Case Study: Hungerford, Berkshire

Hungerford is one of the two principle towns of the North Wessex Downs, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). It is a rural market town with a population of around 5500, and is well served by transport links.

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Need for the project

Hungerford is only now emerging as a tourist destination with its charming character and setting. However much could be done to increase footfall in the high street businesses, and to keep visitors in the area, rather than losing them to nearby towns.

Hungerford today has over 300 businesses in the area, most of which are small with a significant number of specialist retailers and service sector companies. The high street, while attractive with a variety of independent local businesses, is struggling, and this affects the environment of the town centre.

This project has two aims;

Provide information and enticement for the visitor to make best use of Hungerford’s specialised and distinctive retail, food and drink, and accommodation outlets.

Promote Hungerford as a base for exploring the surrounding area, by providing information and thereby enticement to visitors to stay longer and make a greater contribution to the local economy.

Planning the Project

Hungerford has embarked on the 2010+ plan which will provide the visions and actions for the future. This process has grown from the Market Towns Healthcheck and has included a great deal of consultation with the varied groups within the community. Actions under several headings have been defined which when completed will ensure Hungerford a future as a sustainable, vibrant market town.

In the autumn of 2005, Hidden Britain attended a meeting of the 2010+ Partnership to explain how they could assist in achieving the tourism objectives of the 2010+ plan.

A small working group was established and comprised members with a wide variety of skills and knowledge:

The group worked to plan the project and prepare a funding bid to the Rural Enterprise Scheme through Defra for funds to allow the project to be implemented. In January of 2006 Defra kindly agreed a grant of £19000 to the Chamber of Commerce for undertaking the project.

Project Outputs :

Create a Hungerford "in and around" leaflet that will illustrate the facilities and services available both within the town, but also whilst using the town as a base.

Provide maps of the town, indicating the location of local businesses, food and drink providers, accommodations and attractions.

Implementing the Project

In order to proceed with the project meetings were held to discuss and determine the format and location for the maps and leaflets. All of the content was sourced locally through volunteers and the project group who freely gave of their time to the project. They provided information, contributed illustrative material for the leaflets, tested walks, wrote copy, and took editorial decisions.

The map boards were installed at key points around the town; the main car-parks, the train station, under the bridge in the centre of the high street, and on Charnham Street to catch the through traffic.

The maps were drawn by Susanne Asman, a local artist and the leaflets themselves were professionally designed and printed by David Zeke of Zeke Design, a Hungerford based company. The Map boards were produced and installed by Digital factory.

The leaflets are now being distributed widely in order to encourage more visitors to find out more about Hungerford and its surrounding area.

Local Benefits:

The outcomes of this project will provide benefit across the designated area, for both communities and rural businesses by providing a source of economic regeneration, and capacity building allowing growth and sustainability for the future.

The main benefit to businesses will be to increase revenue; however local businesses will also have a greater advantage in terms of promotion to potential visitors. The maps will be highly visible for anyone within Hungerford, as are the leaflets which are be freely available for many local outlets. This is complemented by the Hungerford website and the publicity surrounding the project which will reach potential visitors outside the local area. The walks on the leaflet will in addition take visitors out to the businesses that maybe would not normally be on the tourist trail. Overall this should help maintain and generate sustainable, long-term businesses.

“The last three months have been the busiest ever, with a pronounced increase in both UK and Overseas visitors. Being a relatively small operation we aim to engage all our visitors in conversation and have been asking them how they came to be in Hungerford. The town map and website are the two main sources; keep up the good work...”
(Robert Johnson – The Gentleman’s Shop Hungerford)

Although benefits have in the main been to local tourism and retail businesses, however there have also been community benefits such as; an increased sense of cohesion within Hungerford, and a renewed sense of local pride and confidence.