Slough Fort Preservation Trust was created in 2015/16 to preserve and restore Slough Fort, a Victorian Fort built in 1867, which lies on the banks of the Thames at Allhallows. It was built as part of the Palmerstone building programme to protect London from the French. The project was started by volunteers from the local community and this has lead to the site being used as a community venue and has drawn in people from the local community that need help. Social isolation is a big problem in the village. Most of our volunteers are elderly and suffer from loneliness, but also have skills they are sharing with us and benefit from the social aspect restoring the Fort brings.
The progress has been very fast and is going really well and we have a strong team of volunteers and Trustees, but we need to take the site to the next level and need help from skilled people, including people to be Trustees.
The Trust is responsible for the restoration of the site as well as the running of the site. This includes generating income from grants and also events. Also gaining various permissions to restore the buildings and liaising with the various bodies, due to us being both a scheduled monument and listed. There is a lot administration and also we need to increase our marketing of the site.