UPDATE APRIL 2006

The present owner of the Priory Farm, Mrs. Clair Hadgraft, has recently reported to me the failure of her negotiations with English Heritage and the East Riding of Yorkshire council planning authority. The reasons for withholding permission to redevelop the site are unclear, and apparently even based on erroneous or spurious assumptions or opinions. All this delay, this red-tape, is costing the fabric of the building very dear indeed. A recent school expedition to the locality was headed by teacher, Emma Mattinson, who provided this image of the building taken in March this year (2006), and to whom go my sincere thanks for permission to reproduce it here.

As a neutral bystander, I find it extraordinarily difficult to understand why this historic building is simply being allowed to crumble away by the very bodies that are meant to preserve such things. It really does make one wonder if there is not perhaps some hidden agenda that is prepared to witness the total destruction (by degrees) of the building for some other purpose. Not that I am in any way a conspiracy theorist, but the signal failure to put in place some feasible method of protecting and preserving this building warrants comment. I therefore invite both English Heritage and the East Riding of Yorkshire County Council Planning authority to comment on the matter, and clarify their position.

Richard Hayton

© 2006

Designed by Richard Hayton 2006
email hayton@hayton.karoo.co.uk