A well house in Asby has been restored thanks to grants totalling nearly £10,000.
Asby Parish Council was awarded a £4,712.90 Love Your Landscape grant from the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership Scheme to support conservation works to the parish’s Grade II* listed well house.
The scheme, which is funded from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, aims to engage people in revealing, conserving, enjoying and sustaining the hidden heritage of the Westmorland Dales.
The project has been undertaken in partnership with the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority (YDNPA) which contributed a further £4,712.90 to the project from its buildings at risk fund.
Peter Reynolds, senior listed buildings officer at YDNPA, said: “The Grade II* listed Well House at Grange Hall, Asby was classed on the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority’s Buildings At Risk Register as being in ‘vulnerable’ condition, primarily due to recent damage to and movement of its medieval stonework. This was considered by the authority to be a high priority case, due to the age and historical significance of the well house and its rapidly worsening condition.
“Works were carried out to carefully repair and partially rebuild some of the failed masonry, repoint with traditional lime mortar, and clear vegetation and soil from within the well house enclosure. Those repairs have now been completed to a high standard, and consequently the Well House has been taken off the Buildings At Risk Register, and this highly significant structure will continue to make a positive contribution towards the historic environment of the National Park well into the future.”
The well house structure is medieval in date, and is constructed from coursed, squared blocks. The spring rises through a square opening in the floor. The roof is constructed of large, bevelled stones in two courses, with single stones closing each course at the gables (bevelling reduces the edge of the stone “tile” to a sloping edge).
There is a monolithic stone (a single large piece of rock) with cruciform moulding on the ridge. It is orientated east-west with the entrance to the west and a small opening for light in the east wall.
Keith Cooper, Secretary of Asby History Group, said he was delighted to see the involvement of Asby Parish Council in a project to protect an important structure in a many-layered landscape, which is of historical and archaeological significance.
“One of these layers was the creation, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, of a grange – a monastic farm – belonging to the Cistercian Abbey of Byland, in North Yorkshire. Grange Hall, and the neighbouring Asby Grange, mark where buildings of this monastic farm, including the well house, once stood,” said Mr Cooper.
The conservation works were carried out by UK Restoration Services. A protecting post and rail fence, constructed by Ian Oldcorn of Great Asby, has gated access to allow users of the adjacent public footpath to easily view the Well House.
David Evans, Westmorland Dales landscape partnership scheme manager, said: “We’re delighted to be able to offer financial support to this project. Our Love Your Landscape grant fund was created to support communities just like this who share our passion for the rich heritage and unique landscape of the Westmorland Dales.”
