage.

Historic Coventry Trust is an energetic charity and company that was launched in 2015 (Previously known as Coventry Charterhouse Preservation Trust) formed to acquire, restore and reuse Coventry’s heritage buildings, preserving them for future generations and contributing to Coventry’s economic, social and cultural enhancement. The Trust aims is to become the guardian of the city’s heritage in perpetuity – a local ‘National Trust’ and a strategic partner to enable regeneration of all of Coventry’s heritage. The Trust is a social enterprise and aims to become self-sufficient within 5 years, generating revenue from restored historic buildings and innovative development.

The Trust is an expansion of the charity behind the restoration of The Charterhouse – a 14th century former Carthusian monastery off London Road and an historic building of national importance. The trust’s major project is the creation of a new 70 acre Heritage Park which has the Charterhouse as its centrepiece but also includes the Joseph Paxton Arboretum Cemetery adjoining and a large are a of riverside and woodland landscape.

In a city with a rich history of a thousand years, but that is known more for what was lost in the last century, there remains a surprising amount of heritage of high quality. Largely forgotten in recent decades and underused, the trust will bring these buildings back to life to take their rightful place in the future economic and cultural life of the city. As time passes the stock of protected buildings increases as the buildings of today become the heritage of tomorrow. In time the trust will play a role in the preservation of our more recent buildings including the pioneering post – war reconstruction. The buildings of the past tell the story of a proud, innovative and prosperous city and are the foundations for its future – the soul of the city.

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