The imposing remains of Witley Court stand next to Witley Parish Church. It was once one of England’s finest country houses, but it was largely gutted by fire in 1937. At the time of the fire the owner was Sir Herbert Smith and he decided not to rebuild and instead put the estate up for sale. Witley was never lived in again and was left to be stripped and abandoned.
In the first two pictures you can just see the dome of the Parish Church gleaming in the sunshine.
What an incredible old – new ruin!
It is a very interesting place, despite it being a ruin.
That is one imposing ruin
It certainly is Jams.
This is one of the places that is crying out to be restored to a living building again, not to be left to decay into a few odd columns and broken walls.
Note I said a living building. It does not require that it be totally to the age in which it was built for the simple reason the structure has a grandeur all its own. Unfortunately, because it is in the hands of English Heritage that will never happen, their ‘experts’ would make a banquet of such a project and so make it too expensive.
They have so far restored one of the historic fountains and the garden behind it. The inner structure behind the walls would need quite a lot of work and even if they didn’t make a banquet of it I think the cost would be quite high.
There is also the debate of whether to leave it as it is or try to restore it to how it perhaps was, opinions differ on what is the best way to go.
I am very much reminded of my holiday to Carcassonne. The restoration of that was very controversial and not necessarily accurate to the original structure. I have to confess I liked the restoration, it brought history to life in that instance. And not just for that castle itself, for all such castles of that era.
That is one of the advantages over here – most restorations are ‘in the spirit’ and hardly ever suffer from ‘deep’ research, and the very high costs that go with that.
That way you end up with a restored building that gives a general idea to what might have been rather than what actually was.
My village has a very ruined fort at the top of the hill. twenty odd years ago there was a proposal that it be restored. Unfortunately, a local British archaeologist heard about it and got himself on the committee to oversea the job, it went downhill from there – he wanted to spend several years on a dig at the site to find out all that could be found out, the villagers pointed out to him that such information was available in the village records. He wasn’t satisfied with that and because his ignorance had been shown he stalled as much as possible on everything else. The upshot of that was that everyone lost interest particularly the family that were going to give the money.
Now, twenty odd years later all that is left is a couple of bits of very dilapidated wall that shelters the village TV rebroadcasting equipment.
Even twenty years ago it could have been ‘restored’, just as the little chapel sandwiched between the main road up the mountains and the railway was, but no, the ‘expert’ knew better – bunkum!
That archeologist sounds rather a pain! At the very least he should have ensured that what remained of the ruin was kept in tact…
Over here these days there is a tendency not to dig as much as in the past but scan the ground using modern technology.
It looks impressive even in this state, Cherie
It certainly is still impressive. The hall displays photos of how it was which really gives a feel for how it would have been in its day.
It makes you wonder why no one grabbed it up and restored it! In the meantime, what a photo op!
I think the cost would have been too high. The insurance certainly wouldn’t pay out the full cost to restore which is why the original owner moved elsewhere. Shows how much money they had!!!
So did English Heritage restore the property to its former glory?
Can’t wait to see what’s inside!!
Rather faded glory as you will see…
I do like the photo with the church dome just showing.
It looked lovely gleaming in the sunshine.
Did he actually get to sell it though?
That is answered in the post above
I love Witley Court. It is an amazing place I think. The garden are so beautiful but, I cannot help but feel a hint of sadness ~Usually in the conservatory the most for some reason!
Possibly because you love nature and it would have been full of plants.
It’s interesting to see that Wentworth Woodhouse and Riber Castle are undergoing restoration that was endorsed by English Heritage. With regards to Witley Court, I believe that while English Heritage manages the building, the Wigington family owns it. Thus, it might be possible to see Witley Court restored to its former glory at a cost of close to £100 Million just to make the building habitable once again.
The only reason to why English Heritage never objected to the idea of Riber Castle being renovated as apartments is because they did not want to go through the trouble of spending over £4 Million just to stabilize the shell of the building.
