New homes will fund restoration project
TWELVE homes are set to be built in the grounds of Stoneleigh Abbey to help fund the historic stately home's ongoing refurbishment which is being led by a Stratford businessman.
A planning application has been submitted to Warwick District Council this week for 12 homes on the old sawmill field, a three-and-a-half-acre plot of grassland to the east of the main house.
The development will include four, four-bedroom homes, eight, five-bedroom homes, along with 48 parking spaces and detached garages.
Plans for a new visitor centre been put on hold and will form part of a separate application in the coming weeks.
It is expected that the number of visitors to the 863-year-old former monastic house will increase from 17,500 now to 50,000 in 2019.
Stoneleigh Abbey was built as a monastic house founded by the Cistercians in 1154. It was converted at the Dissolution in 1539 into a residential country home.
It fell into a state of disrepair and a charitable trust was formed in 1996 by Stratford businessman Tony Bird, and since then over £14million has been raised to carry out the restoration.
The sale of land for the 12 homes is expected to help generate the £4million needed to complete additional restoration, renovation and maintenance work on the Abbey buildings and Humphrey Repton Landscape which is being opened to the public.
Land was sold off to build two homes on the estate in the early 2000s and ten homes were built 18 years ago on the same area of land that is the subject of the latest application.
Mr Bird, who is the chairman of trustees, said: "We built the original ten houses to raise funds to save the abbey and the whole estate which was in a perilous state with the stable block completely collapsed and the house decaying and leaking in water.
"Now it is an enormous local asset which is open to the public with over 60,000 visitors a year.
“We’re now trying to raise more than £4million from the sale of the additional houses. The money will be spent on building a visitor centre for over 100,000 people a year. which we expect to visit us and enjoy one of the UK’s finest landscapes designed by Humphrey Repton.
"Work on certain parts of the Abbey, which we were financially unable to restore 20 years ago, will also be carried out. This includes restoration of balustrades on the terrace in front of England’s oldest cricket pitch, work on the conservatory, walls around the estate, and fencing.
“Originally we lacked funds to restore the stew ponds, connected to the River Avon, where the monks once kept their fish stocks. This will be carried out and we’ll also restore the ice house."
The Stoneleigh Abbey project was selected by Country Life magazine in 2002 as one of the 15 finest restorations of the 20th century and was a runner-up in its competition.
