Making Spaces for Community Development Pitchford

Making Spaces for Community Development Pitchford
download pdf
https://ebookultra.com/download/making-spaces-for-community-development-
pitchford/
Visit ebookultra.com today to download the complete set of
ebook or textbook!

We have selected some products that you may be interested in
Click the link to download now or visit ebookultra.com
for more options!.
The Community Development Reader 2nd Edition James
Defilippis
https://ebookultra.com/download/the-community-development-reader-2nd-
edition-james-defilippis/
Social Work and Community Development 1st Edition Deborah
Lynch
https://ebookultra.com/download/social-work-and-community-
development-1st-edition-deborah-lynch/
Sonic Spaces of the Karoo The Sacred Music of a South
African Coloured Community Marie Jorritsma
https://ebookultra.com/download/sonic-spaces-of-the-karoo-the-sacred-
music-of-a-south-african-coloured-community-marie-jorritsma/
Breaking the Development Log Jam New Strategies for
Building Community Support 1st Edition Douglas R. Porter
https://ebookultra.com/download/breaking-the-development-log-jam-new-
strategies-for-building-community-support-1st-edition-douglas-r-
porter/

Exercising influence a guide for making things happen at
work at home and in your community 3rd Edition Barnes
https://ebookultra.com/download/exercising-influence-a-guide-for-
making-things-happen-at-work-at-home-and-in-your-community-3rd-
edition-barnes/
Community Economic Development in Social Work 2nd Edition
Steven D. Soifer
https://ebookultra.com/download/community-economic-development-in-
social-work-2nd-edition-steven-d-soifer/
Community and Identity The Making of Modern Gibraltar
Since 1704 1st Edition Stephen Constantine
https://ebookultra.com/download/community-and-identity-the-making-of-
modern-gibraltar-since-1704-1st-edition-stephen-constantine/
Thriving in the Community College AND Beyond Strategies
for Academic Success and Personal Development Text 1st
Edition Cuseo Joe
https://ebookultra.com/download/thriving-in-the-community-college-and-
beyond-strategies-for-academic-success-and-personal-development-
text-1st-edition-cuseo-joe/
Population and Community Ecology of Ontogenetic
Development André M. De Roos
https://ebookultra.com/download/population-and-community-ecology-of-
ontogenetic-development-andre-m-de-roos/

Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Pitchford, Michael, with, Paul Henderson
ISBN(s): 9781847422606, 1847422608
Edition: Kindle
File Details: PDF, 3.96 MB
Year: 2008
Language: english

Making spaces
community
development
for
Michael Pitchford
with Paul Henderson

Making spaces
for community
development
Michael Pitchford
with Paul Henderson

This edition published in Great Britain in 2008 by
The Policy Press in association with the Community Development Foundation
University of Bristol
Fourth Floor
Beacon House
Queen’s Road
Bristol BS8 1QU
UK
Tel +44 (0)117 331 4054
Fax +44 (0)117 331 4093
e-mail tpp-info@bristol.ac.uk
www.policypress.org.uk
© The Policy Press 2008
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN 978 1 84742 259 0 paperback
The right of Michael Pitchford to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the 1988 Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act.
All rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of The Policy Press.
The statements and opinions contained within this publication are solely those
of the author and not of The University of Bristol, The Policy Press and The
Community Development Foundation. The University of Bristol, The Policy
Press and The Community Development Foundation disclaim responsibility for
any injury to persons or property resulting from any material published in this
publication.
The Policy Press works to counter discrimination on grounds of gender, race,
disability, age and sexuality.
Cover design by Qube Design Associates, Bristol
Front cover: image kindly supplied by www.alamy.com
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Hobbs the Printers, Southampton

iii
Contents
Foreword iv
Community Development Foundation (CDF) v
Acknowledgements vi
one Introduction 1
two Community development: historical overview 7
Paul Henderson
three A seat at the table? The changing context for community 17
development
four Can we do more? Assessing the purpose and role of 31
community development
five Achieving change: the rise of partnerships and their impact 55
on community development practice
six Who is it for? Accountability and community development 75
seven Where is community development today? 93
References 113
Appendix:The interviewees 117
Index 129

iv
Making spaces for community development
Foreword
Community development has a long and rich history and this publication
brings forth the experiences and insights of a group of experienced
practitioners with a wealth of knowledge and insights that will help
those of you who are practising community development today.The
book provides a useful historical context for community development,
the changing sponsors and focus for community development practice,
from the late 1960s until the present day. I was particularly interested
to read about the different approaches and tactics used by practitioners
to effect change and in part how these have evolved over the years.
At the heart of community development is the principle of learning
from practice and what better way to start than to reflect on the
experiences of those who have been there and done it over many
years.While the context for community development today is radically
different to that of the late 1970s, I can see within these descriptions
how many practice challenges are still topical:for example,the challenge
to ensure that the community development approach is given space and
time to realise the benefits for both communities and government.
The purpose of the publication is both to provide valuable insights,
as well as kick-start a debate within the community development field,
which we would like to work with our national partners to lead. In
terms of profile,community development has received greater attention
and focus in recent years.Nothing can be taken for granted,though,as
increasingly our communities experience rapid and often unexpected
change and community development practice has to be prepared and
equipped to continuously respond to this.What is most important is
that together with government and public sector agencies,community
development is able to empower communities to achieve the positive
changes they perceive as necessary.This book is a valuable contribution
and catalyst to what I hope will be both a national discussion combined
with local actions.
Alison Seabrooke
Chief Executive
Community Development Foundation

Community Development
Foundation (CDF)
CDF is the leading source of intelligence, guidance and delivery on
community development in England and across the UK.Our mission
is to lead community development analysis and strategy to empower
people to influence decisions that affect their lives.
CDF’s key aim is to spread ways of building engaged, cohesive and
stronger communities and a more effective community sector:
• by advising government and other bodies on community
development
• by analysing policy to identify good community development
practices
• by conducting research and evaluation
• by supporting community development work through networks,
links with practitioners and work with partner organisations
• by managing funding schemes for local projects
• through training, events publications and consultancy.
We work with government departments, regional and local public
agencies and community and voluntary sectors.We also operate at a
European and international level.We are a non-departmental public
body sponsored by Communities and Local Government (CLG) and a
charity registered in England and Wales and recognised in Scotland.
Community Development Foundation
Unit 5,Angel Gate
320–326 City Road
London EC1V 2PT
Registered Charity Number 306130
Tel: 020 7833 1772
Fax: 020 7837 6584
Email: admin@cdf.org.uk
Website: www.cdf.org.uk/

vi
Acknowledgements
I am indebted to many people who helped me from start to finish
with the publication, in particular, Mick Hamilton at Laings who was
willing to fund the initial idea. I want to thank all those individuals I
interviewed to whom I’m so grateful for their generosity of time and
patience with my questions. I learnt so much from listening to them
and I hope they recognise their insights and reflections in what follows.
Paul Henderson and Catriona May have been a continual support
throughout; the publication would not have happened in the form
it has without them.Alison Gilchrist, Marj Mayo, Beth Longstaff, Sal
Hampson and Jill Bedford were kind enough to act as readers providing
valuable and considerate feedback. Other friends and colleagues who
have guided me to a clearer understanding include Melanie Bowles,
Cara Macdowall,Jayne Humm,Jenny Fisher,Lesley Graham and Mae
Shaw.
Last but far from least a huge gratitude to Sacramenta Rodrigues
and John Stone for the endless administrative support they provide
me with which allows me the luxury to wander off and interview
practitioners from the past.To all those who’ve helped,challenged and
argued – thank you.

