Fears over future of Moggerhanger Park

The future of Moggerhanger House and park is causing concerns among residents and councillors.

More than 60 people attended a meeting at the house on Thursday last week over fears there were plans to close half of the Grade I listed building and revert it to private use – allowing the public 90 days access to the grounds.

Cllr Dr Hayley Whitaker, who attended the meeting, said: “There was a lot of strong feeling and people felt very passionately about what was being proposed. There was a lot of disquiet. There was no clear plan of what to do.”

Moggerhanger Park is owned by The Moggerhanger House Preservation Trust, a charity with the aims of preserving the Georgian house and grounds, benefiting the local community and advancing the Christian religion.

The house was designed by architect Sir John Soane and is recognised as the most complete surviving example of Soane's work, set in 33 acres of stylish grounds and woodlands sculpted by Humphry Repton.

Harvest Vision was set up by a group of Christian Ministries in the early 1990s to find and manage a centre they could operate from. Moggerhanger House was found in 1993 and the house plus 15 acres of parkland offered to Harvest Vision for the nominal sum of £1 to house the ministries provided that the responsibilities of essential repairs on the Grade II listed building, estimated to be £350k, were also accepted.

Major restoration work on the house started in 1997 and it finally opened to the public in 2005.

Cllr Whitaker said the grounds and house have historically been open to the public and it is incredibly popular with local residents from Moggerhanger, Northill and the wider areas of Sandy and Biggleswade. One woman at the meeting described how a bench in the grounds was a memorial to her later daughter and she was concerned she would not be able to visit it.

“That people won't be able to get access to the house and grounds is a travesty,” she said.

The meeting was led by Danny Stupple, a trustee of Harvest Vision and Zion Projects. Danny is also Chair of the Trustees of the Moggerhanger House Preservation Trust.

Cllr Whitaker said local residents have now taken up the matter with the Charity Commission.

The trustees of Moggerhanger House Preservation Trust have not responded to the Biggleswade Chronicle’s request for comment.