In addition to the estates mentioned two days ago, my wife told me that the Fitzharris Manor estate also has an advent window trail.
This estate was taken over by a government ministry during WWII. After the war, houses were built on the estate for the scientists working at the nearby Atomic Energy Research Establishment (AERE) at Harwell. The old manor house still stood at the centre.
Now there is a large green space and a plaque where the house used to be. An article in the Sphere magazine in 1952 suggests that a figure in the region of £20,000 would have been needed to repair it. Local campaigners from the Friends of Abingdon contested this figure. Abingdon Town Council told the Sphere that even if the building were given to the town it would be doubtful the town could afford to repair it.
Names of nearby villages were adopted for the road names on the estate: Letcombe, Sutton, Aston, Stanford, Kingston.
The advent windows mostly keep to traditional Christmas themes.
But I did see one Scientist warning us to ‘Buy Less Plastic this Christmas’.
Ah….the manor. As one of the first occupants of Kingston Close, we managed to get into it many times!
That story of Fitzharrys Manor sounds familiar, although least Old Abbey House isn’t quite so dilapidated.
(OAH was bought – at a knockdown price – for the Borough in 1920 and used for the benefit of townspeople till 2014: it has been allowed to deteriorate – but at great expense- since then and we still don’t know what is going to happen to it now.)
When I drive by the Harwell site I see that there are a number of houses on the site all boarded up. They look as if it would not take too much to bring back to habitable condition. It seems a waste to me.
I agree, Janet, those houses are amazing – and although staff may no longer want on-site accommodation, there must be people who would like the chance to live there. Of course, they would need to make sure that the research facilities were secure, but surely that’s not impossible.
Most of the Harwell houses were sold off years ago. I think the ones that are boarded up were kept as there were plans to develop that area of the site (a hotel if I remember correctly): that was a long time ago, but there may be other plans as there is a lot of new development going on up there. However I agree, it is a shame to leave them empty and unused.
PS security isn’t an issue, they were always “outside the wire” – and the wire is long gone too!
i recall some bbc show about britains empty houses a few years ago. they actually covered the harwell houses and security turned up to ask what they were up to within a few minutes.