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Archant Norfolk 2015

A charred, scarred shell is all that remains of an historic hall that was a happy family home.

Gardens open

Oulton Hall grounds will be on show on Sunday May 31.

The property takes part in the National Gardens Scheme each year.

And despite the fire Mr Agnew has agreed to honour the date.

"We decided to do it come what may because we wanted to keep up morale among the garden staff and give them a target to work towards."

The six acre garden has been developed over the past 16 years

with herbaceous, Italian, bog, water, sunken and parterre gardens.

Every year it attracts more than 200 visitors and raises more than £1,000 for care charities.

Fiona Black, NGS Norfolk organiser, said: "I am delighted that Bolton Agnew has decided to go ahead and open his garden.

"This is incredibly generous given the circumstances and it will be welcomed by the many visitors who love to visit this very popular garden"

Oulton Hall is open on Sunday May 31 (1-5pm). Admission £5, children free. Teas and plants for sale.

But retired businessman Bolton Agnew, whose family have lived there since 1870, is determined to see it rise from the ashes to its former glory.

Just two months after Oulton Hall near Aylsham was gutted by an inferno fanned by high winds, plans are afoot to restore it in a major project which will take three years.

And Mr Agnew, 64, who had to flee the fire at the end of April is also aiming to add "mod cons" to the hall so the 18th century building is "fit for the 22nd century".

He is also carrying on with a summer open gardens day, so visitors can see the six stunning acres, unaffected by the blaze.

Guests however are likely see the hall walls braced by a skeleton of scaffolding which is due to go up, with a canopy over the top - so work can start replacing building the roof and floors.

Mr Agnew, who was born at the hall in 1950, said: "The fire was a dreadful shock. And the only way to overcome it is to get stuck into the renovation.

"The horror has receded now. It took about a month to diminish," added Mr Agnew, the fifth generation of his family to live there, speaking for the first time since the blaze.

"It was a happy family home. But the fire was so savage, because of the high winds, it went through the whole roof and dropped into the house.
Oulton Hall owner Bolton Agnew inside his fire-gutted home. Picture: ANTONY KELLY
"Eighty per cent of all the contents have been lost. We saved all the family pictures and furniture from the dining room, and others from the drawing room and kitchen - but a lot of things of great sentimental value - like ancestral paintings have gone."

Mr Agnew, who used to run vehicle leasing, rental and underwriting businesses, moved back in to the hall in 1986.

Black glazed roof tiles and stone floors would be replaced, but modern additions such as efficient insulation, double glazing and batteries to store solar power, would be added to "future proof it" and "make it fit for the 22nd century," he added.

Fifty firefighters and seven appliances were called to the blaze which started in the roof in the early hours of March 31.

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Fire gutted Oulton Hall near Aylsham will be fully restored says owner

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Archant Norfolk 2015 A charred, scarred shell is all that remains of an historic hall that was a happy family home. Oulton Hall grounds will be on show on Sunday May 31. The property takes part in the National Gardens Scheme each year. And despite the fire Mr Agnew has agreed to honour the date.

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Archant Norfolk 2015

A £6m project to restore a historic hall gutted by an inferno could be complete by the end of this year.
Oulton Hall owner Bolton Agnew. Picture: ANTONY KELLY
Oulton Hall, near Aylsham, was almost destroyed in April 2015 when a fire broke out in its roof space.

Firefighters used around three million litres of water over a seven- hour period to fight back the flames, as temperatures reached 1,000C.

Almost two years on from the incident, and work is under way to bring the 18th-century building back to its former glory.

Plans recently submitted to Broadland District Council reveal the proposed changes to its basement, ground and first floor.

Bolton Agnew, whose family have lived there since 1870, said: "It is a big job, because it was gutted by the fire. If you stand in the hall, you can look up and see the sky, because the floor and roof is gone.

"The exacerbating factor is that the building is listed, and it had many fine features. But the insurers have been good enough to restore it to its former condition."

The hall's drawing room is to be restored to its original proportion and character by the removal of a modern fragmentary partition wall.

A redundant fireplace will also be repaired with the intention to bring it back into operation.

Elsewhere, the main entrance hall and first floor landing areas will be fully restored to include the main timber staircase.

The ground-floor sitting room will also be returned to its original size and the original plaster wall finishes will be replaced.

Mr Agnew, 66, who has lived in the coach house on the grounds since the fire, said external work is likely to be completed by July.

But he believed the restoration of the interior would take longer.

"We are currently five weeks behind the plan worked up last February," he said.

"But we are reasonably confident we will make up that time, and finish the project by the end of the year."

It is understood the fire started from a hole in the chimney flue in the building's roof space. Strong winds during the night of the blaze created a vacuum, sucking gas from the fire into the roof space, which then ignited.

Mr Agnew, who is the fifth generation of his family to live there, previously said around 80pc of contents had been lost.

While he had been able to save some family pictures and furniture, other sentimental items, such as ancestral paintings, were destroyed.

The grade II-listed hall is well known as it opens its stunning grounds under the National Gardens Scheme.

Do you know a historic building near you which is being restored? Call Luke Powell on 01603 772684.

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£6m project to restore the historic Oulton Hall could be completed this year

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Archant Norfolk 2015 A £6m project to restore a historic hall gutted by an inferno could be complete by the end of this year. Oulton Hall owner Bolton Agnew. Picture: ANTONY KELLY Oulton Hall, near Aylsham, was almost destroyed in April 2015 when a fire broke out in its roof space.

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OULTON HALL, Oulton - 1051413| Historic England

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TG 12 NW OULTON HALL ROAD (west side) 3/62 Oulton Hall 19-1-52 GV II Country house. C18 and later. Stuccoed and painted brick. Black-glazed pantile roof, hipped at rear. Two storeys and attics, U-shaped plan with later infill at rear. Facade of seven bays: sashes with glazing bars and architraves.

