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Heritage under threat

Posted on November 27 2014 at 9:21:33

Wadderton

Blackwell residents and parish councillors have launched a campaign to save one of the village’s most important Victorian houses.

Wadderton, at 37 Greenhill, is scheduled to be demolished on December 20 even though it is thought unlikely that planning permission to build other properties on the 12-acre site, which is in the Green Belt, would be granted.

The house, built in 1870, was the family home of the Mitchells, who were renowned pen makers at a time when Birmingham’s pen industry was the largest in the world, and invented a method for the mass nib production.

It later became a diocesan retreat and a regional training and conference centre, until it was bought by a group of businessmen. In 2009 it hit the headlines when police discovered a cannabis farm on the premises, and the current owner now wants to demolish it.

Wadderton has a whole chapter in Victorian Greenhill, the book by local historian Jennie MacGregor-Smith, but is not an officially listed building.

Councillors say that the formerly well-kept house has seen the removal of original fireplaces and lead taken from the roof, allowing it to leak. However, it is understood that the property is still structurally sound.

“We are angry to think that a very good example of Victorian domestic architecture and a much-loved family home might be lost,” said Lickey & Blackwell Parish Councillor Janet King.

Campaigners are also concerned with protecting a badger sett and a bat colony on the site – there is support from PC Simon Albutt, Wildlife Officer at West Mercia Police, and an expert from the Badger Trust was due to visit the site as we went to press.

Coun King and parish chairwoman Coun Jill Harvey were due to meet Bromsgrove’s Conservation Officer last month to discuss the possibility of a Conservation Area to the west of Greenhill including the Wadderton site.

Conservation Area status, which protects buildings as well as landscape from over-development and alteration, was first requested by Lickey & Blackwell Parish Council ten years ago.

“We hope that our local planners and the parish and district council can work together to persuade the owner that Wadderton is worth restoring and bringing back into use as a home or homes for people who know the value of our heritage,” said Coun King.

District councillor Kit Taylor told The Village he was in favour of sympathetic restoration of at least part of the building.

The owner was entitled to demolish it, but he would urge him to keep talking to councillors and planning officers to find a suitable solution.

The petition, asking that the demolition be stopped until ways of bringing the house back into use can be found, can be signed at Blackwell Stores on Greenhill.

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