Exhibitions A Success

Over five hundred people attended the series of exhibitions mounted to show the results of the Hilperton Village Design Statement study. And, after months of hard work, it was particularly rewarding for the steering group that the majority of visitors studied the displays thoroughly and took their time patiently filling out the detailed Questionnaire over free coffee and biscuits.

The questionnaire was designed to enable villagers to express their views on how they see the village developing in future, and this was clearly taken very seriously. It was satisfying that there is such an active will to participate and a strong sense of community within the village.

As well as recording the village as it is the exhibition also gathered together a wealth of information about the village which had not previously been available for public consumption. Few knew that a 500lb unexploded bomb had once been discovered in Hill Street or that the village had once been the home of a thriving bakery business, with the vans lining Church Street each morning.

Hilperton Parish Council funded the production of the Village Design Statement and was gratified at this justification of its investment. Chairman Ernie Clark said that he was particularly impressed by the quality of the exhibition which included computer mounted presentations and a video.

There were fun quizzes to keep the youngsters entertained and everyone had a thoroughly good time. Indeed many revisited the exhibition when it reached its final venue of Paxcroft Mead Community Centre on Sunday 28th April.

Once the displays were over the Hilperton Village Design Statement team had the work of collating the information from the questionnaires to put together a draft Design Statement for the village. But the visible enthusiasm of the village as a whole provided the impetus needed to push on.

The exhibitions had been a success in every respect.