News - Ambitious scheme to revamp Newstead Abbey

A GLOBAL organisation is spearheading an ambitious new bid to regenerate Newstead Abbey.

Representatives of the World Monument Fund (WMF) were among about 60 people who took part in a seminar at the abbey, which was Lord Byron’s ancestral home.

Founded in 1965, the WMF plays a major role in helping to restore important but ailing historic sites around the world.

The fund’s chief executive officer in Britain, Jonathan Foyle, said: “The necessary planning and relationship-building takes enormous work even to prepare for direct conservation. By its nature, this is an ongoing process.

“But the investment of time can enable beautiful buildings to be enjoyed by many people.

“Newstead Abbey already has a lot going for it but getting and maintaining support from the local community is absolutely vital.”

Coun David Trimble, the lead member for culture on Nottingham City Council, which owns the abbey, spoke during the first part of the seminar.

He said the major cuts suffered by the council in public funding had impacted on services right across the board.

A reduction in opening times at the abbey, which attracts Byron fans from many parts of the world, has proved highly controversial.

But Coun Trimble said: “I am confident we are doing all that can be done within our limited resources to maintain and improve the abbey.

“At the same time, it is a big step forward for the WMF to become involved. It is exactly right that this has happened.”

Talks followed on how the WMF has inspired spectacularly successful projects to restore the former Gorton Monastery in Manchester and Horace Walpole’s self-styled ‘little castle’ in Twickenham, London.

From:  http://www.hucknalldispatch.co.uk/news/local-news/ambitious-scheme-to-revamp-newstead-abbey-1-5523994

Article - WMF's View on Newstead Abbey

Newstead Abbey is best known today as the ancestral home of Lord Byron (1788–1824). The original Newstead Abbey was founded by Henry II as an Augustinian priory in the twelfth century. In 1540, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the property was offered to the Byron family by Henry VIII and converted into a residence. The estate grew over time, but a large proportion of the original medieval fabric survived, including the west front, constructed in 1274, and the fifteenth-century cloisters. Later extensions were built out of stone quarried from the main church building.


The main building suffered from neglect and deterioration before being inherited by the Romantic poet, who lamented “Thou, the hall of my Fathers, art gone to decay” in the poem “On Leaving Newstead Abbey” (1807). Lord Byron sold the property in 1818 to his childhood friend Thomas Wildman, who spent much of his wealth to restore and redecorate it, and opened it to visitors. After subsequent changes in ownership, it was donated to the city of Nottingham in 1831.

Though the surrounding parklands and gardens are well visited, opening hours for the house museum have been limited due to insufficient resources. Newstead Abbey has suffered significant deterioration, and a strategy for its conservation and long-term maintenance is greatly needed. Restoration and renewed interpretation would benefit the local community and other visitors and could reinforce the historical connections to one of the world’s greatest poets.

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From: http://www.wmf.org/project/newstead-abbey

Video - At-risk warning for Nottingham's Newstead Abbey

The ancestral home of the poet Lord Byron is one of seven monuments added to a list of under-threat buildings by the World Monuments Fund (WMF).

Newstead Abbey, built in the 12th Century, is currently closed to the public six days a week and the WMF's Jonathan Foyle said it desperately needed investment to stop it corroding.

Ken Purslow, from the Newstead Byron Society, said the Nottingham City Council-owned abbey was a piece of history which needed protecting.

Carolyn Moses reports. Video at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-15190108