The Engine Shed

Important Note – March 2008:  What is written below describes our ambitions for the building known in Wivenhoe as the Engine Shed but it is not going to happen. There are too many difficulties with the Project.

The Engine Shed Project

In the car park of Wivenhoe Station stands a derelict railway building. One day it will be a Cultural Heritage Centre. That doesn’t mean we want to fill it with artefacts and memorabilia from Wivenhoe’s rich past as a boat-building, fishing, sailing centre and even a port going back to Roman days. We want it to be a building from which we can stimulate people’s interest in the past through art, and art in its many different forms – paintings, photographs, performance, music. It can be a place for exhibitions, for lectures, and educational courses.  

It is ideally situated, in the middle of a car park, on a bus route, by a railway station and at the end of the Wivenhoe ~ Hythe ~ Colchester Cycle Trail.   

It was built in 1902 and is now Grade II listed and part of Wivenhoe’s Conservation area. Following the contraction of the railway network in the 1960s it ceased to be used as railway building helping to serve the needs of the adjacent shipyard and port. It was last used for the storage of potatoes before eventually falling derelict.

The Project, run under the umbrella of the Wivenhoe Engine Shed Trust, a registered charity (no. 292693) will firstly be to restore a railway heritage building. We already have £140,000 in cash and confirmed grants.

In 2007, we appointed architects Plater Claiborne who have much experience in working on restoration projects and have won awards for many of them (www.platerclaiborne.com). 

The external appearance of the building will be restored to how it used to look. 

Imagine internally. Brickwork and big, strong roof timbers cleaned up. A natural ambience for all sorts of activities. Plater Claiborne’s scheme for inside the building is hugely imaginative and very practical, with a strong emphasis on reminding people about part of Wivenhoe’s heritage and the part played by the railway.   

Apart from activities designed to promote Wivenhoe’s rich heritage and that of this area, this will be a building available for hire. It will be an asset to the local community which has seen its population more than treble since the 1960s. It will be promoted too as an asset to the wider community of Colchester and Tendring given its superb public transport links. 

If you would like to know more, then contact: