Crowdfund Norfolk has provided £4,500 of match funding
Sustainable Heritage at SHARP
Hunstanton, Norfolk, United Kingdom
Aim: Making archaeology at SHARP sustainable and greener by purchasing our own composting toilets, solar power generation and shower units.
Despite theft of a significant amount of funds, which has had a huge impact on us as a charity, we are determined to look forward to the future of SHARP, and the changes that need to be made to ensure the project can continue long into the future. We have made many changes to our financial procedures, improving our systems and policies and having regular reviews and external scrutiny, doing everything we can to ensure it not allowed to happen again! There is some good news that we should see the money stolen returned, but this is not likely to happen very quickly, and certainly not in time to help this project.
We have had a very successful season, even though it was a bit shorter than usual. The excavations this year led to several exciting discoveries on our malting site. In our new car park trench we unexpectedly found a post-medieval trackway, as well as evidence for a prehistoric burial; we also continued to provide outreach for school visits, various group tours, a successful archaeology festival and we have made huge progress with work on our archives and post-excavation programmes.
We also had a very successful AGM for our members at the end of July and many commented that we have returned SHARP to how it used to be!
This season we have broken even, proving that SHARP is financially stable, however facility hire costs continue to rise, and companies place more restrictions on deliveries (letting us down at the last minute) and food, waste, deliveries, repairs….all costs more.
We would prefer not to pass these increasing costs on to the volunteers by increasing fees, but make the necessary changes to allow us to continue to provide affordable experiences. However, after the theft we are finding ourselves low on funds to do all the things we would like to do, so we are launching this Sustainability fundraiser.
What the funds raised for SHARP go towards
Donations from the public usually go towards three major benefits to SHARP; these are our bursary scheme, research and publication. However without the main site and its facilities SHARP could not function, therefore this crowdfunding will go towards Sustainability. Our ultimate goal is to be as green as possible. To do this we need to remove our reliance on petrol and diesel generators for power, moving towards renewable energy like solar. We would also like to purchase our own facilities as this will reduce the CO2 emissions from the deliveries of units; while also reducing our yearly running costs meaning we can spend the money on maintenance, archaeology and providing more bursaries to ensure more people can attend. We have plans for solar power on site, composting toilets and our own custom-made shower block.
We are applying for funding externally, from the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) fund for our sustainability project. They briefly visited SHARP back in 2021, after seeing a sign on the road, and suggested that we look at a funded project with them as SHARP fulfils many of their criteria, in terms of green energy, community project, heritage and also being a site with heavy links to faming both currently and in the past. They visited again this season, where we discussed our plans which they were very supportive of.
This fund would help pay for many of the facilities required but we need to match fund a proportion of the bid. This is where this fundraiser comes in, as we need to raise match funding, and complete the project spending by the end of March when the FiPL fund ends.
So what is the plan!
So, the aim is to go big and try and tackle our three biggest costs, over the next couple of years.
By having these facilities on-site the team can spend less time with the hassle of setting up the hired facilities each year, and this will allow the team to do more general maintenance on the site and campsite. It also provides an opportunity for the site to be used out of the typical season, so perhaps we could offer activities such as fieldwalking, other types of courses beyond the season, or other community sessions or events. The facilities would also be available for the Sedgeford estate and village if a need arises.
This is phase 1 of the plan. We have really need to improve our archive storage and have the potential to do so on the site and we hope by cutting the costs related to the facility hire we can save money to work on the second phase.
The plan includes:
Power
We would be looking to purchase our own solar array to reduce our reliance on generators and fuel.
This will be semi-permanent on-site structures spread across multiple locations (locations to be determined but perhaps on the information hut and new proposed environmental shed) and a movable solar unit to top up our power needs during a season. A combination of both systems is what we are aiming for ultimately so that the site always has power, to allow for out of season activities.
Toilets
The next development would be our own toilet block, and to bring this facility much closer to the main site and reduce those long walks down the track in the middle of the night.
To do this the toilets would need to be composting toilets. But don’t those smell? and who will maintain it? We hear you ask, well we have done our research, and the technology is moving on, just down the road at Holme beach they are being used as public toilets. We are looking at dry compositing toilets systems that are designed to reduce smells and for ease of use, both for the users and for us to maintain. The ones we are looking at have removable bins which can be stored out of season until they are safe to empty, it will also mean less fuss and maintenance costs if something goes wrong. Better for the environment and better for us!
There are also plans to ultimately have a disabled toilet as part of the block, reducing our need for the smelly portaloos. The toilet block will be built into an insulated container so that out of season it can be shut and stored securely.
Showers
Longer term we are looking to build our own shower block, also nearer to the site. The current bid will allow us to buy another unit & the materials and equipment to adapt into a shower block, 1 of 2 that we will eventually build, although we are going to need to rent showers again for the 2025 season while we do this work.
We have listened to the feedback from this season, and how much people liked the shower block we hired in. So, our designs are based of this unit, with individual shower cubicle/wet rooms, but with more space for your stuff so it stays dry. Like the toilet block this will be built into containers to ensure that out of season they can be locked away safely and securely.
Match Funding
The whole project will cost around £65,000 so we will need to find around £13,000 to match fund it. We are incredibly grateful to Charlie Campbell of the Sedgeford Estate who has offered to match fund the first £4000 from this fundraising campaign leaving us with a very attainable goal of £9000.