My Short Pilgrimage to Undershaw

I took a stroll down to Undershaw yesterday. To my disappointment, the building still appeared to have no real security as I noticed bottles and beer cans strewn in the driveway. A clear indication of unwanted visitors. Broken windows still hadn't been boarded up thus allowing the winter elements to attack the building for another stretch. It was most apparent that signs of development had not commenced.

I was armed with a camera and took several general photo's within the grounds, but nothing of great importance. The biggest surprise was a massive plant that I found in amongst the overgrown trees. It looked like some sort of bog/pond plant, probably put there by the hoteliers. I can't imagine it being there in Conan Doyle's time although it towered above me like some sort of giant octupus, it could be several years old, but how many?

Stephen Fry and Twitter

He has done it again! Not only the statement he supplied us back in March, which incidentally can be seen on our website www.saveundershaw.com but Mr Fry has backed us with a tweet on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenfry/status/25681586867 which has caused a massive response to the website and our Facebook page. The tweet actually caused the flow of traffic to the site to increase in a couple of days by 1,500% which apparently was a mega occurence and totally unheard of. When I received this piece of news from my web designer I automatically went into overdrive and thought 'Guinness Book of Records' and what publicity for Undershaw this would be. Sadly my thoughts were dashed when I received an e-mail saying although this was mega, it was not enough to make the record books. Whilst on the subject of the lovely Mr Fry, he has been cast as Mycroft in Guy Ritchie's sequel.

Since Monday of last week the Facebook page has increased from 77 to 552 which was all down to the help from Mr Fry. We held an Awareness Day on Facebook on 1st October calling on all our friends to post the link. In response to this we had a further 52 visits to the Facebook page.

The comments on the website were also incredible, since Monday we received over 100 comments from all over the world. Your comments on this site are very valuable to us so please continue to let us know what this building actually means to you and your thoughts on Waverley's decision to allow the development.

The Judicial Review

The Trust has today received confirmation from Waverley that full planning approval has now been granted for the development of Undershaw. This is a clear indication that the owners have complied with the conditions set out by the Council.

Since hearing the news the Trust have been in urgent discussions with the barrister dealing with the case. An application applying for a Judicial Review in the High Court will be submitted and we hopefully anticipate that it will be granted.


Also paperwork is being prepared for an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman as to the dreadful way in which Waverley have presided over the complete dereliction of Undershaw for the last 5 years. (The two photographs show here Undershaw in its hey day and several years later its demise under the care of the local authorites and its owners).

Should we be successful or unsuccessful whatever the case, at least we will know that justice was sought and the right decision was made. If we stand back and do nothing - we will never know.

ITV London News - Follow-up

I heard from the ITV reporter today who informed me that the International Library Sales Department loved the news item recently shown on ITV London News (which incidentally can be viewed on our website: http://www.saveundershaw.com/) and that they will be checking to see how many countries this broadcast went out to. At the moment the link can only be viewed within the UK. I will endeavour to find out whether the link can be made available to those following the twists and turns of the Undershaw campaign outside of the UK and perhaps a feature on YouTube.

ITV London News

The Trust were interviewed and filmed yesterday for a feature on ITV London News which may be shown as early as tonight. I will keep you all updated. We spoke about the pending Judicial Review which incidentally we have instructed our barrister to proceed. We have reasons to believe that Waverley Borough Council are now fairly happy that the owners have complied with all conditions that were attached to the planning approval.

It was distressing to see how easily it is for vandals to get in and destroy what little there is left of this iconic building. There were signs that vandals had been in recently and trashed the site even further. Again no security on the building and the gate at the top of the drive left open for anyone to enter the grounds. We have tried on numerous occasions to alert Waverley Borough Council of this and sadly the owners are not protecting this site or the building sufficiently to counteract further acts of vandalism. It is a total disgrace on our English Heritage to allow such a dreadful crime to be committed to what should be our heritage and something that should prosper for another 100 years or more.