Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 1

14 September 2006

Basing House, Grange Farm

Report by the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services and the Director of Recreation and Heritage

How the conclusion in this report fits with the Corporate Strategy

This scheme will impact on the delivery of Corporate Aims 2 & 3 in particular:

Aim 2 - maximising wellbeing: the proposal will allow increased public access, awareness and interpretation of this historical site with entertainment and educational benefit to adults and children.

Aim 3 - enhancing our quality of place: the proposal will provide for the repair and/or restoration of the historic buildings and structures on site and improve the environment in which they sit.

1

Introduction

1.1

The County Council is currently responsible for the Basing House ruins and the surrounding Civil War earthworks, which are considered to be the best preserved in the country, as well as the Great Barn and associated farm buildings which reflect the working life of this once-great estate. This reports seeks approval to recommend to the Executive Member for Policy and Resources that approval be given to:

· complete detailed proposals on the options to enhance the visitor experience at Grange Farm;

· submit a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and other relevant funding sources to complete the restoration of Basing House;

· continue discussions with other potential funding partners, including Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council.

2

Background

2.1

The Executive Member for Policy and Resources approved at his decision day meeting on 12 September 2002 the disposal of Grange Farmhouse as a private single residential dwelling and that the capital receipt be used to fund a scheme to enhance visitor facilities at Grange Farm and Basing House.

2.2

Since that meeting the Farmhouse has been sold, realising a capital receipt of £468,000. This sum is currently being held to fund works for enhancement of the Basing House and Grange Farm site as a Reinvestment Project. The farmhouse building and immediate environs have been renovated by the new owner.

2.3

As previously reported, the majority of Grange Farm, including the Great Barn and other outbuildings, are retained in County Council ownership.

2.4

The Director of Recreation and Heritage, with the support of the Director of Property, Business and Regulatory Services, is currently developing proposals for the restoration of the Basing House site, with a view to submitting a bid to the HLF. The objective is to enable public access, educational and community use, provide improved interpretation and allow a better understanding and stronger links with the Basing House site and the surrounding parkland and neighbouring Common.

2.5

It was agreed by the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage in consultation with the Recreation and Heritage Policy Review Committee on 17 March 2004 that while options were being progressed, initial work to the existing buildings and structures on the Grange Farm site could be carried out up to the value of £220,000, including fees, and funded from the capital receipt realised from the sale of the Farmhouse. The value of the work carried out to date on site and funded from the capital receipt amounts of £49,000, and there is further work planned for next year (estimated cost £75,000). The intention is to include the costs for these works as match funding for the Lottery bid.

2.6

In 2005 ABL Consultants was appointed to provide reports necessary to support a bid to the HLF. These were a Conservation Management Plan, an Access Plan and an Audience Development Plan. The cost of this work (£46,000) was also funded from the capital receipt from the farmhouse sale, and similarly it is the intention to include these costs as match funding in the Lottery bid. A further £7,900 has been authorised by the Director of Recreation & Heritage to complete the bid writing process.

3

Scope of the Proposed Development of the Basing House site

3.1

The heritage value of the Basing House site has been evaluated by ABL as extremely high. The site incorporates structures and archaeological features dating from Norman times to the present day, with particular importance placed on the Tudor and Civil War periods. The site is important for its associations with nationally significant political events and personalities, but it is also important because of the way it illustrates the socio-economic system of a bygone age.

3.2

Grange Farm, with the Great Barn and associated gardens, fishponds and dovecots, is a rare survival of a self-sufficient community, supplying Basing House and its inhabitants with food and materials over the centuries. The evidence it offers can be used to great advantage to deliver educational programmes to adults and children alike.

3.3

The Great Barn itself is one of the most magnificent structures on the Basing House estate. Dating from the 16^th century and largely in good repair, it is currently rarely accessible to the public, and can only be interpreted at the most basic level. At present there is no public access to the farmyard and other structures within Grange Farm.

3.4

The site does present difficulties in interpretation and access. While no final decision has yet been reached, it appears that the present arrangement where the car parking is at a distance from the site may have to remain, because of the lack of a viable alternative. This means that the Citadel has to be approached across a main road and up a steep slope - not ideal for access for disabled visitors. The dispersed nature of the site and the complexity of its archaeology means that it is not currently easy to convey to the casual visitor a true sense of the significance of the site or the details of its history. However, the final proposal will strongly feature recommendations to improve public access, interpretation and promotion of Basing House to ensure that many more visitors visit the site to discover the stories of its unique history.

