<strong>Other lives:</strong> Conservator specialising in ceramics who worked for the museum service in Bristol and later for National Trust South West
Campaigners hope to preserve public access to Shute Barton manor house
- Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Campaigners opposing the National Trust’s plans for the permanent closure to the public of the Shute Barton medieval manor house are due to meet a Trust official later this week.
A petition set up to fight the controversial proposal quickly reached more than 750 signatures and the issue made headlines in the national press.
The protest was triggered when the National Trust announced in a letter to Shute Barton volunteer guides that the house would become exclusively a holiday property and that the general public would no longer be able to access it. The letter, from David Ford, the Trust’s general manager for South and East Devon properties, also informed Shute Barton guides that their services would no longer be required. The Trust blamed Covid-related cutbacks for the closure. The decision was made without any public consultation.