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History & Haunting of : The Oulton Hall, Oulton, Norfolk. England,U.K The Oulton Hall Hotel is a lovely grade II listed manor house. According to legend, the area is haunted by the ghost of a...

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Recent photos of beautiful traditional craftsmanship, masonry by D J Tailby and cornice/rendering by George Cook and Sons.

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This family home was gutted by fire in 2015

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This family home was gutted by fire in 2015

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As a buildings historian I often work with conservation architects and insurance recovery specialists in the repair of damaged listed buildings. Two cases I worked on recently involved listed houses gutted by fire. Hickling Hall and Oulton Hall have their similarities as they were both constructed in the 18th century and also set in rural locations in Norfolk. The cause of the catastrophes was also very similar; both began as chimney fires. I was appointed by recovery specialists, The Austin Newport Group, who were the contract managers, quantity surveyors and project managers in both cases. They were appointed on the recommendation of the insurers. The two specialist firms of architects that Austin Newport then brought in were The Regeneration Practice and Nicholas Jacobs Architects.The first house I researched was Hickling Hall, built in the early 1700s; a red brick Queen Anne, double fronted house. It is the principal house for a farm estate extending over hundreds of acres. The Hall sits on the outskirts of the ancient village of Hickling on the Norfolk Broads.On the evening of Boxing Day 2014 the owner, who's lived there for over 50 years, lit a fire in the dining room, which was a rare occurrence. What wasn't considered was that while the fireplace and chimney were dormant, jackdaws had built a large nest of tinder dry twigs in the chimney. As a result, it didn't take long for the fire to take hold. To add to the difficulties, the remoteness of the house meant fire engines were not nearby and by the time the fire fighters arrived the flames were well advanced. Thankfully, no-one was hurt but by the morning it was clear that the main part of the house, the oldest part, the most precious part, was in ruins. In the New Year, it was decided to rebuild. The architects called upon to execute this project needed as much information as possible to ensure a faithful reconstruction.I received the call to research Hickling Hall by the appointed architects, The Regeneration Practice. They needed to know what had been built on the land before, who owned it, who lived in it (to help understand its historical context) and as much as possible about its construction. I also needed to find as many images, maps and plans of the property as possible, to fully explain its structural evolution over three centuries.

My research went back to the mid-16 th century when the estate of Hickling was handed over to secular owners by King Henry VIII, during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, having been monastic lands up until then.

There was a hall on the site of the current house in the latter part of the 16th century and then in the early 1700s was completely rebuilt. This was around the time that the Earls of Orford came into ownership. As well as being the home of wealthy tenant farmers, the house provided accommodation for when the Earl stayed for the annual Court Baron in Hickling, collecting rents and settling local disputes. But mostly it has been the principal house for a farm over several centuries, covering hundreds of surrounding acres. It is

still a modern working farm, hence the need to rebuild and allow Hickling to continue for centuries in the future. Paul Latham of The Regeneration Practice said that the rebuilding of Hickling Hall is 'to conserve the intangible value post fire; both as a work of architecture, and its special place within the communal memory of Hickling village'. The other house, Oulton Hall was built in the mid-18th century and has been the home to just 3 families since that time. Although part of a farming estate, it was always ostensibly a house for the gentry, rather than tenant farmers. For a long time in the first part of the 19th century it was the home of a well-to-do clergyman, once Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Norfolk.

Oulton Hall's disaster came on the night of March 31 2015. The owner had gone to bed when the old chimney stack caught fire and the flames spread. However, such was the direction of the fire, moving up into the roof, it was some time before the owner realised there was something wrong. When he did, he managed to get out quickly and the fire brigade was called. Yet again though, the remoteness of the property enabled the fire to spread unhindered and, like Hickling, by the morning the historic property was a shell. The house has not only been the home for the present owner since he was born, but his family has owned it since the 1870s. In this light, it was decided by the owner and his insurers to rebuild and recreate the elegance of the original house.

My brief for Oulton Hall was the same as Hickling Hall: to find out as much as possible about both the social and the structural development of the house; to inform the architects; to help them reconstruct the building. In this case, I found plans in a local archive from when the owner's great grandfather bought and remodelled the house in the 1870s. I also found beautifully detailed maps to show the changes in the building's footprint from the late 18th century. Loriana Jaconelli of Nicholas Jacobs Architects said: 'the reconstruction of Oulton Hall has been a collaborative process which has

involved the careful collation and piecing together of the complex building fabric. When complete, this endeavour will restore Oulton Hall's important heritage in both a community and familial context.' Both the Hickling and Oulton projects have required teamwork, including my collaboration, but it was also the practical and financial involvement of the insurance companies knowing the best specialists to appoint that enabled these buildings to be built again. It is a long and complicated process, but both houses will soon return to being the working family homes they have been for hundreds of years.

Ellen Leslie MA DipCons(AA) FRSA is a historian researching the social and structural history of buildings for conservation architects, other property professionals as well as private homeowners. She attained the Diploma in the Conservation of Historic Buildingsat the Architectural Association's School of Architecture and latterly an MA in Historical Research from Birkbeck College.She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
www.ellenleslie.com
Ellen Leslie Ltd

(Historic Buildings Research)

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History and background to two fire damaged country houses, Norfolk

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As a buildings historian I often work with conservation architects and insurance recovery specialists in the repair of damaged listed buildings. Two cases I worked on recently involved listed houses gutted by fire. Hickling Hall and Oulton Hall have their similarities as they were both constructed in the 18th century and also set in rural locations in Norfolk.