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Less ebullient but quietly impressive was October’s speaker,
Philip Fry from the family firm of C. G. Fry, founded in the
1940s as ‘Wheelwright, Undertaker and General Builder’. The
first two trades died off, but the building side of the
company thrived on quality developments in local vernacular
style. Joinery workshops that once made coffins now
custom-make kitchens, staircases, windows, doors and porches
for schemes like Poundbury (‘a fantastic success’) that are
being held up as models for the future.
In fact, the worry is that Poundbury-style will become the
template for modern estates, without the builders
understanding the Fry ethos. For instance, the company
‘doesn’t do’ cul-de-sacs (dead areas with no flow), and roads
are planned to avoid rat-runs.
Parking in ‘courts’ behind buildings keeps the streets clear,
but these courts also include houses ‘to give a sense of place
and stop crime’. Roof pitches are varied and mixed materials
used, but always in deference to existing buildings. Small
industrial units and offices are included so that people can
walk to work, and social housing is ‘pepper potted’ throughout
developments – in Mr Fry’s experience, people aren’t really
bothered about buying next door to rented property, whilst
‘the community is the richer because people have other people
nearby to service their needs’.
It was a pity that a chunk of the Hillyfields site had already
been sold off for a social housing ‘ghetto’ before C. G. Fry
acquired it; nonetheless, Mr Fry was ‘grabbed’ by the site -
‘I thought, “We can really do something with this”’. And so
they did, as our members generally agreed. Nicely timed, this
talk allowed for plenty of interesting questions with
well-considered answers that made a lot of sense.
Fran Pitt |
