I cannot see the work taking more than an hour, or two at the most.   It is not possible, at present, to allow non-professionals into the house but this seemed a good opportunity to allow “Friends” to have a look at the back garden and see the task that confronts us.  We will have a supply of application forms and pens to sign up new Friends !

The back garden will be open to friends between 10:30-11:30am on Saturday 31st October.

YOU ARE WELCOME TO COME

Loreburn, the Dumfries & Galloway Housing Association, and the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust today announced agreement on the way forward for the proposed development of Moat Brae, one of Dumfries’ finest Georgian mansions, the garden of which was the inspiration for JM Barrie’s Peter Pan.

The Trust will now take forward a restoration project of the Moat Brae house, incorporating Loreburn’s vision to mark the birthplace of Peter Pan with a restored garden and visitor centre.

Loreburn Convener Iain Agnew commented, Loreburn’s voluntary management committee is very pleased that we secured this site for the town.   We were determined that a long neglected piece of Dumfries & Galloway heritage be brought back into good use,  whilst increasing the number of visitors to the area by finally marking the birthplace of Peter Pan.   I am certain that without our involvement and significant investment this was never going to happen.  After months of close co-operation with the Trust we feel it is now best placed to lead a restoration project that will see all of Loreburn’s objectives realised.  We urge everyone to now get fully behind the Trust to ensure that Dumfries & Galloway has an attraction of international significance.

Roger Windsor, chairman of the recently formed Trust, is delighted:  “It was Peter Pan who said ‘Dreams do come true, if we only wish hard enough’. The wishing and the hard work by a dedicated team has set us on the road. We need immediate remedial work to stop further deterioration and the Trust will be concentrating its initial efforts in raising funds to this end. Work has already commenced to re-establish “Neverland” on the banks of the Nith, and to restore this beautiful house as a cultural inspiration for the whole community. We also acknowledge Loreburn’s contribution in securing and saving the house for the benefit of the Dumfries Community, and making it available to the Trust to restore.”

International campaigner Joanna Lumley says ‘To have such a strong literary link with the greatest fairy story of all time is thrilling – I’m delighted that the efforts to save this beautiful little house for Dumfries’ sake have been successful.  They have my wholehearted support.’

The Trust has ambitious plans to restore the building designed in 1823 by the distinguished Dumfries architect Walter Newall, to its former glory and ensure it becomes a major tourist attraction for Dumfries and plays a significant part in the town’s regeneration.  The future uses for the building are likely to have an emphasis on children and literature – with ideas for a holiday flat for respite care for sick children and outreach centres for the Museum of Childhood and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. There may be an associated visitor centre, shop, and a cafe, spilling out into the garden in the summer months.  The house might also host recitals, exhibitions, and may be available for other functions.   A major public fund-raising appeal will soon be launched and plans to celebrate the 150^th Anniversary of JM Barrie’s birth next year are underway.

The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust is a company limited by guarantee, awaiting approval of charitable status.  The Registered Office of the company is c/o Primrose and Gordon, Solicitors, Irish Street.  Dumfries.

To become a friend of Moat Brae, or if you wish to support the work of the Trust  in any way, please contact friends@moatbrae.org for further details.

Barrie, who played in  the Moat Brae garden while a schoolboy at Dumfries Academy in the 1870s, said in 1924 when he received the freedom of the town:  “When the shades of night began to fall, certain young mathematicians changed their skins, crept up walls and down trees and became pirates in a sort of Odyssey that was afterwards to become the play of Peter Pan; for our escapades in a certain Dumfries garden, which is enchanted land to me, was certainly the genesis of that nefarious work.”

A show of hands at a packed public meeting, called by campaigners, confirmed everyone present was in favour of restoring Moat Brae House and its garden to their former glory.

But the support is not only local.

Save Britain’s Heritage, which fights for the preservation of historic buildings, has made an urgent plea for help and actress Joanna Lumley, fresh from winning justice for the Ghurkhas, has joined the battle.

The meeting,  in Dumfries Academy Minerva Hall on Friday , was told that the recently-formed Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust  had offered £50,000 to purchase the property from the owners, Loreburn Housing Association who have threatened to demolish it, retaining only the facade,  Restoration is estimated to cost up to £3m.

The Rector of the Academy, Mr Kenneth Glendye, made a short introductory speech of welcome in which he pointed out the Barrie connexion.  Dame Barbara Kelly, who presided,  said there had been a lot of “regrettable heat and controversy” about Moat Brae but they were not there to debate the ramifications of the recent past but to look to the future.  Roger Windsor,  chairman of the trust which organised the meeting,   said Moat Brae was closed in 1997, and sold to a developer who was determined to let it fall down to provide a site.

He said that when he realised the Peter Pan connexion:  “a wonderful attraction was lying rotting”;  he gathered few friends together and set up an action group in June 2007 to save the house and garden. A letter to the Walt Disney organisation asking for support received a frosty reply.

Mr Windsor said the group was delighted when Loreburn bought the property “for the town” .  But grant applications came to nothing and we were told the house might have to be demolished,” he added. “We were very upset and asked for a stay of execution.  Loreburn gave us three months to come up with a plan but  before the three months was up, the association decided the building had to come down.   “Conservation architects and engineers advised us that it could be saved and we applied for an interim interdict preventing it from being demolished and this was granted.”

