As wind turbines taller than Nelson’s Column threaten the setting of his family home in Shropshire, William Cash has mobilised Britain’s heritage conservation community to action. Upgrading Upton Cressett Hall’s status from Grade II* to Grade I is a major victory that might just win the day.

Ever since the National Heritage List was first published on-line about a year ago, giving the impression that Upton Cressett Hall and Gatehouse was a ruin and unoccupied as a home, I have been working with English Heritage – the government’s heritage protection body – to correct the record. Please see http://list.english-heritage.org.uk.

With under 50 or so surviving 15th or 16th gatehouses in the entire country – and even fewer with the main houses still attached – it would seem obvious that Upton Cressett’s ‘spectacular’ (Country Life) 1580 turreted Elizabethan gatehouse – which was described by Simon Jenkins in the ‘Best Houses of England’ as an ‘Elizabethan gem’  – should be given the correct level of statutory protection that its exceptional architecture deserves. Secondly, the old 1951 listing was simply woefully inaccurate in many regards, in particular with regards to the dating of the Great Hall and the architecture of the main medieval house. As Sir Nickolaus Pevsner said in his post-war ‘The Buildings of England’ entry for Upton Cressett, the house deserves more ‘serious study’ – and that is exactly what English Heritage have been doing over the last eight months.

The church of St Michael has stood beside the Hall since the 11th century. It is maintained by the Churches Conservation Trust and is open every day of the year with free entry. When the regional Director of the CCT came to visit the church the other day, she could not believe that St Michael’s was only Grade II – well, not any more.

St Michael’s Church

The trigger for my mission to get English Heritage to re-assess the entire hamlet of Upton Cressett was a planning ‘scoping report’ by a wind energy developer called Share Energy, in conjunction with a local farmer, who had chosen (based on a desk-top survey and never having bothered to visit us) the ancient hamlet of Upton Cressett as a potential site for an industrial wind farm which would ruin the entire historic setting.

Following a year of correspondence and field site inspections and meetings at Upton Cressett with senior members of English Heritage’s Designations team, I was delighted to be informed last week that Upton Cressett Hall and Gatehouse – which won last year’s Hudson’s Heritage Award for ‘Best Hidden Gem’ heritage destination in the UK – has now been awarded Grade I protection status by English Heritage following a year long special project by the Government’s heritage statutory protection body.

Adam Dant at work on one of Upton Cressett’s frescoes

Included in reasoning for the Grade I listing is acknowledgement of the exceptional series of 16th century inspired murals at Upton Cressett completed by the Jerwood Prize winning artist Adam Dant (collected by HRH Prince of Wales, and whose work is held by the V A, Tate Britian and the Met in New York). Basing his designs on the original vibrant murals that covered the Hall in the 16th century,  Dant (right) took nearly two years to complete the works which were featured over four pages in Country Life.

The 12th century Norman church of St Michael, adjacent to Upton Cressett Hall, has also been upgraded to Grade I status which now makes the ‘historic setting’ around the intimately connected group of buildings at the settlement of Upton Cressett one of the most important and heavily protected heritage sites in the Midlands.

We now have three Grade 1 listed buildings and three Scheduled Ancient Monuments at the settlement of Upton Cressett, within a small radius of less than a mile or so. I hope this new statutory designation sends out a clear Government-endorsed message that Upton Cressett is one of Shropshire’s special heritage assets and deserves full protection so the asset can be enjoyed by both tourists visiting Shropshire and the local community.

Upton Cressett is a moated Elizabethan brick manor with historic gatehouse and Norman church set in an unspoilt and romantic landscape near the Shropshire market town of Bridgnorth. The house has long been admired by architectural critics including Nikolaus Pevsner, John Betjeman and Simon Jenkins. Shropshire Magazine described the hamlet as ‘one of the most important Tudor houses in Britain’ and a ‘true Shropshire jewel’. When the house re-opened to the public in 2011 after two years of restoration, over 600 visitors came on the opening weekend.

The Gatehouse (where Margaret Thatcher stayed)

The manor was the historic home of the Cressett family for centuries, before my father Bill Cash MP and our family began living there in 1970. The Hall and gardens have been open to the public and for group visits since the 1970s. In addition to its Tudor architecture and twisted brick chimneys, the house is famous for being where young King Edward V (eldest son of Edward IV and one of the Princes in the Tower) reputedly stayed on his fateful journey to The Tower of London after the royal party left Ludlow for London in April 1483.

