A ROMSEY group recently hosted a talk on how a historic diary has been saved.
Romsey & District Buildings Preservation Trust’s (RDBPT) AGM, held at the Plaza on Thursday November 3, saw Julian Bell, curator of the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum at Singleton in West Sussex present a talk on saving a historic dairy at Eastwick Park in Hertfordshire.
The Weald and Downland Museum hosts the popular TV programme “The Repair Shop”. In a detailed account, Mr Bell described the systematic dismantling of the dilapidated dairy and its complete rebuilding at the Open Air Museum in West Sussex, adding yet another historic building to the existing and impressive collection of 52 buildings which have been saved to date.
The restoration drew parallels to the dismantling and rebuilding of Romsey Signal Box, carried out by RDBPT, some forty years ago, which is now a successful museum and education centre in Romsey.
Prior to the lecture by Mr Bell, trust chairman Professor Peter Shoolingin-Jordan had given an illustrated report on the progress that the trust is making in restoring a Grade II listed medieval building, Bargain Farmhouse, in Frogmore Lane, Nursling.
Built in 1601, this building is a classic example of a timber-framed and thatched, Hampshire farmhouse. Over the past two years, Bargain Farmhouse has been rethatched and the oak frame has been completely restored.
The walls have been insulated and replastered and a new bathroom has been installed on the first floor. Where the old farm shop was located, adjacent to the Farmhouse, a new two-storey utility building has been erected, incorporating a garage, store and utility room with a large “work-from-home” office on the first floor. The farmhouse will be on view to the public in 2023 before it is sold.
Dick Hewett, chairman of the Friends of the Romsey Signal Box, gave an account of the activities at Romsey Signal Box, which is having a record year for visitors, referring particularly to its importance in the training of young volunteers in a range of activities from manual work to demonstrations for the public.
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