Port Sunlight has a glorious past as the model village soap king William Hesketh Lever created for his workers – so how do you plan for the future?
That question is one Port Sunlight Village Trust, the charitable trust responsible for preserving and promoting the village, has been wrestling with since the arrival of a new chief executive three years ago.
And as Wirral’s world famous village celebrates its 130th birthday, it is about to unveil a vision for its next five years and beyond.
It follows a year of talking with Port Sunlight’s 2,065 residents, visitors and organisations like National Museums Liverpool and Unilever about what the village needs and the challenges it is facing.
In a nutshell, Port Sunlight needs to preserve its heritage but find a way to stay relevant to 21st century life.
A key issue for the Trust is how to attract more families to the village – the people who live here tend to be older, and while there are many young couples, currently just 10% of residents have children of school age.
One likely reason for this is the size of its houses, which were not built for modern day dreams of open plan living and kitchen diners.
Port Sunlight became a conservation area in 1978, so those in need of more space can’t extend their homes and usually end up selling up.
The Trust, which was set up by Unilever in 1999 but is independent, runs Port Sunlight Museum and cares for all of the village’s parks, gardens, monuments and memorials as well as the majority of public buildings and nearly a third of the houses.
Chief executive Paul Harris says looking to the future is both an exciting challenge but a huge responsibility, with the need to balance the Trust’s role as Port Sunlight’s protector with ensuring it is a place people want to live, work and visit now and in years to come.
As he puts it: “It’s about respecting the history and heritage of Port Sunlight but putting it in a modern context.”
How to attract different visitors into the village and keep them coming back is another question being posed.
* See how Port Sunlight is a star of the big screen
Although numbers aren’t a problem, with 300,000 people coming in each year, they also tend to be older and consultation has revealed some see no reason to return once they’ve seen the village for themselves.
One possible solution is creating a flagship museum for Port Sunlight, working with organisations like Unilever and National Museums Liverpool, which runs Lady Lever Art Gallery.
Whether the village has the right services for the people who live and visit is something else that’s being explored – there is no village shop, for example, so does Port Sunlight need one and do residents want something like this?
Full details of the five-year plan will be revealed in June.
Here, the ECHO looks at what the future could hold for Port Sunlight:
What and where is Port Sunlight?
Port Sunlight is world famous and was founded by William Hesketh Lever in 1888.
It was built to house Lever’s “Sunlight Soap” factory workers – which eventually became Unilever – and is now home to more than 2,000 people as well as a museum, art gallery and parkland.
The village has 1,100 homes, among them 900 Grade II listed buildings created by more than 30 different architects, all set in 130 acres of gardens.
Lever said the creation of Port Sunlight was part of a business model he termed “prosperity-sharing”. Rather than profit sharing, he provided workers with decent and affordable houses, amenities and welfare provisions that made their lives secure and comfortable and enabled them to flourish.
It was also intended to inspire loyalty and commitment.
What is Port Sunlight Village Trust?
The trust was established by Unilever in 1999 as a registered charity, with the aim of becoming financially self-sustaining, and now has a turnover of £3.5million.
The Trust has six trustees, 50 staff and 70 volunteers and is a private landlord, with 292 residential properties and eight commercial and community buildings.
Why is 2018 so important for Port Sunlight?
This year is being seen as a “pivotal moment” in the evolution of Port Sunlight, which is celebrating its 130th birthday throughout 2018.
A grant from Unilever to be given until the Trust was sustainable in its own right has come to an end, and after a year-long consultation with residents and visitors, it is preparing a strategic plan for the next five years, along with a ten year conservation management plan.
It is exploring an application for World Heritage status, and has been working with other model villages across the country and abroad to establish a “model village network” to share expertise and ideas.
Landscape staff will also be going to the Tatton show this summer with a garden celebrating 130 years of the village.
What are the main challenges facing Port Sunlight?
The erosion of heritage over time is something the Trust has to manage and the cost of maintenance, alongside a shortage of heritage skills.
It also needs to manage the impact of commercial activity while keeping the village relevant – and adapt it – to 21st Century living.
It has an ageing demographic of both residents and visitors and a relatively small historical collection on show, and visitors expect to see more.
The Trust says it will have to adopt a new approach to commercial activity and fundraising but it is in a good position to look to the future.
It points out Port Sunlight has a unique heritage of international significance and remains a real, living community as well as a major visitor attraction.
It says it has a sustainable business model and there is genuine fundraising potential.
It is hoped Port Sunlight can support the regeneration plan for New Ferry, and Unilever remains a presence in the village.
What has been happening behind the scenes?
Port Sunlight Village Trust’s full five-year plan will be revealed in June, but it has been working on ideas for enhanced services for residents, visitors and staff alike.
One proposal could see a “flagship” museum for Port Sunlight created, working alongside stakeholders like Unilever and National Museums Liverpool.
Paul Harris, chief executive of Port Sunlight Village Trust, said: “Unilever still have a major stake in the village and they are a major partner.
