In 2021, FVD Consulting and Helen Shearn Associates produced a feasibility study for the multi-year ‘Kirkham Heritage Health and Wellbeing’ programme and, during 2o22, are continuing to support the local authority and Historic England to implement its recommendations.
Ferry and Helen worked with Blackpool, Fylde & Wyre NHS CCG, Lancashire County Council and local GPs to propose a series of activities to improve the health and well-being of Kirkham residents through heritage-based activities.
Kirkham Heritage Health and Wellbeing Programme
The feasibility study work involved:
- Designing a Social Prescribing programme which connects people to specific activities in the community for practical and emotional support.
- Assessment of the ‘Historic environment and wellbeing potential’ through a combination of desk top research, online meetings with key stakeholders and physical visits to Kirkham.
- Building a collection of cultural & heritage programme options by mapping current local assets and bringing in experiences from elsewhere.
- Looking at options to further integrate with the wider heritage action zone programme (future Heritage Eco & Skills and Arts & Heritage Centres and the existing Kirkham Futures cultural programme) as well as with the local NASP-funded ‘Thriving Communities’ programme.
- Recommending a way forward including activity programme, budgets, monitoring and evaluation and organisation.
The feasibility study can be downloaded from here.
Some highlights of the programme as it is evolving:
Kirkham: Forging a Heritage Programme as a Bridge to Wellbeing
Kirkham’s Heritage Health and Wellbeing programme receives national praise
Kirkham Club Day 11 June 2022
Heritage Action Zone
This programme is an element of the High Street Heritage Action Zone initiative in Kirkham, part of a bigger £95m UK government funded scheme to revitalise local high streets. Through the Heritage Action Zone initiative, Fylde Borough Council is working in partnership with Historic England to unlock the potential of Kirkham historic high street, fuelling economic, social, and cultural recovery. The project will transform disused and dilapidated buildings into homes, shops, workplaces and community spaces.
Kirkham
Kirkham is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England, midway between Blackpool and Preston and was the location of a Roman fort.
Heritage and Wellbeing
This diagram visualises the heritage ‘pathways’ into personal wellbeing (taken from this source).