one
Introduction
When I started in my first job as a community development practitioner,
I assumed that community development was in its infancy,a completely
new way of working. I was consumed by what was happening at the
time,primarily what funding was available for the next project we had
up our sleeve.Theory did not really figure in my work and in many ways
we discovered for ourselves through trial and many errors,what others
had already learnt a long time ago.We rolled up our sleeves, got stuck
in and placed an emphasis on learning from those we worked with.
It was not until the project I worked within recruited an older
worker with a community development background that it began to
dawn on me that while our work was proving successful, it was not
necessarily ground-breaking and perhaps we could be achieving much
more. In her gentle and understated way, not to offend my sense of
self-importance, this worker showed me how much of what we were
doing had been done by her and many others back in the 1960s and
1970s.What obstacles had they faced? What paths did they take and
what did they learn? Slowly a light turned on and I became intrigued
at the thought of learning from those who had been working within
communities for many years and relating this to my current practice.
There is no learning like learning from your own mistakes but what
a wonderful resource there is in those who have been practising for
many years.
Thus began the idea of interviewing experienced community
development practitioners to extract their learning, experiences and
insights and to relate these to present-day practice and contexts.What
light, if any, could these reflections shed on current opportunities,
dilemmas and tensions within community development?
What follows is an account of the key changes to the context and
practice of community development since the 1970s, told through
the experiences and insights of a group of highly experienced
practitioners.The book is intended for those practising and interested in
practising community development today,and is aimed at encouraging
practitioners to think and reflect on their work.Ideally,it will contribute
and in some cases kick-start debate within the field of community
development.The book is not a history of community development,
nor is it an attempt to analyse community development theory.It asks

questions rather than gives answers and provides an opportunity to
listen to the insights from previous practice and judge for ourselves if
these contributions have something to tell us today.
First, a few words about how interviewees were identified.As with
community development,it was largely common sense:advertisements
in community development magazines, use of networks and key
contacts and direct approaches to individuals whose names were
recommended.The emphasis within our search was to focus on those
with approximately 20-25 years of experience or more, and to ensure
that each interviewee would be able to reflect back critically on their
experiences.Thirty-three community development practitioners were
identified with great depth and variety of experiences, and many had
over 25 years of experience.
Those interviewed do not equally represent gender and ethnicity
– 36% female interviewees and 18% black practitioners.We made use
of black networks and tried to identify practitioners through black
professionals in other fields, but were unable to identify any more
practitioners from this earlier period.It was suggested that in the 1970s
there were few black practitioners and most were involved as activists.
What follows needs to be read in the light of this imbalance.
The combined experience of those practitioners interviewed
totals over 800 years of practice from the late 1960s through to the
present day. Experiences range across areas of play-work and youth
through to the environment, community enterprise, ‘race’ equality,
immigration and housing.Interviewees were evenly balanced between
statutory and voluntary sector experiences and were spread around
the country with two interviewees describing their work in Wales
and three interviewees talking in the context of Scotland; we were
unable to identify practitioners from Northern Ireland.The bulk of
the experiences drawn on are from the perspective of neighbourhood-
based community development, in which the worker had a generic
role across a range of issues that today would be themed into the likes
of housing, equalities, capacity building, training and so on.
While experiences and insights differed widely,each interviewee was
keen not to appear nostalgic. If what follows reads as rose-tinted then
that is my responsibility, as interviewees were trying to draw out their
learning rather than harking back to what it used to be like.I was struck
by the interest shown by interviewees and their generosity of time in
being interviewed,for which I am extremely grateful.Each interview
was packed with learning as I listened to different experiences and was
left feeling both privileged yet panicked at the thought of having to
recount these insights.The interviews gave voice to a diverse range of

Introduction
views from community organising and grass-roots action through to
community development in the context of partnerships and service
delivery.While I have not quoted from every interview, each one has
influenced both myself and the points made in the book. I have not
tried to take sides where views have differed, but simply tried to look
at what is being said and its relevance in the light of practice today.
The book has six chapters. In Chapter Two, Paul Henderson
provides a brief historical overview of community development over
the past 40 years to act as a ‘backcloth’ for the experiences of the
practitioners interviewed.Beginning in the 1960s with the dominance
of social work and the appointment for the first time of community
development officers within local authority social work departments,
the chapter moves through the radical campaigns of the 1970s and
the challenging reports from the community development projects
(CDPs). Community development in the 1980s suffered significant
cutbacks and there was a move away from social services departments
as the‘sponsor’of community development towards that of economic
development.This was developed further in the 1990s with the urban
regeneration programmes in which community development became
intertwined with the community involvement aspects of regeneration
programmes.Community development in the 21st century has gained
a higher prominence with a New Labour government that emphasised
the role of the‘community’in improving public services and promoting
local democracy, but has brought with it tensions around the lack of
a community voice, which is vital for community development work
to take place.
In Chapter Three, some of the key shifts in terms of the landscape
of community development are highlighted, in particular the change
from a confrontational approach to the model of partnership working
which predominates in all areas of regeneration and urban renewal.
Today, participation in the partnership model has brought with it a
greater recognition of the potential role of community development
in achieving policy objectives and thus the community development
workforce has grown substantially. Practitioners are now required to
be far more accountable for how they carry out their roles, although
this accountability is upwards to the funder or authority rather than
to the communities in question.The professionalisation of community
development poses challenges for today’s practitioners trying to
combine a passion for social change and justice with their day-to-day
practice.
In Chapter Four we begin to look at the fundamental questions of
what community development is and why we are doing it.The chapter

describes the differing aims of ‘well-being’ and relationships, and
social justice and equality, and discusses the tensions that have always
existed within community development between differing interests
and priorities. Community development today is focused very much
on the well-being agenda and in the context of persistent poverty and
rising inequalities we ask if community development can do more to
connect with anti-poverty initiatives and social justice, or would that
simply result in unfulfilled aspirations?
Chapter Five looks at the earlier confrontational approaches used by
practitioners and contrasts this with the shift towards practice within
a community planning framework.Within campaigning community
work during the 1970s, the purpose of the community development
role was to support local communities to challenge and make demands
on the local state.Pressure was viewed as the way to achieving change.
How do practitioners today go about achieving change and to what
extent are conflicts between the interests of communities and the state
avoided through a focus on ‘engagement’?
In Chapter Six we look at the fundamental issue of accountability
and its impact on community development practice and relationships
between practitioners and communities. Upward accountability has
increased considerably as part of the government’s overall approach
to driving up standards in public services. The resulting focus on
programme outputs and targets is skewing practice away from
empowerment and social change activity towards a greater emphasis
on service delivery.The process of community development has also
come under increasing pressure as the emphasis on short-term outputs
does not fit easily with the sustained,long-term nature of community
development. How have these changes impacted on the ability of
practitioners to develop trusting relationships within the communities
they work?Within the new policy context of neighbourhood decision
making what opportunities exist for practitioners and communities to
work together to exert greater influence and control within the setting
of local priorities?
In the final chapter, Chapter Seven, we assess where community
development is at today, try to identify the direction in which it is
travelling and extract the key points of learning from the practitioner
interviews as a way of guiding future discussions and decisions about
community development. Community development is increasingly
synonymous with engagement and involvement in order to meet
the government priorities of public service reform and increased
democratic participation.Sustained community development results in
increased community involvement but this should neither be its starting

Introduction
point nor its end.To what extent is community development in the
UK losing a sense of purpose and direction and becoming increasingly
disconnected from its origins in social change?
Opportunities do exist in the current environment for community
development to get back to what it does well, ensuring that
communities have real voice and influence in the issues affecting their
lives. In order to take advantage of these opportunities it requires that
the community development field clarifies its vision and purpose.
Community development must surely set goals for itself beyond the
policies and programmes of the current government and begin to plan
and organise itself in order to achieve these goals.The key message of
this publication is that a debate needs to start within the community
development field to review the current position and future directions
for community development, to ensure that communities receive the
support they need to achieve the changes they themselves identify.

two
Community development:
historical overview
Paul Henderson
A number of commentators have pointed to the mistake of assuming
that community development is a recent arrival on the professional,
social movement and social policy scenes,whether this was following the
election in 1997 of the first Blair government or the new horizons that
opened up for community development at the end of the 1960s.
The starting point of the history of community development is a
matter of debate; it certainly goes back more than 100 years. In the
following overview we have chosen to go back as far as 1968.This
is because our purpose is simply to provide a backcloth or ‘map’ for
the changing practice of community development,which is the focus
of the publication.The intention is to refer to the main signposts in
community development,not to weigh up or discuss all the twists and
turns that have been experienced.This overview is not designed to be
comprehensive. Nor does it expand on the different social policy and
political contexts. By keeping a focus on community development
we hope to give the reader the essential background required for the
book as a whole.
The danger of providing a narrative account is that the significance of
underlying themes and developments will be missed.The interviewees
referred to many of these.Three themes that have been particularly
important are as follows.
Auspices: throughout most of its history, community development has
turned to more powerful professions for support.It has needed a‘backer’
or sponsor that could organise funding, employment and training.
Community development has shifted from one sponsoring profession
to another.Being aware of this process is important because it helps to
explain why,at different points in time,community development took
a particular direction.We refer to the different periods,which inevitably
overlap with each other, in the course of the narrative.

