Tarvin Civic Trust

Tarvin Civic Trust was set up in the 70s by a group of villagers who were concerned about the future of our historic village centre in that era of "out with the old and in with the new". After years of involvement in village heritage matters as well as organising the ever popular winter programmes of lectures at the Community Centre, the vast majority of the 65 members reluctantly voted to wind up the Trust as they were unable to identify successors to the retiring Chair and Secretary/Treasurer, after their many years' service.

Much was achieved during its existence. Together with the Parish Council it successfully campaigned for the local authority to create Tarvin Conservation Area which has protected the village centre from unsympathetic development ever since. Other projects it has been involved in include:

• installing cobbles to the South of the Church,
• having the disfiguring overhead electricity cables removed from the faces of the houses and shops in the village centre and buried underground,
• persuading Royal Mail to replace the ugly brick post box outside the Post Office with the present red pillar box,
• publishing Tarvin Village Design Statement which was adopted by the planning authority as a Supplementary Planning Document giving guidance to developers on the appearance of properties in Tarvin,
• joining the Parish Council and Local History Group in the excavation and recreation of the pinfold and Ducker's Well in Church Street,
• writing a pamphlet for the Parish Council setting out the legal obligations of those living in the Conservation Area, and most recently,
• the design and installation of the Conservation Area Map on the bus shelter opposite the Post Office.

During this time, the Trust commented to the Planning Authority on many of the planning applications in the village where it was felt that the spirit of the Conservation Area or the character of the village was compromised.

The present members of Tarvin Civic Trust are pleased to have been able to carry on in the footsteps of its founders and are sad that the time has now clearly come to call it a day.