Significant update in controversial plan to demolish last piece of Penwortham Priory estate

There has been a major update in plans to demolish the last remaining structure belonging to the Penwortham Priory estate.

Last month, a Pemission in Principal application was made to raze The Lodge in Moor Lane, Hutton, to the ground, to be replaced by two new-build homes.

The application, made by Gibraltar-based agent Robert Gifford Von Schiller, made no reference to the fact that the Lodge - used as a house for decades - was once the Penwortham Priory Gatehouse, which originally stood on Penwortham Hill and is thought to date to the early 1800s. To accommodate the widening of the A59 road, it was dismantled in 1912 and carefully re-erected in 1915 on the corner of Tolsey Drive and Moor Lane, two miles away in Hutton.

Penwortham Priory was demolished in 1925 and Hutton Hall, also owned by the Rawsthorne family and where the gatehouse was moved to, was demolished in the 1960s.

More than 260 people objected to the plans, as well as Hutton Parish Council and Preston Historical Society.

Now the plans have been withdrawn - with no reason given.

Against National Planning Policy Framework guidance

The withdrawl comes as Growth Lancashire, a stautory consultee in the planning proces, also registered their dismay at the proposals. In a letter to South Ribble Borough Council (SRBC) planning chiefs, they said The Lodge is considered to be a non-designated heritage asset (NDHA), and stated that in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), “local planning authorities should require an applicant to describe the significance of any heritage assets affected, including any contribution made by their setting.”

They said: “The proposal to demolish the Lodge would (therefore) cause a total loss of significance and would erase the last physical remains of the Rawthorne’s family estates, which is a part of the local history. It would also cause the loss of an interesting architectural feature on the street scene. No heritage statement has been provided to assess the building’s significance nor the impact of the loss of local heritage, which is thus not justified. The proposed new housing unit has no heritage merit and therefore no assessment will be made on the proposed indicative design. While the Lodge can only be afforded low significance, its loss would amount to a high level of harm which is contrary to the national guidance.”

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