Changing policy contexts:intertwined with the political imperatives,all of
which had major implications for community development throughout
the period, have been significant policy changes.A clear example was
the decision of the Callaghan government in 1976 to comply with the
economic requirements set out by the International Monetary Fund,
followed by stringent public expenditure cuts.We shall see that, on a
number of occasions,community development was forced to respond
to major policy changes.The booklet by Taylor and West (2001) and
the chapter by MarilynTaylor on the changing context of UK practice
(in Craig and Mayo, 1995) give a more expansive summary of this
dimension of community development.
Responding to new ideas: the theory and practice of community
development has been informed and influenced by new or re-fashioned
ideas during the period.It is,of course,very difficult to gauge the extent
of such processes.Community development,however,has always been
interested in debating ideas and it is reasonable to assume that,in their
different ways, they have been of critical importance.This is certainly
true of black and feminist thinking during the 1970s and 1980s.Current
ideas about civil society (Mayo,2005) and social capital (Putnam,2000)
are undoubtedly impacting on community development.
The 1960s
The hold that the social work profession obtained over community
development from the late 1960s stemmed from the thinking and
writing of people such as Murray Ross and EileenYounghusband.A
working group chaired byYounghusband conceptualised community
work as part of social work (Younghusband,1959).Prior to this,it had
been the education profession that had helped to support community
development, particularly through the development of community
associations and community centres (see Thomas, 1983).
The Seebohm Report (1968) set an operational framework for
community work to be located in a social work context and this led,a
year or two later,to community development officers being appointed
by the new social services departments (social work departments in
Scotland).1968 was the key year for community development:‘If there
was a “golden age” of community work it was the period from 1968
until the mid-to-late 1970s’ (Popple, 1995, p 15). 1968 saw both the
publication of influential reports and the emergence of government
funding for community development. Previously, projects such as
the North Kensington Family Study project in London had been

Community development
predominantly in the voluntary sector.The Gulbenkian Report (see
below) and the launch of the Urban Programme, the community
development projects (CDPs) – planned in 1968 but announced in 1969
– and theYoungVolunteer Force Foundation (YVFF) were the main
new drivers of community development.The Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation played a significant encouraging role. The study group
that produced the 1968 report (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation,
1968), and a larger group that published a further report a few years
later (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 1973), brought together key
individuals from the education and social work professions.
The Urban Programme proved to be a lifeline for many community
groups for over 20 years.It was launched by the government in response
to mounting anxieties about urban deprivation and the rediscovery
of poverty, coupled with concerns about immigration and ‘race’.The
CDPs,which ran in 12 localities until 1977,exerted a strong influence
on the community development profession at the time and later,
because of their success in disseminating strong messages, based on
evidence from most of the projects, about the causes of deprivation.
YVFF was set up with the support of the three main political parties
as part of the government’s response to civil unrest.
The setting up of the Association of Community Workers (ACW)
in 1968, preceded only two years earlier by the establishment of the
Community Development Journal, was further evidence of community
development having taken a quantum leap forward at this time.
Two other reports gave an indication of the potential breadth of the
profession: the Skeffington Report (1969) was aimed at planners and
argued for the importance of public participation; and the Fairbairn-
Milson Report (1969), reflecting the youth service’s increased
commitment to outreach and detached work, set youth work within
the context of community development.
The 1970s
From the early 1970s, community development entered a phase of
increased militancy.At a professional level this was reflected in the hard-
hitting CDP reports giving a structural analysis of deprivation.At the
grass-roots level,however,much of the action revolved around welfare
rights campaigns and the organisations of tenants and residents on
housing issues,particularly rent increases and anger at empty properties
– action on the latter issue was led by the squatting movement.
At the same time community development expanded within the
social work context,not only through the appointment of community

10
development workers but also through the development of community
social work: patch-based social work teams that set out to respond to
community issues as well as individuals’ problems.This development
was discussed positively in the Barclay Report (1982). It was also at
this time that the large childcare voluntary organisations such as The
Children’s Society and Barnardo’s strengthened their use of community
development principles and methods, especially when linked with
family centres.
The foundations for the building of a strong basis for community
development in Scotland were laid during the 1970s. One of the
recommendations of the Alexander Report (1975) was that adult
educators should adopt a community development approach and
local authority education departments became the major employer of
community development/community education workers.In addition,
Strathclyde Regional Council, at the time the largest authority in
the UK, placed community development at the centre of its anti-
deprivation strategy.
As the decade advanced, feminist and black perspectives became
increasingly significant influences on community development.On the
one hand, they provided a new perspective on CDP’s radical analysis
of community development;on the other,they stimulated the growth
of local action groups as well as groups and networks which shared a
common interest or identity.The development of community health
projects owed much to the influence of feminist thinking.
Unemployment became a dominant issue at the end of the 1970s
and programmes launched by the government’s Manpower Services
Commission offered new, albeit controversial, opportunities for
employing community development workers.There were wide-ranging
debates within the community development profession on future
scenarios for funding,training and employing community development
workers,captured at a national conference organised by theACW and
the National Institute for SocialWork in 1979, the same year that saw
the election of the Thatcher government.
The 1980s
This decade is usually characterised as when community development,
because of wide-ranging public expenditure cuts,was forced to defend
itself. It was also the period when community development began
to move towards economic development as its source of support. By
the end of the decade the toehold that community development had
secured in the social work sector was slipping away.

11
The radical,market-oriented changes introduced by the Conservative
government threatened to leave community development in a state of
confusion.This was compounded by the effects of economic recession
towards the end of the decade. Yet government initiatives such as
the Community Programme created community work posts and in
both the statutory and voluntary sectors community work jobs were
still being advertised.The Church Urban Fund, for example, set up
following the Faith in the city report (Archbishop’s Commission on
Urban Priority Areas, 1985), provided job opportunities for church-
based workers.
In 1983 the first national survey of community workers had shown
there to be a total of 5,365 employed workers (Francis et al,1984),and
there is no evidence that this figure dropped significantly by the end
of the decade.There was, undoubtedly, a sense of unease as well as an
awareness of the difficulty of responding effectively to challenges such
as those posed by riots in inner cities and by the future of coalfield
communities following the miners’ strike of 1984-85.
It was perhaps significant,therefore,that steps were taken towards the
end of the 1980s to set up an umbrella organisation for community
development,leading to the establishment of the Standing Conference
for Community Development (later the Community Development
Exchange or CDX) in 1991. The Federation of Community Work
Training Groups (later the Federation for Community Development
Learning or FCDL) was set up in 1982.A few years later the remit of the
Community Projects Foundation (later the Community Development
Foundation or CDF) was changed from that of being a fieldwork
management organisation (the role it had played since it was launched
as the YVFF) to being a support and dissemination organisation for
community development.Thus the community development profession
was getting itself better prepared both to see itself through difficult
times and to respond effectively in expansionary periods.
The 1990s
The introduction of the government’s City Challenge programme in
the early 1990s began the process of drawing community development
into the sphere of urban regeneration.This was partly because City
Challenge, and subsequent programmes, required that there be
community involvement and partly because regeneration was where
the key policy making was taking place.There was a commitment to
area-based approaches and capacity building.The various ‘rounds’ of
the Single Regeneration Budget in England put increasing emphasis

12
on community involvement, as did similar programmes in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland.These were the precursors of the New
Deal for Communities and social inclusion programmes that were
launched later.
The window of opportunity for community development became
much more substantial following the election of the first Blair
government in 1997. It should be noted, however, that important
building blocks for community development were put in place earlier
in the decade:
• CDF’s new remit resulted in it developing policy-related research.
A particularly important outcome of this was documentation of the
community sector as a major component of the voluntary sector
rather than as a small appendage to it (Chanan, 1992).
• In Northern Ireland, a major review of community development
undertaken at the beginning of the decade led to a significant growth
in the recognition of community development.
• In Scotland,the setting up of the Scottish Community Development
Centre (a partnership between CDF and the University of Glasgow)
in 1994 was of equal significance.
• In England,community development in local authorities was given a
fillip by the publication of reports by theAssociation of Metropolitan
Authorities (1989, 1993).
• Even community development in rural areas,for so long only a blip
on the community development screen, began to expand.
• Europe had also started to figure in community development. It
had been a source of funding for projects for a number of years,
and the various Poverty Programmes had helped give community
development a higher profile. In 1991 community development
organisations from 11 countries formed the Combined European
Bureau for Social Development, a support and dissemination
network that continues today.
2000-08
Positive responses to CDX’s Strategic framework for community development
(2001) and the trends identified by the second UK-wide survey of
community development workers undertaken in 2002-03 suggest that
by the beginning of the new millennium community development
was in an expansionary phase. CDX’s strategic framework was widely
welcomed because it set out clear community development principles
and values. The survey provided a much-needed insight into the