He said the trust, formed on August 7^th, then offered to buy Moat Brae and was awaiting a reply. He told the audience: “We need to raise money, we need public support. If you don’t want it you won’t get it. My vision is to restore Moat Brae House and its gardens to their former glory”.  He ended by quoting Barrie: “Dreams do come true if we only wish hard enough”..

Conservation architect James Simpson, of Edinburgh, said he had visited Moat Brae two  weeks earlier with a construction  engineer and a quantity surveyor. The first thing that impressed him was the sheer architectural quality of the building -  designed by Walter Newall, one of the prominent provincial architects of his period.

He added: “It would be a huge disaster to lose the house. Its reduction to a facade would be completely meaningless.”  He said the building was in a somewhat sorry state caused by  water  from a lighting well in the roof and from taps or burst pipe but it was saveable.  He gave examples of other buildings “in at least as ghastly a state” which had been restored.

Describing Moat Brae as “an extremely important house”, Mr Simpson said  preserving it was  not just a Dumfries cause celebre but a national cause celebrity. Save Britain’s Heritage had made an urgent plea to save it.
He said it would be illegal to pull it down without consent and he thought funding for restoration would be forthcoming from Historic Scotland and other sources.  He estimated it would cost £25,000 to make it wind and water proof.

Trust spokeswoman Cathy Agnew said the project had to be supported by the community and the council and commissioning an options appraisal and a business plan were essential.  There were a number of exciting and realistic proposals for the building’s future use – a holiday flat for respite care for sick children, an outreach  for the Scottish storytelling centre and the museum of childhood, a Walter Newall archive and literary centre.

She said the preliminary estimate for the restoration work was between £2 and 3 million. Planning committee chairman Roger Grant said it was with great horror he heard of the plans to demolish Moat Brae.”We are looking hard at regeneration  and have decided it must be culture-led,”  he said. “The campaign to preserve Moat Brae gives me huge hope that it would be at the core of what we wanted to do.”   He gave an assurance that the council would be “as supportive as possible.”

There were numerous other contributions from the floor, all of which were supportive and members of staff from the Academy were particularly supportive. 

Frank Ryan

Time – 5:00pm

Place – The Minerva Hall, Dumfries Academy (by kind permission of the Rector)

Dame Barbara Kelly will be in the Chair

AGENDA

Welcome by Dame Barbara Kelly

The Story so Far           -        Roger S. Windsor MBE

The Building                 -        James Simpson OBE. FRIAS.

The Way Forward         -        Mrs Cathy Agnew

General Discussion

ALL WELCOME

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Poster -  we would be grateful if you would print out and put up in a prominent position – the bigger the turn-out, the greater the clout we will have with donor organisations !

Moat Brae, Dumfries

Welcome to the new website and blog for Moat Brae House, an exceptionally fine Georgian townhouse in Dumfries, Scotland.

Moat Brae was designed in 1823 by the architect Walter Newall, for Robert Threshie of Barnbarroch. The interior of the house has a particular charm and theatricality about it, arranged as it is around a circular gallery and top-lit dome over the central saloon. Newall was born in New Abbey, and spent most of his working life in Dumfries. The range and quality of his work is becoming more widely appreciated since the archive of his records was acquired by Dumfries & Galloway Council and is now in the care of the Dumfries Archive Centre.

Many will know of the house because of its connection with the story of Peter Pan. In 1873, on his first day as a pupil at Dumfries Academy, the author JM Barrie befriended the Gordon boys, sons of a local solicitor whose family were then living at Moat Brae. Stuart Gordon shared Barrie’s appetite for high adventure, and invited him to join his pirate crew… “…when the shades of night began to fall, certain young mathematicians shed their triangles, crept up walls and down trees, and became pirates in a sort of Odyssey that was long afterwards to become the play of Peter Pan. For our escapades in a certain Dumfries Garden, which is enchanted land to me, were certainly the genesis of that nefarious work.” (JM Barrie, Speech on being awarded the Freedom of Dumfries, 11 December 1924) The garden of Moat Brae house is the birthplace of Peter Pan.

Over recent years, the house and garden have, sadly, been allowed to fall into a very bad state of neglect. The house is currently owned by Loreburn Housing Association, who recently announced that the house is “a goner”, and suggested its demolition, followed by a redevelopment of the site.

An alternative proposal, however, is the setting up of a Building Preservation Trust to acquire, restore, and find a suitable and sympathetic use for the house and its garden. The Peter Pan Action Group, formed by Roger Windsor and made up of concerned and dedicated local people with a wide range of backgrounds, interests and expertise, has included and has been working with Loreburn Housing Association to ensure a positive outcome for Moat Brae. Loreburn HA have now indicated to the Peter Pan Action Group that they would be open to passing the property on to such a trust, and so a small working group of volunteers is now incorporating a Building Preservation Trust to save the house and garden at Moat Brae.

Historic buildings preservation trusts (BPTs) are charities established to preserve buildings of architectural or historic importance whose survival is threatened and for which an economically viable solution is beyond the reach of both the original owner and the normal operation of the market. BPTs are usually constituted as companies limited by guarantee and have charitable status.

WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!!!!
Please contact us if you can help in any way, or become a “Friend” of the Trust we are establishing for Moat Brae. Please email  friends@moatbrae.org if you would like to become involved; or to offer your support – specific or general, in cash or in kind. Please also let us know if you would like to be added to our mailing list.

Luke Moloney