Talk:Woodchester Mansion

Wrong location

The coordinates at top right are wrong. I don't know how to fix. They show a location in the middle of a wooded area by a creek. 173.172.23.147 (talk) 23:08, 31 December 2012 (UTC)

Fixed. For future reference, centre it up on Google Maps, click the link button (on the left), the co-ordinates are contained in the link url. Parrot of Doom 00:46, 1 January 2013 (UTC)

62.64.207.44 (talk) 02:00, 2 December 2016 (UTC) I used to visit the mansion & valley frequently (and legally) as a child, long before the mansion trust & national trust took it over. I have some additional knowledge of the mansion and its valley which I think may be of interest, but I am unable to write up myself due to deteriorating health & vision.

Someone may wish to add to the article that the bat research conducted at the site by Dr Roger Ransome is the longest running mammal study in the world. (Various public sources available, including episode 1 of a 2008 BBC series called Born to be Wild, which features the mansion and Dr Ransome's bat study. )

Also, after the council took ownership of the mansion it was leased to another party in the 1950s-60s (uncertain when the lease actually ended, may have continued into the 70s, possibly early 80s). Arthur Reginald Kelly bought the Woodchester Park in the 1940s (a large 16 bedroom house nearby, above the south side of the valley, built in a matching gothic style by the Leigh family to stay in while Woodchester Mansion was constructed and (I was always told) intended to be servants quarters after the mansion was completed). Mr Kelly, a teacher & biologist, ran this first as an independent boarding school, then from the early 1960s as a field study centre. An annual visitor until its closure in 1995 was Manchester University, who appreciated the valley's unique mix of habitats - including heathland, various types of woodland, grassland and freshwater lakes - to which Mr Keyy had access rights & permissions. During this time he leased the mansion from the council and used part of it as classrooms. As leaseholder, he was responsible for the mansion's maintainance - indeed its very survival - during this period. I know that he carried out vital and extensive repairs to the roof and after his use of the mansion ended he continued to 'guard' the mansion against vandalism until his death. So from the mid-1940s until the end of the 1980s it is he who should be principally credited with preserving the mansion, rather than unspecified locals. He was also the person who Dr Roger Ransome approached and received permission from to set up the Woodchester Mansion bat study.

Mr Kelly died in 1987. His widow and 2 daughters continued to run Woodchester Park as a field study centre until 1995 when the main house was sold. One of his daughters owns and continues to live in the coach house. During its time as a school and field study centre, the fabric of Woodchester Park was preserved much as it had been when owned by the Leigh family. But after the sale the building & gardens were extensively remodeled and is now a private house with two holiday flats.

After the Woodchester Mansion Trust took over the mansion in the early 1990s, they began running occasional tours of the mansion interior. During this time the trust's volunteers leading the tours repeatedly claimed that Mr Kelly had stolen the roof tiles from part of the mansion. (The members of the trust had very little knowledge of the mansion's post-war history as there was no general access during of that time - see below - and most had never seen the mansion until c.1990, the trust only being formed in the late 1980s.) On two occasions that I witnessed this claim made when Mr Kelly's daughters & some of his grandchildren were present with the group of visitors. After the first time the guide was politely corrected and the trust notified that this was demonstrably untrue and the upset this had caused to his family who were present. The second time a their companion, who I know had known Mr Kelly and his family very well during his time as leaseholder of the mansion (when the alleged theft was supposed to have occurred) spoke up loudly to correct the tour guide. This time Mr Kelly's were visibly upset and in great distress after hearing the slander repeated, especially as it appeared to be the same guide as before.

Until its purchase by the National Trust around the turn of the century, there was no public access to the valley and no public footpaths. So knowledge of the mansion was very limited, except to those with access rights to the valley.

The valley is now thickly wooded, but was originally landscaped with extensive open areas & some heathland, with limited areas of mixed ornamental woodland. But after it was bought by the council, most of the valley was leased for commercial forestry. Over time, the ornamental woodland (except for part which was in private ownership) was neglected and by the became overgrown. By the end of the 1970s the last of the heathland was lost to the encroaching unmanaged woodland & scrub, leaving two grazed fields near the mansion (and the water of the lakes) as the only open land remaining.

The valley was used as a location for the 1987 film Three Wishes for Jamie.

62.64.207.44 (talk) 02:00, 2 December 2016 (UTC)

References