“Their grant was always going to come to and end and we needed to think about getting ready for the future.
“We are financially sustainable but we had to think about new income streams coming in.
“Over the last 12 months we have embarked on getting a good understanding of what our key stakeholders felt about the village and we did research about who comes into Port Sunlight - and why they come in.
“We wanted to find out what our residents think is good about the village and what is missing, and we got some really fantastic information.”
Kath Lynch, director of heritage, added: “Fundamentally, our vision is to make Port Sunlight an inspiring place to be.
“We are guardians of the village and we want to work with the community and make it a great place to live, work and visit and celebrate Lever’s story and his enduring legacy.
“The Conservation Area and the preservation of it is ultimately our responsibility.
“People say ‘I don’t need to visit Port Sunlight because it doesn’t change’ - in a way that’s good because we don’t want to lose our heritage!
“It’s finding that balance between how we preserve the heritage and transform the village into a destination that can be more relevant to younger people and to 21st Century living.”
Who lives in a village like Port Sunlight?
A household survey found that mainly older people live in Port Sunlight - and the same is true of visitors.
Kath said: “Port Sunlight clearly appeals to a particular age market.
“Lever was very modern in his approach and felt strongly about the benefits of a balanced community. We have to look at how we can use some of that thinking and the heritage to draw in younger people and different groups and accommodate families.
“We have quite a lot of young couples living here but once they have their first child, the houses are quite small and because they can’t expand them they generally move out of the village, which is a real shame.
“Less than ten per cent of households have a child of school age - and Lever always said the community should be a diverse one.”
The issue of age isn’t new for the village, but it’s something the Trust wants to look closely at.
Whatever their age, one thing Port Sunlight’s visitors have in common is that they are curious about what it’s like to live in a model village.
Paul said: “Our visitors have been keen to see inside the houses so we created a worker’s cottage and opened that up as part of an experience to give a flavour of what it was like to live here 130 years ago. That’s gone down really well.”
Kath added: “It’s come back time and time again in our visitor research. Some people will have memories of when their grandparents lived here and it’s created this lovely intergenerational conversation.”
How can the village bring more money in - and do people need more places to spend their cash?
The Trust’s research identified a need for more retail in the village – and things like a general store, which the village itself currently doesn’t have.
Visitors, too, want to spend money but can’t always find what they’re looking for.
Kath said: “It’s hard to spend money in Port Sunlight as a visitor. Saltaire has beautiful shops in the old warehouses so if you love arts, crafts and clothes you can have a field day there, but you can’t do that here.
“There is a massive gap in terms of those really bespoke Port Sunlight souvenirs that people want to take away, and there is a great opportunity to develop a creative network.
“There isn’t an evening culture here. We have got these amazing spaces within the village and we want them to be used to their full potential for events that are appropriate to Port Sunlight.”
One example of a successful event that brings new visitors into Port Sunlight is the annual Port Sunlight road race, organised by BTR Liverpool and supported by Unilever.
The village remains a popular destination for tour groups, with many coming from cruise ships docking in Liverpool.
Location filming also inspires people to visit – scenes from Peaky Blinders were shot here and presenter Michael Buerk has been in the village filming part of a new documentary series on the Victorians.
Kath said: “The groups market is incredibly important to us. We are treated as a Liverpool and Chester attraction as well as Wirral and we are very fortunate that we are between those two cities.”
What about homes?
The Trust has planning permission for new family properties on land on Wharf Street.
One suggestion is that more family housing could be created on the periphery of Port Sunlight, tied into the regeneration of New Ferry following last year’s explosion.
Paul said: “There is a tangible divide and it may be an opportunity to bring those communities working closely together.”
The Trust is a private sector landlord for 298 properties in Port Sunlight but with its role overseeing the whole village, it has to work with the owners of the remaining homes to ensure they stay in good condition.
Kath said: “We are reviewing the condition of the heritage and broadly speaking, it’s not in a bad state.
“Another issue for us is that we don’t own the whole thing, so it’s how to support the different owners to do their part.
“Forty per cent of people live on their own in Port Sunlight and we want to think how we can support them.”
Developing Port Sunlight’s community spirit
Many residents surveyed were happy with village life - but others said Port Sunlight needed more community spirit.
Kath said: “The feedback was mixed and each street has a different feel to it. Some do already have that community spirit but it depends on who lives there and the nature of the properties.
“We now have a dedicated community hub in the village and what we want to do is encourage the residents to create their own programmes and events to support each other.”
What will happen next?
The full five-year plan for Port Sunlight will be announced in June, but Trust chief executive Paul Harris says consultation will continue.
He said: “We need to move at pace but with caution. We are ambitious but we are mindful that it needs to be measured.
“We have been painstakingly clear that we need to take the whole of the village with us.
“We have got clarity around what all our residents and key stakeholders are telling us and now we can step forward – but it’s just the beginning.”