13
nature of the profession, drawing attention in particular to the lack of
training and job stability as well as to the increased requirement for
community development workers to support partnership working
(Glen et al, 2004).
While some would say that community development has achieved
increased recognition by becoming too dependent on government
policies and funding, others would argue that it reflects the maturing
of community development and a preparedness to work for change
strategically. Certainly professional community development has
strengthened its position in relation to government. This reflects
the latter’s insistence that community involvement or community
engagement must form a key part of all regeneration, social inclusion
and health improvement programmes. There have, therefore, been
many opportunities for community development organisations to
contribute to and influence the themes of community involvement
and community engagement within government policy making.Work
undertaken in 2003-04 on a framework for community capacity
building made strong links with community development (Home
Office,2004).So too did the government’s response to the riots in three
northern towns in 2001: increasingly, community development was
seen to be of crucial importance for the effectiveness of community
cohesion programmes.
In 2005 CDF was commissioned by the Department for Communities
and Local Government (DCLG,which became CLG in 2006) to assess
the strengths and weaknesses of the community development profession
and put forward proposals for strengthening the role it could play.The
report, The community development challenge, provides an important
benchmark for community development because it signals the extent
to which community development, working alongside government,
is presented now with enormous potential as well as pitfalls (CDF et
al, 2006). Follow-up reports being published by CDF in 2008 on the
management,governance,strategic and evaluation implications of The
community development challenge are evidence of the significance being
attached to the latter’s ideas (see Bowles,2008;Miller,2008;Longstaff,
2008a, 2008b).
Five other developments or themes that stand out during the 2000-
08 period are:
• A continuing emphasis on partnership working, not only between
statutory,voluntary and community organisations but also between
agencies which are working for empowerment – the National
Empowerment Partnership, for example, is a programme which

Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:

showing much sensitiveness, and one could be sure that her faults
would not lie on the side of bad temper unless for urgent reasons.
Well, they discussed their state as became them, and the desire of
the young couple to gain the goodwill of those upon whom they
were literally dependent for everything induced them to agree to any
temporizing measure that was not too irksome. Therefore, having
been nearly two months united, they did not oppose Sir John's
proposal that he should furnish Edmond Willowes with funds
sufficient for him to travel a year on the Continent in the company of
a tutor, the young man undertaking to lend himself with the utmost
diligence to the tutor's instructions, till he became polished
outwardly and inwardly to the degree required in the husband of
such a lady as Barbara. He was to apply himself to the study of
languages, manners, history, society, ruins, and everything else that
came under his eyes, till he should return to take his place without
blushing by Barbara's side.
'And by that time,' said worthy Sir John, 'I'll get my little place out
at Yewsholt ready for you and Barbara to occupy on your return. The
house is small and out of the way; but it will do for a young couple
for a while.'
'If 'twere no bigger than a summer-house it would do!' says
Barbara.
'If 'twere no bigger than a sedan-chair!' says Willowes. 'And the
more lonely the better.'
'We can put up with the loneliness,' said Barbara, with less zest.
'Some friends will come, no doubt.'
All this being laid down, a travelled tutor was called in-a man of
many gifts and great experience,-and on a fine morning away tutor
and pupil went. A great reason urged against Barbara accompanying
her youthful husband was that his attentions to her would naturally
be such as to prevent his zealously applying every hour of his time
to learning and seeing-an argument of wise prescience, and
unanswerable. Regular days for letter-writing were fixed, Barbara

and her Edmond exchanged their last kisses at the door, and the
chaise swept under the archway into the drive.
He wrote to her from Le Havre, as soon as he reached that port,
which was not for seven days, on account of adverse winds; he
wrote from Rouen, and from Paris; described to her his sight of the
King and Court at Versailles, and the wonderful marble-work and
mirrors in that palace; wrote next from Lyons; then, after a
comparatively long interval, from Turin, narrating his fearful
adventures in crossing Mont Cenis on mules, and how he was
overtaken with a terrific snowstorm, which had well-nigh been the
end of him, and his tutor, and his guides. Then he wrote glowingly of
Italy; and Barbara could see the development of her husband's mind
reflected in his letters month by month; and she much admired the
forethought of her father in suggesting this education for Edmond.
Yet she sighed sometimes-her husband being no longer in evidence
to fortify her in her choice of him-and timidly dreaded what
mortifications might be in store for her by reason of this mesalliance.
She went out very little; for on the one or two occasions on which
she had shown herself to former friends she noticed a distinct
difference in their manner, as though they should say, 'Ah, my happy
swain's wife; you're caught!'
Edmond's letters were as affectionate as ever; even more
affectionate, after a while, than hers were to him. Barbara observed
this growing coolness in herself; and like a good and honest lady
was horrified and grieved, since her only wish was to act faithfully
and uprightly. It troubled her so much that she prayed for a warmer
heart, and at last wrote to her husband to beg him, now that he was
in the land of Art, to send her his portrait, ever so small, that she
might look at it all day and every day, and never for a moment
forget his features.
Willowes was nothing loth, and replied that he would do more
than she wished: he had made friends with a sculptor in Pisa, who
was much interested in him and his history; and he had
commissioned this artist to make a bust of himself in marble, which
when finished he would send her. What Barbara had wanted was

something immediate; but she expressed no objection to the delay;
and in his next communication Edmund told her that the sculptor, of
his own choice, had decided to increase the bust to a full-length
statue, so anxious was he to get a specimen of his skill introduced to
the notice of the English aristocracy. It was progressing well, and
rapidly.
Meanwhile, Barbara's attention began to be occupied at home with
Yewsholt Lodge, the house that her kind-hearted father was
preparing for her residence when her husband returned. It was a
small place on the plan of a large one-a cottage built in the form of a
mansion, having a central hall with a wooden gallery running round
it, and rooms no bigger than closets to follow this introduction. It
stood on a slope so solitary, and surrounded by trees so dense, that
the birds who inhabited the boughs sang at strange hours, as if they
hardly could distinguish night from day.
During the progress of repairs at this bower Barbara frequently
visited it. Though so secluded by the dense growth, it was near the
high road, and one day while looking over the fence she saw Lord
Uplandtowers riding past. He saluted her courteously, yet with
mechanical stiffness, and did not halt. Barbara went home, and
continued to pray that she might never cease to love her husband.
After that she sickened, and did not come out of doors again for a
long time.
The year of education had extended to fourteen months, and the
house was in order for Edmond's return to take up his abode there
with Barbara, when, instead of the accustomed letter for her, came
one to Sir John Grebe in the handwriting of the said tutor, informing
him of a terrible catastrophe that had occurred to them at Venice. Mr
Willowes and himself had attended the theatre one night during the
Carnival of the preceding week, to witness the Italian comedy, when,
owing to the carelessness of one of the candle-snuffers, the theatre
had caught fire, and been burnt to the ground. Few persons had lost
their lives, owing to the superhuman exertions of some of the
audience in getting out the senseless sufferers; and, among them
all, he who had risked his own life the most heroically was Mr.

