In our bid to the Heritage Lottery, we committed to monitoring the impact of the project on individual properties, the hamlets, the town and the wider community beyond.
To be manageable, we broke this down into a set of measurables and, with the aid of a resident who worked at the Office of National Statistics, we developed the following suite of tabulations and surveys to undertake:
Simple tabulations
1 Visitor numbers to the Heritage Trail
2 Uptake of Schools Outreach Programme
3 Uptake of Community Outreach Programme
4 Speaking engagements
5 Fundraising over time
6 Planning – Listed Building consents and Conservation Area consents over time
7 Websites traffic over time incl. downloads
Tabulations and associated compound data
8 Media coverage – inputs (media releases, broadcast appearances, magazine articles) and uptake (relevant search engine hits)
9 Volunteers – number involved in each project component and their feedback on same via a questionnaire
Questionnaire-based data
10 Changes in amount of property-based maintenance over time
11 Instances of new understandings gained (‘light bulb’ moments)
12 Impact on the town generally – (extraction from above data and ‘wellbeing’ questionnaire)
The survey pro-formas themselves follow as Annexes 2-4.
We have a positive story to tell on some of these indicators but, alas, the Covid pandemic affected many of them either by forcing us to abort or delay much of our outreach programme in schools and the community. Those indicators we are able to report appear in Annex 1 below.
However, we plan to send out a ‘catch-all’ questionnaire to residents about 6 weeks after the launch of the website, shown at Annex 6.
Annex 1
| Indicator | Benchmark | Final position | Comments |
| Visitor numbers to the Heritage Trail | n/a | – | Awaiting town trails launch |
| Uptake of Schools Outreach Programme | n/a | 3 schools | St Pauls and Croscombe Primaries and Bowlish Infants invited us in. St Pauls took two half-day sessions and Croscombe one whole day. Bowlish Infants was a half-day on the involvement of their predecessors in the silk cloth industry |
| Uptake of Community Outreach Programme | n/a | 1 community eventand 2 guided walking tours of the locality | Collett Park Open Day 2019, where we had a stand. More than 20 visitors. The walking tours drew in around 15 participants in 2019 |
| Speaking engagements | n/a | 6 in all | Wells U3A; Shepton U3A; Trowbridge Traditional Society; Historic Houses Wessex; Somerset Art Weeks x2 |
| Fundraising over time | n/a | £10,587 | 9 substantial contributions plus many more minor ones |
| Planning – Listed Building consents and Conservation Area consents over time | From Sep. 2015-Aug 2018, 3 P and 0 LB consents. Some CA consents to address trees | 3 P and 2 LB consents for Listed Buildings plus numerous CA consents to remove affected Ash trees | Significant development of Ham Manor and Bowlish Grange. Development of 3 new dwellings on the former garden of Bowlish House. |
| Websites traffic over time incl. downloads | n/a | 55 followers to the Blog site | Gained during 2018 and sustained during 2019 |
| Media coverage – inputs (media releases, broadcast appearances, magazine articles) and uptake (relevant search engine hits) | n/a | 1 front page and 2 inside pages in SM Journal. 1 article in Mendip Times 10,000+ followers of SM Community Facebook page which carried the Blogs | Less media coverage as the number of outreach events reduced. |
| Volunteers – number involved in each project component and their feedback on same via a questionnaire | n/a | More than 30, particularly in the schools’ outreach |
Annex 2
Impact on the locality
Dear participant,
Thank you for taking the time to read this Heritage Project questionnaire.
One of the aims of the Project is to understand its impact on our feelings about Darshill, Ham and Bowlish – positive or negative – and to get an indication of this in part, we are asking all residents to complete a short ‘feelings’ questionnaire both at the beginning and end of the project, in December 2018 and August 2020. It should only take a few minutes. All answers and any comments will be anonymous.
The questionnaire can be found at:
Thank you!
Ian Keys
Heritage Project Lead
_____________________________________________________________________
How have each of the following events improved or worsened your feelings about the locality?
- The community litter pick around Darshill, Ham and Bowlish
- The fireworks evening (previously in front of Old Bowlish House)
- The bat walk led by Adel Avery
- The botany walk led by ????
- The summer garden party at Ham Manor
- The change in the pub landlord to Brian Blinman
- The snowdrop display in the verges of Ham Lane
- Sue Fricker’s open garden afternoon in Bowlish
Annex 3
Changes in amount of property-based maintenance over time
Dear participant,
Thank you for taking the time to read this Heritage Project questionnaire.
One of the aims of the Project is to improve the standing of the three hamlets and part of that is to understand whether the more we learn about our heritage and environment encourages those living here to change their approach to maintaining their property. To get an indication of this, we plan to ask all residents to complete this survey at the beginning and end of the project, in December 2018 and August 2020. It should only take two minutes. All answers and any comments will be anonymous.
The survey can be found at
Thank you!
Ian Keys
Heritage Project Lead
______________________________________________________________________
1 In which of these ways do you occupy this accommodation?
Own it outright
Rent it
2 How many rooms do you have altogether in your accommodation, excluding
bathrooms and toilets, but including kitchens?
3 Thinking about property maintenance, that is work done that has not increased the
size of the property, how much would you say you have spent on your property over
the last year? Include your time spent on self-maintenance at £150/day.
Less than £500
From £500 up to £1,000
From £1,000 up to £1,500
From £1,500 up to £3,000
From £3,000 up to £8,000
From £8,000 up to £20,000
Over £20,000
Do not wish to say
4 Date of completion of survey
Annex 4
Volunteer feedback
Dear participant,
Thank you for taking part in this Heritage Project event. We want to ensure that it was a good experience for you and we’d be grateful if you would take a few minutes to complete this short satisfaction survey so that we can improve the experience for those who follow. All answers and any comments will be anonymous.
When you have completed the questionnaire, please email it to Rich Samuels, Heritage Project Feedback Manager at
Thank you!
Ian Keys
Heritage Project Lead
______________________________________________________________________
1 What age are you?
Under 16.
16-24.
25-34.
35-44.
45-54.
55-64.
65-74.
75+
Prefer not to say.
2 Overall, how well organised would you say today’s event was?
0-10 Where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely.
Do not wish to say
3 Overall, how likely are you to participate in another DBCS event?
0-10 Where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely.
Do not wish to say
4 Overall, how much would you say today’s event has improved your understanding of
the history of the area?
0-10 Where 0 is not at all and 10 is a lot.
Do not wish to say
5 Overall, how worthwhile would you say today’s event was?
0-10 Where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely.
Do not wish to say
6 Overall, how much did you enjoy today’s event?
0-10 Where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely.
Do not wish to say
Annex 5
Conclusion of project questionnaire
Dear resident,
The DBCS Heritage Project ran from September 2018 to August 2021 and we planned to survey its impact particularly during the outreach phase expected in 2020. However, as we all know, that was not to be.
Consequently, we have designed this much-reduced after completion survey to understand the impacts you feel the project has had on the local community overall.
When you have completed the questionnaire, please email it to Eddie Oram, DBCS Secretary at: eddie.oram@btinternet.com
Thank you for your participation,
Ian Keys
Heritage Project Lead
________________________________________________________________________
How are each of the following projects improved or worsened your feelings about the locality on a 0-10 scale where 0 is worsened enormously and 10 is improved enormously?
- The heritage project – history
- The heritage project – architecture
- The heritage project – archaeology
- The heritage project – environment
- The heritage project – outreach into schools
- The heritage project – outreach into the wider community (events, Heritage Trail, website, publication)
The Heritage Project stand at Collet Park Festival