Professor Hancock, author of “Richard III and the Murder in The Tower” gave a talk in the summer endorsing the long held Shropshire tradition that the young king did stay at Upton Cressett manor in 1483. Prince Rupert of the Rhine, commander of the royalist troops, also stayed during the Civil War when Sir Francis Cressett (although we have now have doubts whether he really ever was knighted) was Treasurer to Charles I. Others who have stayed at Upton Cressett include Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who stayed in the Gatehouse.

There are approx 500,000 listed buildings on the National Heritage List of which approx 2.5% are listed Grade I; of these some 45% are churches meaning that there are only a tiny number of Grade I houses which are still historic homes in the entire UK. Upton Cressett is very much lived in as a family home and we enjoy opening to the public so that others can also enjoy the extraordinarily rich history of the place.

Grade I is defined as having ‘exceptional architectural merit’. English Heritage states that achieving Grade I status on the National Heritage list is to be regarded with exceptional ‘importance’ in the planning process. ‘Designation allows us to protect and celebrate England’s historic buildings, monuments, parks, gardens, battlefields and wreck sites, by highlighting their special interest in a national context. It identifies an asset or site as having significance within the historic environment before any planning stage that may decide its future’.

Backed up by a community of over 300 local supporters from our Stop Bridgnorth Wind Farm (www.stopbridgnorthwindfarm.org) campaign group, the group of which I am co-chairman with Dr Chris Douglas of Grade I Morville Hall, and also supported by local MP Philip Dunne, I sincerely hope that this extra new heightened heritage protection will be the end of the saga which has bitterly divided the Shropshire Hills community around Morville and Bridgnorth; and that by this Christmas the community of Upton Cressett and Criddon  – where the proposed wind farm was to be located, right in the middle of the old historic Upton Park – the close knit community can all go back to getting on with each other again in harmony.

The Notification letter of Grade I status received by Mr Cash states that the new Designation was, as stated above, precipitated by a wind farm proposal around 1.6km from the Grade I historic Gatehouse at Upton Cressett. The chosen proposed position of the towering industrial turbines – each much higher than Nelson’s column – was in the middle of the ancient Upton Park deer park within clear view of the first floor and second floor windows of the Gatehouse, thereby destroying both the approach and the historic setting of Upton Cressett. The towering wind turbine site – where a wind mast is currently erected – is less than 1.6km from the now Grade I Gatehouse.

Fortunately there has been a very clear and unambiguous planning decision precedent relating to preserving the historic setting of a proposed wind farm close to a group of Grade I buildings built by Sir John Vanbrugh and a Grade I Gatehouse set earlier this year (March 9^th) when a Government Planning Inspector named Paul Jackson threw out an Appeal for a wind farm proposal by Broadview Energy that was around 2.6km to Kimbolton Castle in Huntingdonshire, the former royal palace of Catherine of Aragon.

The local Council had refused the proposal on the grounds of damaging the historic environment and local community feeling, but Broadview had appealed the Council’s decision.

Kimbolton Castle, like Upton Cressett, boasts three separate Grade I listed buildings within the castle grounds which is now a school. The Inspector described the historic grouping of buildings as  of ‘very significant heritage value’ and ruled that viewed from the Robert Adam Grade I gatehouse the ‘turbines would be a modern , elevated, intrusive features in the countryside to the north seen from many parts of the grounds that would be difficult to avoid in interpreting the setting of these buildings’.

Kimbolton Castle

Under the new National Planning Policy Framework planning reforms, special protection to the ‘Historic Setting’ of listed protected buildings of exceptional merit was included by the government after lobbying by heritage campaigners, including the Historic Houses Association and the National Trust.

Mr Jackson, the Inspector at Kimbolton, (left) took his definition of ‘setting’ from English Heritage’s own guide to planners, entitled The Setting of Heritage Assets. The historic setting, he stated in his reasoning for turning down the Appeal, ‘embraces all the surroundings in which the asset may be experienced’.

The heritage importance of the historic hamlet of Upton Cressett has never been in doubt but until now the listing information was out of date. In English Heritage’s Notification letter, about the reason for upgrading to Grade I status the government heritage protection body stressed the ‘group value’ of the importance of the buildings as a whole within an intimate setting. ‘The functional. physical and historic relationships between Upton Cressett hall, its gatehouse and the former church of St Michael .. mean that the house has important group value with these buildings which contributes to its own significance’.