Willowes. In re-entering for the fifth time to save his fellow-creatures
some fiery beams had fallen upon him, and he had been given up
for lost. He was, however, by the blessing of Providence, recovered,
with the life still in him, though he was fearfully burnt; and by
almost a miracle he seemed likely to survive, his constitution being
wondrously sound. He was, of course, unable to write, but he was
receiving the attention of several skilful surgeons. Further report
would be made by the next mail or by private hand.
The tutor said nothing in detail of poor Willowes's sufferings, but
as soon as the news was broken to Barbara she realized how intense
they must have been, and her immediate instinct was to rush to his
side, though, on consideration, the journey seemed impossible to
her. Her health was by no means what it had been, and to post
across Europe at that season of the year, or to traverse the Bay of
Biscay in a sailing- craft, was an undertaking that would hardly be
justified by the result. But she was anxious to go till, on reading to
the end of the letter, her husband's tutor was found to hint very
strongly against such a step if it should be contemplated, this being
also the opinion of the surgeons. And though Willowes's comrade
refrained from giving his reasons, they disclosed themselves plainly
enough in the sequel.
The truth was that the worst of the wounds resulting from the fire
had occurred to his head and face-that handsome face which had
won her heart from her,-and both the tutor and the surgeons knew
that for a sensitive young woman to see him before his wounds had
healed would cause more misery to her by the shock than happiness
to him by her ministrations.
Lady Grebe blurted out what Sir John and Barbara had thought,
but had had too much delicacy to express.
'Sure, 'tis mighty hard for you, poor Barbara, that the one little gift
he had to justify your rash choice of him-his wonderful good looks-
should be taken away like this, to leave 'ee no excuse at all for your
conduct in the world's eyes . . . Well, I wish you'd married t'other-
that do I!' And the lady sighed.

'He'll soon get right again,' said her father soothingly.
Such remarks as the above were not often made; but they were
frequent enough to cause Barbara an uneasy sense of self-
stultification. She determined to hear them no longer; and the house
at Yewsholt being ready and furnished, she withdrew thither with
her maids, where for the first time she could feel mistress of a home
that would be hers and her husband's exclusively, when he came.
After long weeks Willowes had recovered sufficiently to be able to
write himself; and slowly and tenderly he enlightened her upon the
full extent of his injuries. It was a mercy, he said, that he had not
lost his sight entirely; but he was thankful to say that he still
retained full vision in one eye, though the other was dark for ever.
The sparing manner in which he meted out particulars of his
condition told Barbara how appalling had been his experience. He
was grateful for her assurance that nothing could change her; but
feared she did not fully realize that he was so sadly disfigured as to
make it doubtful if she would recognize him. However, in spite of all,
his heart was as true to her as it ever had been.
Barbara saw from his anxiety how much lay behind. She replied
that she submitted to the decrees of Fate, and would welcome him
in any shape as soon as he could come. She told him of the pretty
retreat in which she had taken up her abode, pending their joint
occupation of it, and did not reveal how much she had sighed over
the information that all his good looks were gone. Still less did she
say that she felt a certain strangeness in awaiting him, the weeks
they had lived together having been so short by comparison with the
length of his absence.
Slowly drew on the time when Willowes found himself well enough
to come home. He landed at Southampton, and posted thence
towards Yewsholt. Barbara arranged to go out to meet him as far as
Lornton Inn-the spot between the Forest and the Chase at which he
had waited for night on the evening of their elopement. Thither she
drove at the appointed hour in a little pony-chaise, presented her by
her father on her birthday for her especial use in her new house;
which vehicle she sent back on arriving at the inn, the plan agreed

upon being that she should perform the return journey with her
husband in his hired coach.
There was not much accommodation for a lady at this wayside
tavern; but, as it was a fine evening in early summer, she did not
mind-walking about outside, and straining her eyes along the
highway for the expected one. But each cloud of dust that enlarged
in the distance and drew near was found to disclose a conveyance
other than his post-chaise. Barbara remained till the appointment
was two hours passed, and then began to fear that owing to some
adverse wind in the Channel he was not coming that night.
While waiting she was conscious of a curious trepidation that was
not entirely solicitude, and did not amount to dread; her tense state
of incertitude bordered both on disappointment and on relief. She
had lived six or seven weeks with an imperfectly educated yet
handsome husband whom now she had not seen for seventeen
months, and who was so changed physically by an accident that she
was assured she would hardly know him. Can we wonder at her
compound state of mind?
But her immediate difficulty was to get away from Lornton Inn, for
her situation was becoming embarrassing. Like too many of
Barbara's actions, this drive had been undertaken without much
reflection. Expecting to wait no more than a few minutes for her
husband in his post-chaise, and to enter it with him, she had not
hesitated to isolate herself by sending back her own little vehicle.
She now found that, being so well known in this neighbourhood, her
excursion to meet her long-absent husband was exciting great
interest. She was conscious that more eyes were watching her from
the inn-windows than met her own gaze. Barbara had decided to get
home by hiring whatever kind of conveyance the tavern afforded,
when, straining her eyes for the last time over the now darkening
highway, she perceived yet another dust-cloud drawing near. She
paused; a chariot ascended to the inn, and would have passed had
not its occupant caught sight of her standing expectantly. The horses
were checked on the instant.

'You here-and alone, my dear Mrs. Willowes?' said Lord
Uplandtowers, whose carriage it was.
She explained what had brought her into this lonely situation; and,
as he was going in the direction of her own home, she accepted his
offer of a seat beside him. Their conversation was embarrassed and
fragmentary at first; but when they had driven a mile or two she
was surprised to find herself talking earnestly and warmly to him:
her impulsiveness was in truth but the natural consequence of her
late existence-a somewhat desolate one by reason of the strange
marriage she had made; and there is no more indiscreet mood than
that of a woman surprised into talk who has long been imposing
upon herself a policy of reserve. Therefore her ingenuous heart rose
with a bound into her throat when, in response to his leading
questions, or rather hints, she allowed her troubles to leak out of
her. Lord Uplandtowers took her quite to her own door, although he
had driven three miles out of his way to do so; and in handing her
down she heard from him a whisper of stern reproach: 'It need not
have been thus if you had listened to me!'
She made no reply, and went indoors. There, as the evening wore
away, she regretted more and more that she had been so friendly
with Lord Uplandtowers. But he had launched himself upon her so
unexpectedly: if she had only foreseen the meeting with him, what a
careful line of conduct she would have marked out! Barbara broke
into a perspiration of disquiet when she thought of her unreserve,
and, in self-chastisement, resolved to sit up till midnight on the bare
chance of Edmond's return; directing that supper should be laid for
him, improbable as his arrival till the morrow was.
The hours went past, and there was dead silence in and round
about Yewsholt Lodge, except for the soughing of the trees; till,
when it was near upon midnight, she heard the noise of hoofs and
wheels approaching the door. Knowing that it could only be her
husband, Barbara instantly went into the hall to meet him. Yet she
stood there not without a sensation of faintness, so many were the
changes since their parting! And, owing to her casual encounter with
Lord Uplandtowers, his voice and image still remained with her,

excluding Edmond, her husband, from the inner circle of her
impressions.
But she went to the door, and the next moment a figure stepped
inside, of which she knew the outline, but little besides. Her husband
was attired in a flapping black cloak and slouched hat, appearing
altogether as a foreigner, and not as the young English burgess who
had left her side. When he came forward into the light of the lamp,
she perceived with surprise, and almost with fright, that he wore a
mask. At first she had not noticed this-there being nothing in its
colour which would lead a casual observer to think he was looking
on anything but a real countenance.
He must have seen her start of dismay at the unexpectedness of
his appearance, for he said hastily: 'I did not mean to come in to you
like this-I thought you would have been in bed. How good you are,
dear Barbara!' He put his arm round her, but he did not attempt to
kiss her.
'O Edmond-it is you?-it must be?' she said, with clasped hands, for
though his figure and movement were almost enough to prove it,
and the tones were not unlike the old tones, the enunciation was so
altered as to seem that of a stranger.
'I am covered like this to hide myself from the curious eyes of the
inn- servants and others,' he said, in a low voice. 'I will send back
the carriage and join you in a moment.'
'You are quite alone?'
'Quite. My companion stopped at Southampton.'
The wheels of the post-chaise rolled away as she entered the
dining- room, where the supper was spread; and presently he
rejoined her there. He had removed his cloak and hat, but the mask
was still retained; and she could now see that it was of special
make, of some flexible material like silk, coloured so as to represent
flesh; it joined naturally to the front hair, and was otherwise cleverly
executed.
'Barbara-you look ill,' he said, removing his glove, and taking her
hand.

