A Personal View of Eric Miller’s letter dated 14^th December 1993

Christopher Knox, Ex-Estate Manager

It has taken a great deal of effort to put something down on paper as a comment without being rude or abusive or both, however;

Before Eric committed himself to carrying out YMCA work my father offered an opened ended invitation to meet, and give him the facts on the running of the Youth Centre in North Shields, the Mast Lane Centre in Cullercoats (both of which were and are apparent financial failures except for the period they were under the direct control of the Trustees) and the Patterdale Hall Estate.

For some reason Eric never took the opportunity.

The deeds which transfered the duties, liabilities and obligations of the Trustees to the National Council of the YMCA’s also transfered some cash, £50,000 working capital, an investment fund of £588,000 and stocks of £150,000. This was in December 1987, my father said he’d given them 5 years before they realised they couldn’t cope, the Trustees had ensured the continued employment of the staff by the wording in the new deeds, but he doubted the sincerity and the ability of the YMCA to stick to any deed of trust. He seems to have been proven right again,

As far as I know the estate made another surplus during my last complete year (1988) of around £25,000, without touching any of the investment fund. During that year a ‘steering committee’ was formed to oversee North Shields YMCA, who in turn created a new ‘board of management committee’, one of these committees appointed Price Waterhouse to do a feasibility study on Patterdale Hall and Beacon Builders to cost any proposed conversion work. Possibly through ignorance, they tatally disregarded the 10 year management plan the Trustees and myself had agreed with Lowther Scott Harden for the estate, in favour of marketing, market forces and general commercial enterprise.

It would appear, from the tone of the letter, that the new system has failed badly and that this YMCA had neither the commitment nor willpower, let alone the ability, to manage the estate in a manner and spirit appropriate to the donors wishes. He is asking if they can dump the liabilities, but keep the assets, with somewhat vague ideas of giving money away to other causes. Rowland Lishman dedicated his prayers , faith and money to the people and places he could reach and believe in. His rewards were loyalty and the satisfaction that other people were enabled to carry on where he left off, whithout any ‘what’s in it for me?’ attitude.

For over 30 years the Trustees and staff of the estate were dedicated in their efforts to continue to preserve and improve the quality of the whole estate, whilst still following Rowland Lishmans simple basic wishes, for the future generations to enjoy. Can this system be salvaged as an alternative option on part if not the whole of Patterdale Hall Estate?

Without seeing accounts, and not knowing how much goodwill in advance bookings for the Hall will still exist, it may be hard to see if the family could revert to meeting the aims and wishes of Rowland and Mary Lishman, via, perhaps, a new set of Trustees. Presuming there is some working capital left, and the will to succeed is with us anything should be possible.

His last paragraph sums up the entire fiasco, confusing emotion with dedication, the need for change has arisen because of interference and little, if any, belief in the wisdom of Rowland Lishman and his intentions.