The Street Society moved for the first time to the Parish Church for the first meeting of the year today.



It seemed reasonable to meet there to hear George Chedburn, the architect behind the reordering of the building, so that his hearers could see the results as he spoke.



George outlined his career and how he came to specialise in conservation work, showing photos of a wide variety of buildings from stately homes and country cottages to churches. He told how the emphasis in conservation has changed from saving buildings as they are, to finding ways of using the buildings and giving them a future. English Heritage and other such bodies had realised that refusing permission for change, particularly in churches, was effectively to condemn the buildings to decay. George's brief in Street had been to turn the Parish Church into a building that would be widely used by the community, and this had happened.



Next month the Society will return to the Methodist Hall for a talk by Alan Ripley on Overleigh.