'Yes-I have been ill,' said she.
'Is this pretty little house ours?'
'O-yes.' She was hardly conscious of her words, for the hand he
had ungloved in order to take hers was contorted, and had one or
two of its fingers missing; while through the mask she discerned the
twinkle of one eye only.
'I would give anything to kiss you, dearest, now, at this moment!'
he continued, with mournful passionateness. 'But I cannot-in this
guise. The servants are abed, I suppose?'
'Yes,' said she. 'But I can call them? You will have some supper?'
He said he would have some, but that it was not necessary to call
anybody at that hour. Thereupon they approached the table, and sat
down, facing each other.
Despite Barbara's scared state of mind, it was forced upon her
notice that her husband trembled, as if he feared the impression he
was producing, or was about to produce, as much as, or more than,
she. He drew nearer, and took her hand again.
'I had this mask made at Venice,' he began, in evident
embarrassment. 'My darling Barbara-my dearest wife-do you think
you-will mind when I take it off? You will not dislike me-will you?'
'O Edmond, of course I shall not mind,' said she. 'What has
happened to you is our misfortune; but I am prepared for it.'
'Are you sure you are prepared?'
'O yes! You are my husband.'
'You really feel quite confident that nothing external can affect
you?' he said again, in a voice rendered uncertain by his agitation.
'I think I am-quite,' she answered faintly.
He bent his head. 'I hope, I hope you are,' he whispered.
In the pause which followed, the ticking of the clock in the hall
seemed to grow loud; and he turned a little aside to remove the
mask. She breathlessly awaited the operation, which was one of
some tediousness, watching him one moment, averting her face the
next; and when it was done she shut her eyes at the hideous

spectacle that was revealed. A quick spasm of horror had passed
through her; but though she quailed she forced herself to regard
him anew, repressing the cry that would naturally have escaped
from her ashy lips. Unable to look at him longer, Barbara sank down
on the floor beside her chair, covering her eyes.
'You cannot look at me!' he groaned in a hopeless way. 'I am too
terrible an object even for you to bear! I knew it; yet I hoped
against it. Oh, this is a bitter fate-curse the skill of those Venetian
surgeons who saved me alive! . . . Look up, Barbara,' he continued
beseechingly; 'view me completely; say you loathe me, if you do
loathe me, and settle the case between us for ever!'
His unhappy wife pulled herself together for a desperate strain. He
was her Edmond; he had done her no wrong; he had suffered. A
momentary devotion to him helped her, and lifting her eyes as
bidden she regarded this human remnant, this ecorche, a second
time. But the sight was too much. She again involuntarily looked
aside and shuddered.
'Do you think you can get used to this?' he said. 'Yes or no! Can
you bear such a thing of the charnel-house near you? Judge for
yourself; Barbara. Your Adonis, your matchless man, has come to
this!'
The poor lady stood beside him motionless, save for the
restlessness of her eyes. All her natural sentiments of affection and
pity were driven clean out of her by a sort of panic; she had just the
same sense of dismay and fearfulness that she would have had in
the presence of an apparition. She could nohow fancy this to be her
chosen one-the man she had loved; he was metamorphosed to a
specimen of another species. 'I do not loathe you,' she said with
trembling. 'But I am so horrified-so overcome! Let me recover
myself. Will you sup now? And while you do so may I go to my room
to-regain my old feeling for you? I will try, if I may leave you awhile?
Yes, I will try!'
Without waiting for an answer from him, and keeping her gaze
carefully averted, the frightened woman crept to the door and out of

the room. She heard him sit down to the table, as if to begin supper
though, Heaven knows, his appetite was slight enough after a
reception which had confirmed his worst surmises. When Barbara
had ascended the stairs and arrived in her chamber she sank down,
and buried her face in the coverlet of the bed.
Thus she remained for some time. The bed-chamber was over the
dining- room, and presently as she knelt Barbara heard Willowes
thrust back his chair, and rise to go into the hall. In five minutes that
figure would probably come up the stairs and confront her again; it,-
this new and terrible form, that was not her husband's. In the
loneliness of this night, with neither maid nor friend beside her, she
lost all self- control, and at the first sound of his footstep on the
stairs, without so much as flinging a cloak round her, she flew from
the room, ran along the gallery to the back staircase, which she
descended, and, unlocking the back door, let herself out. She
scarcely was aware what she had done till she found herself in the
greenhouse, crouching on a flower- stand.
Here she remained, her great timid eyes strained through the
glass upon the garden without, and her skirts gathered up, in fear of
the field- mice which sometimes came there. Every moment she
dreaded to hear footsteps which she ought by law to have longed
for, and a voice that should have been as music to her soul. But
Edmond Willowes came not that way. The nights were getting short
at this season, and soon the dawn appeared, and the first rays of
the sun. By daylight she had less fear than in the dark. She thought
she could meet him, and accustom herself to the spectacle.
So the much-tried young woman unfastened the door of the hot-
house, and went back by the way she had emerged a few hours
ago. Her poor husband was probably in bed and asleep, his journey
having been long; and she made as little noise as possible in her
entry. The house was just as she had left it, and she looked about in
the hall for his cloak and hat, but she could not see them; nor did
she perceive the small trunk which had been all that he brought with
him, his heavier baggage having been left at Southampton for the
road-waggon. She summoned courage to mount the stairs; the

bedroom-door was open as she had left it. She fearfully peeped
round; the bed had not been pressed. Perhaps he had lain down on
the dining-room sofa. She descended and entered; he was not there.
On the table beside his unsoiled plate lay a note, hastily written on
the leaf of a pocket-book. It was something like this:
'My ever-beloved Wife-The effect that my forbidding appearance
has produced upon you was one which I foresaw as quite possible. I
hoped against it, but foolishly so. I was aware that no human love
could survive such a catastrophe. I confess I thought yours divine;
but, after so long an absence, there could not be left sufficient
warmth to overcome the too natural first aversion. It was an
experiment, and it has failed. I do not blame you; perhaps, even, it
is better so. Good- bye. I leave England for one year. You will see me
again at the expiration of that time, if I live. Then I will ascertain
your true feeling; and, if it be against me, go away for ever. E. W.'
On recovering from her surprise, Barbara's remorse was such that
she felt herself absolutely unforgiveable. She should have regarded
him as an afflicted being, and not have been this slave to mere
eyesight, like a child. To follow him and entreat him to return was
her first thought. But on making inquiries she found that nobody had
seen him: he had silently disappeared.
More than this, to undo the scene of last night was impossible.
Her terror had been too plain, and he was a man unlikely to be
coaxed back by her efforts to do her duty. She went and confessed
to her parents all that had occurred; which, indeed, soon became
known to more persons than those of her own family.
The year passed, and he did not return; and it was doubted if he
were alive. Barbara's contrition for her unconquerable repugnance
was now such that she longed to build a church-aisle, or erect a
monument, and devote herself to deeds of charity for the remainder
of her days. To that end she made inquiry of the excellent parson
under whom she sat on Sundays, at a vertical distance of twenty
feet. But he could only adjust his wig and tap his snuff-box; for such
was the lukewarm state of religion in those days, that not an aisle,
steeple, porch, east window, Ten-Commandment board, lion-and-

unicorn, or brass candlestick, was required anywhere at all in the
neighbourhood as a votive offering from a distracted soul-the last
century contrasting greatly in this respect with the happy times in
which we live, when urgent appeals for contributions to such objects
pour in by every morning's post, and nearly all churches have been
made to look like new pennies. As the poor lady could not ease her
conscience this way, she determined at least to be charitable, and
soon had the satisfaction of finding her porch thronged every
morning by the raggedest, idlest, most drunken, hypocritical, and
worthless tramps in Christendom.
But human hearts are as prone to change as the leaves of the
creeper on the wall, and in the course of time, hearing nothing of
her husband, Barbara could sit unmoved whilst her mother and
friends said in her hearing, 'Well, what has happened is for the best.'
She began to think so herself; for even now she could not summon
up that lopped and mutilated form without a shiver, though
whenever her mind flew back to her early wedded days, and the
man who had stood beside her then, a thrill of tenderness moved
her, which if quickened by his living presence might have become
strong. She was young and inexperienced, and had hardly on his
late return grown out of the capricious fancies of girlhood.
But he did not come again, and when she thought of his word that
he would return once more, if living, and how unlikely he was to
break his word, she gave him up for dead. So did her parents; so
also did another person-that man of silence, of irresistible
incisiveness, of still countenance, who was as awake as seven
sentinels when he seemed to be as sound asleep as the figures on
his family monument. Lord Uplandtowers, though not yet thirty, had
chuckled like a caustic fogey of threescore when he heard of
Barbara's terror and flight at her husband's return, and of the latter's
prompt departure. He felt pretty sure, however, that Willowes,
despite his hurt feelings, would have reappeared to claim his bright-
eyed property if he had been alive at the end of the twelve months.
As there was no husband to live with her, Barbara had
relinquished the house prepared for them by her father, and taken