If you have been to Witley Court you will know that it requires a lot of work to have it functioning as a building again. Work is ongoing, restoring the fountains and features in the gardens.
That is true. I have been to Witley Court. And the size of the building would require a lot of money to make her whole again. But it is not impossible. Imagine if the National Trust had obtained Wentworth Woodhouse with English Heritage managing the place? Too bad they turned it down as I assume that they now regret their decision. I do believe that Witley Court will be rebuilt back to its former glory. While it may not be practical from an individual sense to carry out the renovation unless he’s willing to take on a huge loss in doing so; from a business perspective however, it can be done as their might have the financial resources to hire the building contractors to get the renovations to the building completed as either a hotel, museum, and convention space.
I am curious as to why you want all these places to be restored as hotels, museums and convention spaces rather than places to be enjoyed as they were in their day?
Hi CherryPie,
I am not against the idea of having the buildings restored as respective private residence once again. But the huge rebuilding cost has to be recouped one way or another when it comes to the ruined buildings. As you know, maintaining a old English Stately home requires a great deal of money. Thus some of them have to maintain their keep. It is possible to see a home like Witley Court be restored to how it was before the fire of 1937.
Although, the £100 Million price estimate that I talked about might be enough to restore Witley Court as far as rebuilding the exterior and interior walls; the reinstallation of the roof, windows, roof, as well as the plumbing and electrical systems. In addition, the rebuilding cost would include the rebuild of the floors, staircases, along with the interior fire places. That alone might account for 50% to 60% of the building cost, that doesn’t include the labor cost. With the labor cost factored in, everything might come to around £100 Million or less.
But the moment when the rebuild of Witley Court is completed, the value of the home will quickly diminish in value. So the £100 Million building cost will bring the Witley Court’s value to around £15 Million to £20 Million, which might be in line to the cost of a similar home that is intact and well maintained of the same era or earlier.
This is way the huge building cost must be recouped. And the best way to do so is for the home to be a hotel, museum, and conference center. The museum part of the building would be run by English Heritage in addition to its responsibilities of maintaining the gardens.
I will agree that not all ruined building can be saved. But places like Hardwick Old Hall, Witley Court, Kirby Hall, Wingfield Manor, Bolsover Castle, and Sutton Scarsdale Hall have the potential to follow the example of Wentworth Woodhouse and Riber Castle.
Personally I would like all the historic buildings to be turned into hotels it would mean that people wouldn’t have access to the whole site, some of it being out of bounds for the public. That would mean that the many people who enjoy learning history by seeing the sites whole or incomplete would have that opportunity lost to them.
The Old Hall at Hardwick for example is one that I think would spoil the history of the site if it was restored. It is about the old and the new and bits were being taken off the old hall whilst the new one was being completed.
Hi CherryPie,
I will agree that not all ruined site should be restored. But there are some which should be restored because there will come a time when English Heritage would rather not go through all the trouble of maintaining a ruined site if there was an offer to restore it to its fromer glory. I have only talked about 5 or 6 sites that I feel have potential to be restored. And let’s not forget that Wentworth Woodhouse came very close to being dismantled like Witley Court and Sutton Scarsdale Hall. In truth, there are far more ruined homes out there that English Heritage doesn’t even cover, like Big House in Wales that is being restored to it former glory. Here are two links to Big House:
http://www.bighouselandshipping.co.uk/About-Big-House.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hPX3vFsIH4&feature=youtu.be
Some would say that Big House should not have been restored either. If English Heritage had known about the history of the building beforehand, the current owners would not have been allowed to restore her. And English Heritage would have turned the site into a museum for all to enjoy. There are ruined sites that I will respect as ruins. But there are others that I feel works best as a restored buildings for all to enjoy.
Here is the last link to Big House history:
http://archive.is/J5uM
Hi Dan,
Thank you for the links, they are very interesting.
I am not opposed to old ruins that are not cared for being redeveloped and restored for a useful purpose. I have seen many an old Castle that is just crying out for such conversion and many old Churches that have been converted into private accommodation.