The Duke of Grafton

The late Duke of Grafton, president of Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB), visited Upton Cressett in July 1953 with James Lee-Milne of the National Trust and afterwards wrote to then then owner Sir Herbert Smith, referring to Upton Cressett’s hamlet as ‘one of the most interesting group of buildings I have ever seen.. Upton Cressett is of national importance’.  Nikolaus Pevsner, in the Buildings of England, described the Hall as a ‘remarkable Tudor house of brick’.

Following the heightened heritage protection announced last week by the Secretary of State for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, with immediate effect, the new heritage minister, the Rt Hon. Ed Vaizey MP, has been invited by my father, Bill Cash MP, to visit Upton Cressett, as well as to visit the vibrant heritage tourism at Ironbridge, another popular Shropshire attraction.

Mr Vaizey’s office has indicated he would be interested in visiting Shropshire, one of the jewels of the UK’s flourishing heritage tourism industry, and we look forward to showing him why the landscape around the Bridgnorth and the Shropshire Hills is worth preserving from industrial development.

The landscape around the Shropshire Hills has inspired writers and poets ranging from AE Housman to the 1930s poet Louis Macniece as well as providing inspiration for PG Wodehouse – who was brought up near Bridgnorth – who described the countryside around Bridgnorth as the ‘Paradise of England’. When the poet John Betjeman came to visit in 1938 with the painter John Piper to write his entry for the Shell Guide to Shropshire he described Upton Cressett as ‘this remote and beautiful place’.

The historic landscape and ancient buildings around Upton Cressett have been unspoilt and untouched by developers for well over 800 years. In addition, the hamlet includes an important part of the Jack Mytton Way, Shropshire’s flagship tourist trail for riders, walkers and cyclists. I also sincerely hope this puts an end to any misconceived and dangerous idea of straddling the Jack Mytton Way at Upton Cressett with two giant industrial wind turbines that would also be located in the middle of the old Upton Cressett Park in full view of the windows looking out of the Gatehouse at Upton Cressett, as well as destroying the approach and historic setting of the ancient hamlet.

As any planning law consultant or lawyer will spell out, the Grade I Kimbolton Castle and gatehouse ruling by the Planning Inspector clearly sets a precedent for any Council or Inspector at Appeal. If having three Grade I listed buildings and three Scheduled Ancients Monuments within a mile radius doesn’t protect the hamlet from inappropriate industrial development, then there is almost no point in Britain having the National Heritage List.

The new Designations for Upton Cressett went live on the National Heritage List website from last week. Local MP Philip Dunne has been outspoken from the very start of the controversy which began when local farmer Clive Millington teamed up with wind energy developers Sustainable Bridgnorth (based in Highley) and Sharenergy (based in Shrewsbury) to select the now heavily protected heritage site of Upton Cressett  – and a leading Shropshire heritage jewel – to propose a turbine development. After visiting the site last year, Mr Dunne said that Upton Cressett was ‘simply the wrong place’ for such a development.

In its official Designation notification letter to owner Mr William Cash English Heritage acknowledged that the previous 1951 listing was in need of updating as it erroneously gave the impression that the Hall and Gatehouse were unoccupied and ‘dilapidated’. There were also errors about the importance of the architecture of the Hall and Gatehouse which have now been rectified by tests which date the Great Hall roof structures to between 1420-40.

Part of the reason that the proposed development was not contested at the initial consultation stage by Shropshire Council was that the heritage information relating to the site as provided to Shropshire Council by the developers Share Energy was inaccurate, outdated and incomplete, relying on a desk top survey from an office in Wales rather than actually visiting the site. Relying on a 1951 listing report, the developers – who have still never visited inside the grounds of Upton Cressett despite my having issued an invitation – believed that the house was unoccupied and derelict, and did not even mention the Grade II* Hall, Gatehouse or Church in their preliminary application.

Extraordinarily, the desk top survey developers at Share Enegry and Natural Power tried to erase the existence of Upton Cressett’s Norman, medieval and Elizabethan buildings away. All they mentioned was the old moat and some medieval fish ponds. The new Designations correct the record and shows how lucky this country is to have dedicated professionals such as at English Heritage.

It is a statutory and legal requirement that English Heritage must be consulted with regards to any planning application relating to the historic setting of a Grade II* building or listed historic park. But English Heritage were not consulted because the developers simply chose to ignore the existence of Upton Cressett Hall, Gatehouse and Norman church.

As a result of the misinformation provided by Share Energy the initial ‘scoping’ consultation went unnoticed under the radar of Shropshire Council’s historic environment department, opening up the way for a potential Judicial Review as the correct statutory consultation procedures were not carried out.