4

Public consultation

4.1

Since the Farmhouse was sold there has been considerable public interest in the future of Basing House and pressure for the receipt from the sale to be re-invested in the site. More recently, as part of the service provided by ABL, a series of consultation meetings have been held in the district, including officers of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council, the Trustees of the Common, residents of Old Basing, non-users from the surrounding residential district etc. The overall message is that there is overwhelming support for a redevelopment scheme at Basing House which increases access, improves the public facilities and provides modern interpretation of the heritage of the site.

5

Proposals

5.1

Since an alternative site for car parking cannot be found, it is proposed to make a virtue of the walk that the visitor has to take to reach the site. The route passes an attractive pub on the river, formerly a water mill, which could be a partner in the project by providing café facilities throughout the year. The visitor will then pass the fish ponds which used to belong to Basing House, and at the same time will get a view of the Citadel in the distance. There are opportunities here to improve these views and begin the interpretation of the site, which will lead into the Grange farmyard itself. These farm buildings will be restored, and some of them will be put to new use to provide a ticket office, toilets, education space and a covered exhibition area where the significance of the entire site will be explained. There is space for farm wagons and other large objects to be displayed once the buildings have been renovated. The proposals are shown on the drawing included at Appendix 2.

5.2

Investigations are currently continuing into the provision of a new crossing across the Old Basing High Street which would improve disabled access to the site. An improved circulation route on the site of the Old House would be laid out with improved signage and interpretation panels to explain the remains. The garden deserves interpretation in its own right, and a display on the history of the Tudor garden is likely to be installed in a nearby building. The rooms in the Lodge which are currently used for a display on the history of Basing House would become available for future classroom space. Improvements would be made to the Bothy and further conservation and repair work would be carried out to the Old House itself.

6

Funding and Timing

6.1

The capital receipt of £468,000 realised from the sale of the Farmhouse is intended as match funding for a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). In order to capture the expenditure already laid out on initial conservation and repairs to the Grange Farm buildings as "sunk funds", it will be necessary to submit the bid within twelve months of the commencement of that expenditure, which means that the bid must be made by October 2006.

6.2

It will also be possible to include benefits in kind in the funding package, and it is hoped that Basingstoke and Deane may be able to contribute expenditure on improving the footpaths and cycle links between Basing House and Basingstoke town centre to the match funding package. We shall also be seeking sponsorship and grants from other bodies towards elements of the scheme.

6.3

There are still some details to be finalised for the bid, but the total cost of the project to be submitted to the HLF will be in the order of £1.9 million.

6.4

Officers from the HLF visited Basing House in spring 2006 and it is proposed to continue dialogue with them throughout the process of making this bid. Should the bid to the HLF not be successful then further consideration will be given to taking forward a core scheme, cash-limited to the proceeds of the sale of the Farmhouse.

7

Consultation with Local Member

7.1

Councillor K Chapman, the local Member for this area, is fully supportive of this scheme.

8

Conclusion

The proposals in this bid will provide a package of conservation and repair works to existing buildings on the site, introduce new uses for some of the buildings that will enhance the chances of their long-term survival, improve the natural environment of the site, put in place a ten-year maintenance plan and above all, increase public access, awareness and interpretation of this historical site.

Recommendations

That the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage recommends to the Executive Member for Policy and Resources that approval be given to:

1

The completion of detailed proposals for the options for enhancing the visitor experience at Grange Farm.

2

The submission of a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund and any other relevant funding sources to carry out the restoration and revitalisation of the Basing House site.

3

Continue discussions with other potential funding partners, including Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council.

Basing House is probably the most significant relic of the English Civil War in England, and was the scene of one of the most stirring acts of defiance that the county of Hampshire has ever known, as a result of the political dissatisfaction and religious dissension that tore the country apart during that period.

For three summers the Royalist garrison at Basing held out against numerous attacks and assaults. It was not until `Ironsides' himself, Oliver Cromwell, and his New Model Army turned their attention to the site that the fate of Basing was decided. On the morning of October 14^th 1645, the Parliamentarian forces swarmed over the defences and within a matter of hours the house was ablaze.

This act of war effectively brought an end to five hundred years of history and tradition. Basing, initially the seat of the de Port family who had arrived with William the Conqueror, passed to the St Johns, the de Poynings, and thence to the Paulets. Sir William Paulet, the First Marquess of Winchester, turned the castle into a private mansion which rivalled royal palaces in its grandeur.

Although the land was returned to the Paulets at the Restoration, and remained with their descendants until the County Council acquired the site in 1972, Basing House as such was never reoccupied. The Paulet family themselves began archaeological investigations on the site in the later 19^th century, and this work was continued by the County Council from 1978 onwards.