But Hardwick Hall and Witley Court (the posts you have commented on here on my blog) are both actively being improved by the National Trust and/or English Heritage and I am not convinced that converting those buildings would be more cost effective, they are already bringing in the revenue…
I can’t comment on the other buildings you have mentioned because I haven’t visited them.
The Big House – The project is/was daunting and the results are amazing. But those results came at a cost to the people involved in the dream and I don’t mean money…
There are many old buildings that have been restored to hotels, for example Warners company. The buildings have been restored but only the people who enjoy Warners holiday experience will enjoy those buildings (only residents can have access), so not quite restored for all to enjoy…
This is an interesting and controversial subject
Can we ever satisfy everyone?
Thank you for your thoughts
Hi CherryPie,
I had assumed that Witley Court was privately owned, but managed by English Heritage on behalf of the private owner. I was planning to write to Andrew Lloyd-Webber about the idea of acquiring Witley Court for use as both a private residence and museum that could house his priceless art collection. Originally he offered to buy Highclere Castle from Lady and Lord Carnarvon in 2010; but they turned down his repeated offer. So I believe that Witley Court would be the perfect home as it also has a historic connection to Sir Edward William Elgar, the famous English composer whose father adjusted the home’s pianos on behalf of Queen Adelaide in 1843. Thus, I felt that Witley Court would attract Lord Lloyd-Webber’s attention. This was the reason to why I have talked about the possibility of restoring Witley Court because Lloyd-Webber is one of the few private individuals who can afford to restore the building to how it was.
I don’t believe that English Heritage would have a problem with Andrew Lloyd-Webber as the new owner of Witley Court because his reputation would bring in a lot more guest to the site. At least, I hope that Witley Court would captivate his attention at finally getting a home that would rival Highclere Castle as far as the number of visitors are concerned on a year round basis, which Highclere Castle doesn’t provide. And a restored Witley Court would allow the public to view Lloyd-Webber’s private art collection.
I am not sure who owns Witley Court. This is the only information I can find:
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/local/2216996.Historic_Witley_Court_is_up_for_sale/
It being English Heritage rather than National Trust means that type of information in the guide book is limited.
Your ideas sounds interesting, thank you for sharing them. If you decide to write the letter I would be interested to know the outcome.
The Wiggington family sold off the freehold of Whitley Court a couple of years ago.
The new owners are a couple of ladies in Oxfordshire, perhaps they are rich and like the idea of owning a stately home? Who knows? They paid £250,000 for it.
Although they own the freehold (the building and the land it sits on) the governance order means that they cannot do anything to it except restore it (if they so wish) which i understand they do not. If anyone other than English Heritage wish to do anything to the property, then they would need to buy the Freehold from the current owners, who may not wish to sell it!
Hi Neil,
Thanks for the information.
I am sure that the new owners could be persuaded to sell the freehold to a developer who wants to restore the building to its former glory as a building that could rival Chatsworth House as far as interior granduer is concerned.
Hi CherryPie:
Here are two different links to sites that were similar to Big House in Wales:
http://youtu.be/zZqfIMvBGNo
http://youtu.be/_WjaVTv3Ozc
I hope you enjoy them.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for the links, I will have a look at them over the weekend when I will have more time
Thanks Dan,
All the links have been very interesting a different. It is interesting to see the differing loopholes that have to be overcome in the different countries.
Hi CherryPie,
I am so happy that you enjoyed the video links. I have another one which might be of interest to you as this one is my all time favorite:
youtu.be/4U11ssejN8k
Let me know of your personal thought about Peel Castle in Yorkshire.
Hi CherryPie,
Here is the full version of Grand Designs Episode on Peel Castle. The first link that I provided is the revisited episode. So, it might be better to view this link first because it has some details that ties in with Witley Court, which is the Ancient Monument listing and consent. Thus Peel Castle is the first scheduled Ancient Monument to be restored back into a home in the UK:
http://youtu.be/CZeVzGHPj9Q
Thanks Dan,
I will look at them over the weekend when I have more time.