July 2024 Group of the Month – Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust

In 2024, we’re looking at our awards a little differently by spotlighting a group of the month each month from July 2024 to June 2025 and then selecting an overall group of the month at our 2025 conference.

As a result of the this, the Community Archives and Heritage Group Awards Committee are very excited to announce Pope’s Grotto Preservation Trust as the first winners of the new monthly award for 2024/2025.

About the group

Pope's Grotto Preservation Trust is a registered charity, which was established in 2014 to support the restoration, conservation and maintenance of Pope’s Grotto. The Grade II* listed grotto is all that remains of a once-famous Palladian villa and gardens created by Alexander Pope on the banks of the River Thames at Twickenham. It is loaded with significance for British culture and for the birth of the English landscape garden movement.

The trust is a grassroots heritage organisation governed by an entirely voluntary board of trustees, supported by an enthusiastic band of volunteer guides. It raises substantial funds to support grotto restoration, conservation and maintenance, as well as the trust’s extensive education and community engagement programmes.

In November 2023, following a 10-year restoration and conservation project led by Donald Insall Architects, the grotto was removed from Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register after more than 20 years.

The project was awarded the 2024 Civic Trust AABC Conservation Award, which recognises the highest standards of historic building conservation and has been Shortlisted for the RICS 2024 Awards. The 2024 programme of open days and other events commences on Saturday 18th May.

We asked the group about the communities that work with and how they engage with them. Pope’s Grotto told us:

The trustees are absolutely passionate about continuing our innovative outreach and education work and bringing Pope and his works to new and diverse audiences.

The trust’s outreach and education programmes have included: a digital reconstruction of Pope’s Villa and gardens; workshops and performances from a blind storyteller for young people excluded from education; Keystage 2 Explorers Project for local primary schools; Historic Building Conservation taster sessions for SPAB students; training for volunteer guides at neighbouring heritage properties.

The trust also organises heritage-focused symposia and maintains a year-round programme of Open Days and other events. The trust is proud to be a founding partner in the London Luminaries network, a partnership of historic properties in South West London sharing history and heritage through free online talks for everyone to enjoy.

The awards committee also asked how their work has contributed to preserving community heritage and/or broadened the appeal of community archives to a wider group of people and we were told:

Pope's Grotto is a site of historic and cultural importance locally in Twickenham and nationally. Through the trust's work it has been given a new lease of life and saved for generations to come. As we have conserved and saved the heritage at risk, we have developed an archive of artefacts uncovered during the works, and remembrances through oral history projects with local residents and alumnae of St Catherine's School.

When we asked for examples of running activities that have beneficial impacts on the physical, mental and social wellbeing of individuals and communities, we were told by the group that:

The trust creates lasting change for young people not in employment, education or training by participating in Achieving for Children's Head2Work programme, which and creates opportunities for them to develop CV-building skills that can help them into employment. Our work also creates positive change for our local community by providing volunteering opportunities. The volunteers learn new skills and broaden their experience encountering and engaging with different audiences.

We asked the group to try and describe what they thought makes them special and they told us:

We are a small group of non-specialist volunteers who are absolutely passionate about Alexander Pope and his works. We have spent the last ten years working to restore and conserve the last remaining part of Pope's home in Twickenham, which he loved so much.

The trust owes a huge debt of gratitude to the late Anthony Beckles Willson. A Pope enthusiast and Twickenham local, Tony wrote several books about Alexander Pope and the local area. He spearheaded the efforts to preserve the grotto, and the trust still follows the path that he laid out some 20 years ago.

You can see why we wanted to acknowledge the wonderful work of Pope’s Grotto Restoration Trust with our first group of the month award, and you can find out more and keep up to date with what they have going on via the following platforms:

Website

Facebook

Instagram