up her abode anew at Chene Manor, as in the days of her girlhood.
By degrees the episode with Edmond Willowes seemed but a fevered
dream, and as the months grew to years Lord Uplandtowers'
friendship with the people at Chene-which had somewhat cooled
after Barbara's elopement-revived considerably, and he again
became a frequent visitor there. He could not make the most trivial
alteration or improvement at Knollingwood Hall, where he lived,
without riding off to consult with his friend Sir John at Chene; and
thus putting himself frequently under her eyes, Barbara grew
accustomed to him, and talked to him as freely as to a brother. She
even began to look up to him as a person of authority, judgment,
and prudence; and though his severity on the bench towards
poachers, smugglers, and turnip-stealers was matter of common
notoriety, she trusted that much of what was said might be
misrepresentation.
Thus they lived on till her husband's absence had stretched to
years, and there could be no longer any doubt of his death. A
passionless manner of renewing his addresses seemed no longer out
of place in Lord Uplandtowers. Barbara did not love him, but hers
was essentially one of those sweet-pea or with-wind natures which
require a twig of stouter fibre than its own to hang upon and bloom.
Now, too, she was older, and admitted to herself that a man whose
ancestor had run scores of Saracens through and through in fighting
for the site of the Holy Sepulchre was a more desirable husband,
socially considered, than one who could only claim with certainty to
know that his father and grandfather were respectable burgesses.
Sir John took occasion to inform her that she might legally
consider herself a widow; and, in brief; Lord Uplandtowers carried
his point with her, and she married him, though he could never get
her to own that she loved him as she had loved Willowes. In my
childhood I knew an old lady whose mother saw the wedding, and
she said that when Lord and Lady Uplandtowers drove away from
her father's house in the evening it was in a coach-and-four, and
that my lady was dressed in green and silver, and wore the gayest
hat and feather that ever were seen; though whether it was that the

green did not suit her complexion, or otherwise, the Countess looked
pale, and the reverse of blooming. After their marriage her husband
took her to London, and she saw the gaieties of a season there;
then they returned to Knollingwood Hall, and thus a year passed
away.
Before their marriage her husband had seemed to care but little
about her inability to love him passionately. 'Only let me win you,' he
had said, 'and I will submit to all that.' But now her lack of warmth
seemed to irritate him, and he conducted himself towards her with a
resentfulness which led to her passing many hours with him in
painful silence. The heir-presumptive to the title was a remote
relative, whom Lord Uplandtowers did not exclude from the dislike
he entertained towards many persons and things besides, and he
had set his mind upon a lineal successor. He blamed her much that
there was no promise of this, and asked her what she was good for.
On a particular day in her gloomy life a letter, addressed to her as
Mrs. Willowes, reached Lady Uplandtowers from an unexpected
quarter. A sculptor in Pisa, knowing nothing of her second marriage,
informed her that the long-delayed life-size statue of Mr. Willowes,
which, when her husband left that city, he had been directed to
retain till it was sent for, was still in his studio. As his commission
had not wholly been paid, and the statue was taking up room he
could ill spare, he should be glad to have the debt cleared off, and
directions where to forward the figure. Arriving at a time when the
Countess was beginning to have little secrets (of a harmless kind, it
is true) from her husband, by reason of their growing estrangement,
she replied to this letter without saying a word to Lord
Uplandtowers, sending off the balance that was owing to the
sculptor, and telling him to despatch the statue to her without delay.
It was some weeks before it arrived at Knollingwood Hall, and, by
a singular coincidence, during the interval she received the first
absolutely conclusive tidings of her Edmond's death. It had taken
place years before, in a foreign land, about six months after their
parting, and had been induced by the sufferings he had already
undergone, coupled with much depression of spirit, which had

caused him to succumb to a slight ailment. The news was sent her
in a brief and formal letter from some relative of Willowes's in
another part of England.
Her grief took the form of passionate pity for his misfortunes, and
of reproach to herself for never having been able to conquer her
aversion to his latter image by recollection of what Nature had
originally made him. The sad spectacle that had gone from earth
had never been her Edmond at all to her. O that she could have met
him as he was at first! Thus Barbara thought. It was only a few days
later that a waggon with two horses, containing an immense
packing-case, was seen at breakfast- time both by Barbara and her
husband to drive round to the back of the house, and by-and-by
they were informed that a case labelled 'Sculpture' had arrived for
her ladyship.
'What can that be?' said Lord Uplandtowers.
'It is the statue of poor Edmond, which belongs to me, but has
never been sent till now,' she answered.
'Where are you going to put it?' asked he.
'I have not decided,' said the Countess. 'Anywhere, so that it will
not annoy you.'
'Oh, it won't annoy me,' says he.
When it had been unpacked in a back room of the house, they
went to examine it. The statue was a full-length figure, in the purest
Carrara marble, representing Edmond Willowes in all his original
beauty, as he had stood at parting from her when about to set out
on his travels; a specimen of manhood almost perfect in every line
and contour. The work had been carried out with absolute fidelity.
'Phoebus-Apollo, sure,' said the Earl of Uplandtowers, who had
never seen Willowes, real or represented, till now.
Barbara did not hear him. She was standing in a sort of trance
before the first husband, as if she had no consciousness of the other
husband at her side. The mutilated features of Willowes had
disappeared from her mind's eye; this perfect being was really the

man she had loved, and not that later pitiable figure; in whom love
and truth should have seen this image always, but had not done so.
It was not till Lord Uplandtowers said roughly, 'Are you going to
stay here all the morning worshipping him?' that she roused herself.
Her husband had not till now the least suspicion that Edmond
Willowes originally looked thus, and he thought how deep would
have been his jealousy years ago if Willowes had been known to
him. Returning to the Hall in the afternoon he found his wife in the
gallery, whither the statue had been brought.
She was lost in reverie before it, just as in the morning.
'What are you doing?' he asked.
She started and turned. 'I am looking at my husb—- my statue, to
see if it is well done,' she stammered. 'Why should I not?'
'There's no reason why,' he said. 'What are you going to do with
the monstrous thing? It can't stand here for ever.'
'I don't wish it,' she said. 'I'll find a place.'
In her boudoir there was a deep recess, and while the Earl was
absent from home for a few days in the following week, she hired
joiners from the village, who under her directions enclosed the
recess with a panelled door. Into the tabernacle thus formed she had
the statue placed, fastening the door with a lock, the key of which
she kept in her pocket.
When her husband returned he missed the statue from the gallery,
and, concluding that it had been put away out of deference to his
feelings, made no remark. Yet at moments he noticed something on
his lady's face which he had never noticed there before. He could
not construe it; it was a sort of silent ecstasy, a reserved
beatification. What had become of the statue he could not divine,
and growing more and more curious, looked about here and there
for it till, thinking of her private room, he went towards that spot.
After knocking he heard the shutting of a door, and the click of a
key; but when he entered his wife was sitting at work, on what was
in those days called knotting. Lord Uplandtowers' eye fell upon the
newly-painted door where the recess had formerly been.