As of today, I am personally sending copies of all the new designation notifications by English Heritage to both Clive Millington and Share Energy so this time they cannot attempt to mislead the Council. I sincerely hope that for the sake of the Shropshire landscape, and the riders, walkers, heritage lovers and tourists who come to the Shropshire Hills and Upton Cressett, that common sense will prevail and the proposed application will now be dropped for the sake of the community which has become deeply and bitterly divided ever since the application was first proposed.

In addition to the Grade I listing status awarded by English Heritage to Upton Cressett, the ancient settlement – extending to Upton Cressett’s medieval village which was enclosed in the 16th century by Thomas Cressett into a famous Shropshire deer park – added heritage protection to the ancient landscape around Upton Cressett, and the adjacent hamlet of Criddon (formerly part of Upton Cressett Park), was granted by English Heritage with the award of Scheduled Ancient Monument (SAM) status given to the Medieval Settlement at Upton Cressett.

The important Roman Settlement at Upton Park Farm, close to the Hall, was also awarded Scheduled Ancient Monument status. The Roman site at Upton Cressett has been regarded in archaeological circles for many decades to be one of the most important Roman sites in the Midlands after Wroxeter because of the extensive amount of Roman and Bronze Age finds brought up during ploughing over the last forty years.

Dr Roger White, the respected Birmingham University senior archaeologist who also sits on the Advisory Board of English Heritage, and who has led the field excavations at Upton Cressett for over 20 years, said the award of Scheduled Ancient Monument status to Upton Cressett’s Roman site was well merited because of the importance of Upton Cressett to the Wroxeter hinterland project which he has also overseen.

English Heritage were provided with photographs of the Upton Cressett ‘hoard’ finds discovered over the years by the Pugh family, who farm the land. For years, the valuable museum-quality Roman finds  – including axe heads, coins, large pottery fragments and jewellery – were proudly exhibited in the kitchen at the Pugh family farmhouse.

Jonathan Roberts, the Sheffield based archaeologist who first alerted Dr White in the 1980s to the ‘Upton Cressett hoard’ owned by the Pugh family said of the Scheduled Ancient Monument award. ‘Ever since my first field walking survey of Upton Cressett, it was obvious from what was being revealed during ploughing that it was an important Roman trading site – and very possibly the site of a Roman Fort, all connected to the Roman road network running along the Corvedale. I am delighted that the site and surrounding historic landscape now will be fully protected as it is of critical importance for educational and archaeological purposes’.

There is also an interesting royal footnote to the saving of Upton Cressett and its Norman church – whether it be from industrial developers, local farmers unappreciateive of the rich history and heritage surrounding their land, thieves stealing the exceptional panelling and wood carvings in the sixties or just the bulding suffering from weather and sheer neglect.

When the beautiful Norman church of St Michael was only given a Grade II listing 1951 listing the church was an overgrown wreck with many features hidden from view. The listings officer was also not aware of the fine 12th century medieval frescoes in the church, the exceptional quality of the Norman chancel arch or the Norman font which was reportedly was transported to Gordonstoun school in the sixties when HRH Prince Charles was there, apparently because the Duke of Edinburgh wanted the young prince to be surrounded by beautiful objects reflecting England’s ancient history.

At the time, the church of St Michael was derelict and anybody could have stolen the Cressett brass or the famous Norman font, so it was just as well that the Redundant Churches Fund – as it was then called – decided to move the font and brass and other objects – such as the stained glass – away to other locations for (temporary) safe-keeping.

It is not known who suggested the Upton Cressett font from St Michael’s as a suitable object to be moved to Gordonstoun whilst the young prince was at the school but it is very likely to have been Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, the journalist, scholar and church conservationist who set up, in the fifties, the ‘Friends of Friendless Churches’ with himself as Chairman. This organisation came out of a falling out Ivor-Thomas had with the Historic Churches Preservation Trust with which he had been closely involved in setting up and gaining initial government funding to save the worrying number of historic churches that were being demolished. Bulmer-Thomas’s new body saved at least 17 churches from further ruin or the wrecking ball.

In 1969 Bulmer-Thomas was made the first Chairman of the Redundant Churches Fund, which he ran for seven years during which it went on to have hundreds of Churches in its care. He was also secretary of the Ancient Monuments Society in the late 1950s. Interestingly, Upton Cressett was a church that Bulmer-Thomas was personally involved with saving being one of the very first churches that the Redundant Churches Fund saved in the late 1960s, with Bulmer Thomas being aware of the hazardous state of St Michael’s from a much earlier date. The story of the saving of the church of St Michael – as well as the hall by my parents – shows how, despite the hard work, a fervour for saving the best of Britian’s heritage is worth while.

