Save Preston Bus Station campaign joint winner of Heritage Hero Award

The Save Preston Bus Station campaign has been recognised by the Heritage Alliance with their Heritage Hero Award 2014, which was awarded jointly to  them and Howsham Mill at the Alliance’s Annual Heritage Day at the Glaziers Hall in Central London today (4 December). Generously sponsored by Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, The Heritage Alliance Heroes Award Scheme was established to celebrate the outstanding contribution to society made by heritage volunteers in England.

Loyd Grossman commented:

“It is fantastic to award this year’s heritage heroes award to both Howsham Mill and Preston Bus Station who represent the power and passion of volunteers throughout the heritage sector.”

“The hundreds of hours of volunteer work which has gone into rescuing Howsham Mill and giving it a new life as an education centre generating hydro-electricity, makes it an outstanding candidate for this year’s Heritage Heroes Award.”

“The Save Preston Bus Station Campaign demonstrates the hard work and tenacity of volunteers in saving a formerly unloved and unprotect example of Brutalist architecture. While the volunteers were often diffuse and expressed within a range of social networks, their coming together of interests represents a public re-evaluation and democratisation of the building’s value. ”

John Wilson, Save Preston Bus Station, said:

“To be recognised nationally by The Heritage Alliance and winning this award is a tremendous achievement for everyone connected with our campaign to save Preston Bus Station.

“It has been a long hard campaign, at times it looked like we had lost the battle when the second listing application failed. Several members faded away, but Andrew and I took on the challenge to fight Preston City Council head on.”

“After English Heritage sent in their own team to assess the building we knew we had a chance to turn this result around, with Angela Brady in London there was only going to be one winner. On this special date 23rd September 2013 PBS was awarded Grade II Listed Status. We were bursting with pride, it was like scoring the winning goal in added on time and winning the FA Cup.”

The C20 Society’s caseworker Christina Malathouni worked closely with the local campaign to develop and submit the final, successful listing application. Many congratulations to all involved.