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SettingMH

Page history last edited by PBworks 16 years ago

The Setting of Monteagle House

 

It will be apparent from the Listing History that when the survey for the original listing was carried out, sometime before December 1951, that the building now known as Monteagle House was the farmhouse of a 69 acre farm. Walter Phillips, a member of the Guild of Fletchers and Citizen of London had accumulated this land-holding for the house by the purchase in 1689 of about 30 acres from the Cave family and, in 1694, he purchased for his wife's jointure about another 30 acres or so of productive farmland from the Smallpiece family. All the farmland could be seen from the house. So, if settings had been a consideration at the time of listing, it could have been claimed that the setting of the listed building on 1 July 1948 was the 69 acres of its own farmland. At the time of the publication of the original citation in July 1952 the land belonging to the house had only just been reduced to about 9 acres, mostly to the rear (west) of the house. However in order to protect the setting and amenity of the house the 1951 conveyance had included covenants over land to the north of the house, stretching as far east as Monteagle Lane. It is debatable whether the setting of the listed building when originally listed was the whole of the 69 acre farm owned on 1 July 1948, or just the 9 acres of its own land on 8 Jul 1952 -- plus a cordon sanitaire around the building partly consisting of the covenanted land.

 

Such a debate is now academic since Hart District Council allocated Monteagle Farm as development land in the 1st Hart Local Plan. With the exception of the covenanted land all the previously owned farmland to the north and west of the listed building is now the housing estate known as Monteagle Park. A minimal cordon sanitaire was initially preserved round the house, as public open space, as a result of decisions by two planning inspectors. However Hart District Council issued a development brief which necessitated that the housing estate developer should create a thick tree-screen around the house immediately up to the boundaries of the garden. Hart then granted itself planning permission to erect a Red Cross Headquarters and Scout Building within the cordon sanitaire. Of course all this was prior to the issue of PPG15 in September 1994. All the recent development was however approved after the seminal circular of 1977 first calling for the protection of the setting of listed buildings.

 

Today, views to and from the house are thus largely restricted to and from its own garden.

 

This restriction of the setting to a few yards from the house is in complete contrast the extensive historic views to and from the house. Before the new estates were built it was possible to see Finchampstead Church and Ambarrow to the north. In fact it was even possible to see the lights of Reading at night. At the public inquiries in the 1980s the present owner was able to quote the earliest known written description of the house from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1794, Volume Vol LXIV Part II:

A farm-house in this tithing is said to have been in former times the residence of Lord Montegle, but of this there is no internal evidence. It is a small old building, standing upon a hill, with a good prospect.

Camberley News (9 Nov 1928) contained an article about the alleged association of Monteagle House with the Gunpowder Plot, but also contains a telling description of its setting when owned by Col. Lowis and his wife:

Monteagle Farm, as it is now called, is situated on the fringe of the common known as the Hartford Bridge Flats and is, more or less, off the beaten track of the majority of visitors to Yateley. The house itself stands in its own grounds, about 100 yards off the Back Lanes, and is situated on the side of a picturesque glen. Its surroundings are decidedly rural and, as may be imagined, are delightfully restful.

This indeed remained a good description of the setting when the present owners purchased the remaining 1.25 acres in Dec 1976.

 

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