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