Damp damage in one of the Lake District's oldest buildings

Border
Townend House
National Trust
And Finally
Monday 31 August 2015 at 9:00am

Townend House Credit: ITV Border

Staff at the National Trust say they're "devastated" to have discovered wet rot in the beams of one of the Lake District's oldest buildings.

Townend House in Troutbeck near Windermere is a Grade 1 listed building and has to be preserved as it is, as it is one of the few unchanged examples of 16th century Lake District life.

A major fundraising campaign is underway to save the building.

Town End was lived in by the Browne family, who were a sheep farming family in the area.
We don't know exactly how old the house is but we know the family were living here in 1525 because of the records they kept going back to that date.
They were already quite wealthy in the 1500s and they went on to build up an 800 acre farm of mainly sheep but also a few cows and a few crops.
They were already quite wealthy in the 1500s and they went on to build up an 800 acre farm of mainly sheep but also a few cows and a few crops.
There were 12 generations of the family living in Town End. The last lady was Clara Brown and she died in 1943.
In 1947, after it was bequeathed to the government it was given to the National Trust to look after
20,000 visitors view it each year.

Townend House Library Credit: ITV Border

Wet rot has taken hold of many of the oldest beams in the house and replacing them will cost at least £100,000 but may creep higher if more damage is found.

The house will be closed from March to August or September, but first the money needs to be raised. So far, visitors have donated £5000.

Damp damage at Townend House Credit: ITV Border

Wet rot at Townend House Credit: ITV Border

So wet rot basically appears obviously in the presence of moisture and attacks the wood, it crumbles and becomes unstable. We're taking a really detailed series of photographs so we know where all the slates go, where the stone goes, where the wood goes: it's giving us a fascinating picture of the property. We will then create this sort of tent that the building is protected by, and we then construct a large cantilevered structure, which will be balanced by large water tanks. Obviously doing that is immensely disruptive inside so we will be taking all the contents out as best we can. Unfortunately the main table in there is so big - it was built in the room - it's so big we can't actually take it out so we'll have to work around that. Once we've done that the beams will come out, we then replace them with new beams, which we're trying to source at the moment."

Townend House Credit: ITV Border

Just packing up all of the books will cost at least £5000 because it has to be done in a special way that protects them.

It's the National Trust's third most important library: it's oldest book dates from 1548 and 45 of them are the only ones left in the world.

But the good news is workmen might discover more about this building's history such as it's age and the way it was built.

Townend House Credit: ITV Border