Our past is what makes Britian the envy of the world, and why heritage tourism contributes over £20 billion to our economy. Indeed, heritage tourism – whether it is a small Norman church like St Michael’s or Blenheim Palace – is one part of our economy that is growing as people begin to understand why our unique historic landscape and buildings are worth protecting. Thank God for English Heritage.

NOTES:

William Cash is available for interview and can be reached on 07703 52 501 (mobile) or 01746 714 308 (Home). Email is williamcash@uptoncressett.co.uk. 

 Any queries relating to English Heritage’s decision to re-designate Upton Cressett Hall and its ancient hamlet should be directed to Toby Sargent in the Department of Culture, Media Sport’s (DCMS’s) press office. Toby’s email is toby.sargent@culture.gsi.gov.uk .

 More information about the history and architecture of Upton Cressett hall, Gatehouse and the Norman church of St Michael can be found at the website: www.uptoncressetthall.co.uk

 More information about the Stop Bridgnorth Wind Farm Campaign can be found on the websitewww.stopbridgnorthwindfarm.org.

 Dr Chris Douglas, who lives at nearby Grade 1 Morville Hall, (National Trust) and who is co-chairman of the Stop Bridgnorth Wind Farm group can be reached via William Cash. 

 

About Upton Cressett Hall

‘A splendid example of the English manor house at its most evocative’ Country Life

’The gatehouse is an Elizabethan gem’ Simon Jenkins, England’s Thousand Best Houses

‘A remarkable Tudor house of brick’ Nikolaus Pevsner, The Buildings of England

‘One of the finest Tudor houses in Britain’ Shropshire Magazine

Upton Cressett Hall is a moated Elizabethan brick manor with historic gatehouse and Norman church set in an unspoilt and romantic landscape near the Shropshire market town of Bridgnorth in the heart of PG Wodehouse’s Blandings country. The house has long been admired by architectural critics ranging from Nikolaus Pevsner to Simon Jenkins, who included Upton Cressett in his acclaimed ‘The Thousand Best Houses of Britain’, describing it as an ‘Elizabethan gem’.

The manor was the historic home of the Cressett family for centuries, before the Cash family began living there in 1971. Following restoration work, Upton Cressett is now open to the public and for group visits. The property is also available for events, concerts and filming. A special production of Much Ado About Nothing was performed to mark the re-opening of the Hall. In 2012, the Hall and grounds will be used for events during both the Wenlock Poetry Festival and the bi-annual Wenlock Festival.

Upton Cressett Hall was named the winner of ‘Hidden Gem’ at the 2011 Hudson’s Heritage Awards, the Oscars of the heritage world recognising ‘The Nation’s Finest Heritage’. The awards were announced on 1st December at the Grosvenor Square Hotel and presented by Norman Hudson OBE, chairman of the judges. The other judges were Lady Lucinda Lambton and Jeremy Musson, former architectural editor of Country Life. Upton Cressett was also short-listed for Best Restoration and Best Accommodation. The only other historic house to receive three nominations is the Elizabethan stately home of Burghley.

The two year restoration of Upton Cressett was the cover story of the October 2011 issue of Shropshire Magazine. In the article, editor Neil Thomas, describes Upton Cressett as ‘one of the finest Tudor houses in the Britain and a true Shropshire gem’. William Cash will be writing a new column for Shropshire Magazine from May.

The Gatehouse is available for luxury mini-breaks and private let. Featuring two octagonal turrets, thick Tudor brick walls, an oak carved spiral staircase, and rare sixteenth century ornamental plasterwork, as well as all modern comforts, the Gatehouse is one of England’s most secluded and luxuriously appointed romantic hideaways.

Prince Rupert of the Rhine took refuge in the Gatehouse whilst escaping the Parliamentary army; others who have stayed at Upton Cressett throughout its remarkable history include the young King Edward V, one of the Princes in the Tower, on the way from Ludlow to the Tower of London in 1483, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, novelist Sebastian Faulks and Elizabeth Hurley.

The Gatehouse is also used by the Upton Cressett Foundation, a writers’ retreat for novelists, academics, playwrights, biographers and historians to shut themselves away for up to six weeks – by invitation – to make creative progress with a project in a quiet and uniquely remote historic setting. Often compared to the Tower at Sissinghurst, where Vita Sackville-West built her library and wrote her many books, the Gatehouse has an inspirational environment.

uptoncressetthall.co.uk

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