'You have been carpentering in my absence then, Barbara,' he said
carelessly.
'Yes, Uplandtowers.'
'Why did you go putting up such a tasteless enclosure as that-
spoiling the handsome arch of the alcove?'
'I wanted more closet-room; and I thought that as this was my
own apartment-'
'Of course,' he returned. Lord Uplandtowers knew now where the
statue of young Willowes was.
One night, or rather in the smallest hours of the morning, he
missed the Countess from his side. Not being a man of nervous
imaginings he fell asleep again before he had much considered the
matter, and the next morning had forgotten the incident. But a few
nights later the same circumstances occurred. This time he fully
roused himself; but before he had moved to search for her, she
entered the chamber in her dressing- gown, carrying a candle, which
she extinguished as she approached, deeming him asleep. He could
discover from her breathing that she was strangely moved; but not
on this occasion either did he reveal that he had seen her. Presently,
when she had lain down, affecting to wake, he asked her some
trivial questions. 'Yes, Edmond,' she replied absently.
Lord Uplandtowers became convinced that she was in the habit of
leaving the chamber in this queer way more frequently than he had
observed, and he determined to watch. The next midnight he
feigned deep sleep, and shortly after perceived her stealthily rise
and let herself out of the room in the dark. He slipped on some
clothing and followed. At the farther end of the corridor, where the
clash of flint and steel would be out of the hearing of one in the
bed-chamber, she struck a light. He stepped aside into an empty
room till she had lit a taper and had passed on to her boudoir. In a
minute or two he followed. Arrived at the door of the boudoir, he
beheld the door of the private recess open, and Barbara within it,
standing with her arms clasped tightly round the neck of her
Edmond, and her mouth on his. The shawl which she had thrown

round her nightclothes had slipped from her shoulders, and her long
white robe and pale face lent her the blanched appearance of a
second statue embracing the first. Between her kisses, she
apostrophized it in a low murmur of infantine tenderness:
'My only love-how could I be so cruel to you, my perfect one-so
good and true-I am ever faithful to you, despite my seeming
infidelity! I always think of you-dream of you-during the long hours
of the day, and in the night-watches! O Edmond, I am always yours!'
Such words as these, intermingled with sobs, and streaming tears,
and dishevelled hair, testified to an intensity of feeling in his wife
which Lord Uplandtowers had not dreamed of her possessing.
'Ha, ha!' says he to himself. 'This is where we evaporate-this is
where my hopes of a successor in the title dissolve-ha, ha! This must
be seen to, verily!'
Lord Uplandtowers was a subtle man when once he set himself to
strategy; though in the present instance he never thought of the
simple stratagem of constant tenderness. Nor did he enter the room
and surprise his wife as a blunderer would have done, but went back
to his chamber as silently as he had left it. When the Countess
returned thither, shaken by spent sobs and sighs, he appeared to be
soundly sleeping as usual. The next day he began his countermoves
by making inquiries as to the whereabouts of the tutor who had
travelled with his wife's first husband; this gentleman, he found, was
now master of a grammar-school at no great distance from
Knollingwood. At the first convenient moment Lord Uplandtowers
went thither and obtained an interview with the said gentleman. The
schoolmaster was much gratified by a visit from such an influential
neighbour, and was ready to communicate anything that his lordship
desired to know.
After some general conversation on the school and its progress,
the visitor observed that he believed the schoolmaster had once
travelled a good deal with the unfortunate Mr. Willowes, and had
been with him on the occasion of his accident. He, Lord
Uplandtowers, was interested in knowing what had really happened
at that time, and had often thought of inquiring. And then the Earl

not only heard by word of mouth as much as he wished to know,
but, their chat becoming more intimate, the schoolmaster drew upon
paper a sketch of the disfigured head, explaining with bated breath
various details in the representation.
'It was very strange and terrible!' said Lord Uplandtowers, taking
the sketch in his hand. 'Neither nose nor ears!'
A poor man in the town nearest to Knollingwood Hall, who
combined the art of sign-painting with ingenious mechanical
occupations, was sent for by Lord Uplandtowers to come to the Hall
on a day in that week when the Countess had gone on a short visit
to her parents. His employer made the man understand that the
business in which his assistance was demanded was to be
considered private, and money insured the observance of this
request. The lock of the cupboard was picked, and the ingenious
mechanic and painter, assisted by the schoolmaster's sketch, which
Lord Uplandtowers had put in his pocket, set to work upon the god-
like countenance of the statue under my lord's direction. What the
fire had maimed in the original the chisel maimed in the copy. It was
a fiendish disfigurement, ruthlessly carried out, and was rendered
still more shocking by being tinted to the hues of life, as life had
been after the wreck.
Six hours after, when the workman was gone, Lord Uplandtowers
looked upon the result, and smiled grimly, and said:
'A statue should represent a man as he appeared in life, and that's
as he appeared. Ha! ha! But 'tis done to good purpose, and not idly.'
He locked the door of the closet with a skeleton key, and went his
way to fetch the Countess home.
That night she slept, but he kept awake. According to the tale, she
murmured soft words in her dream; and he knew that the tender
converse of her imaginings was held with one whom he had
supplanted but in name. At the end of her dream the Countess of
Uplandtowers awoke and arose, and then the enactment of former
nights was repeated. Her husband remained still and listened. Two
strokes sounded from the clock in the pediment without, when,

leaving the chamber-door ajar, she passed along the corridor to the
other end, where, as usual, she obtained a light. So deep was the
silence that he could even from his bed hear her softly blowing the
tinder to a glow after striking the steel. She moved on into the
boudoir, and he heard, or fancied he heard, the turning of the key in
the closet-door. The next moment there came from that direction a
loud and prolonged shriek, which resounded to the farthest corners
of the house. It was repeated, and there was the noise of a heavy
fall.
Lord Uplandtowers sprang out of bed. He hastened along the dark
corridor to the door of the boudoir, which stood ajar, and, by the
light of the candle within, saw his poor young Countess lying in a
heap in her nightdress on the floor of the closet. When he reached
her side he found that she had fainted, much to the relief of his
fears that matters were worse. He quickly shut up and locked in the
hated image which had done the mischief; and lifted his wife in his
arms, where in a few instants she opened her eyes. Pressing her
face to his without saying a word, he carried her back to her room,
endeavouring as he went to disperse her terrors by a laugh in her
ear, oddly compounded of causticity, predilection, and brutality.
'Ho-ho-ho!' says he. 'Frightened, dear one, hey? What a baby 'tis!
Only a joke, sure, Barbara-a splendid joke! But a baby should not go
to closets at midnight to look for the ghost of the dear departed! If it
do it must expect to be terrified at his aspect-ho-ho-ho!'
When she was in her bed-chamber, and had quite come to herself;
though her nerves were still much shaken, he spoke to her more
sternly. 'Now, my lady, answer me: do you love him-eh?'
'No-no!' she faltered, shuddering, with her expanded eyes fixed on
her husband. 'He is too terrible-no, no!'
'You are sure?'
'Quite sure!' replied the poor broken-spirited Countess. But her
natural elasticity asserted itself. Next morning he again inquired of
her: 'Do you love him now?'
She quailed under his gaze, but did not reply.

'That means that you do still, by G—-!' he continued.
'It means that I will not tell an untruth, and do not wish to incense
my lord,' she answered, with dignity.
'Then suppose we go and have another look at him?' As he spoke,
he suddenly took her by the wrist, and turned as if to lead her
towards the ghastly closet.
'No-no! Oh-no!' she cried, and her desperate wriggle out of his
hand revealed that the fright of the night had left more impression
upon her delicate soul than superficially appeared.
'Another dose or two, and she will be cured,' he said to himself.
It was now so generally known that the Earl and Countess were
not in accord, that he took no great trouble to disguise his deeds in
relation to this matter. During the day he ordered four men with
ropes and rollers to attend him in the boudoir. When they arrived,
the closet was open, and the upper part of the statue tied up in
canvas. He had it taken to the sleeping-chamber. What followed is
more or less matter of conjecture. The story, as told to me, goes on
to say that, when Lady Uplandtowers retired with him that night, she
saw near the foot of the heavy oak four-poster, a tall dark wardrobe,
which had not stood there before; but she did not ask what its
presence meant.
'I have had a little whim,' he explained when they were in the
dark.
'Have you?' says she.
'To erect a little shrine, as it may be called.'
'A little shrine?'
'Yes; to one whom we both equally adore-eh? I'll show you what it
contains.'
He pulled a cord which hung covered by the bed-curtains, and the
doors of the wardrobe slowly opened, disclosing that the shelves
within had been removed throughout, and the interior adapted to
receive the ghastly figure, which stood there as it had stood in the
boudoir, but with a wax-candle burning on each side of it to throw

Welcome to our website – the ideal destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. With a mission to inspire endlessly, we offer a
vast collection of books, ranging from classic literary works to
specialized publications, self-development books, and children's
literature. Each book is a new journey of discovery, expanding
knowledge and enriching the soul of the reade
Our website is not just a platform for buying books, but a bridge
connecting readers to the timeless values of culture and wisdom. With
an elegant, user-friendly interface and an intelligent search system,
we are committed to providing a quick and convenient shopping
experience. Additionally, our special promotions and home delivery
services ensure that you save time and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Let us accompany you on the journey of exploring knowledge and
personal growth!
ebookultra.com

Making Spaces for Community Development Pitchford

More Related Content

Similar to Making Spaces for Community Development Pitchford (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Making Spaces for Community Development Pitchford