Plumpton Rocks is set reopen to the public in the spring of 2022 after several years of restoration works.
The Grade II* listed parkland and man-made lake fell into disrepair towards the end of the last century before Historic England added it to the “Heritage at Risk Register” in 2012.
Since then Historic England has worked with the current owners and pumped in more than £400,000.
The visitor attraction first closed for a major programme of repairs in 2013, which included works on the parkland, the dam and on the lake. It reopened three years later in 2016.
Plumpton Rocks closed again in October 2019 to do further work on the dam and bring it up to standard for the Reservoirs Act 1975.
However, the combination of extremely wet weather and heavy machinery forced the owners to pause the works until March 2020.
Coronavirus meant that the works were only able to restart in October 2020. Today the dam restoration is complete but remedial works remain for other areas of the site.
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Robert de Plumpton Hunter, who inherited Plumpton Rocks from his father in 2010, told the Stray Ferret:
“When we started work on the dam in October 2019 the conditions were horrific. It was supposed to take three months but the conditions were so desperate.
“So we got to December and we had not made much progress. We were doing more harm than good so we stopped to restart in March 2020 but that is when coronavirus hit.
“The dam works finished in January 2021 but we need to do more work on the paths and the parkland before we reopen.
“I only want to let people in when it’s safe with coronavirus and when it is looking as good as it can be.”
Hopefully that would mean no more works would be needed for the next 100 years, he added.
Plumpton Rocks restoration timeline
- 2012 – Heritage England puts Plumpton Rocks on the Heritage at Risk register
- 2013 – Plumpton Rocks closes for restoration of lake, dam and parkland
- 2016 – Plumpton Rocks reopens after works
- October 2019 – Plumpton Rocks closes for dam improvements
- December 2019 – Dam improvements paused after poor weather
- March 2020 – Dam improvement works due to restart but pandemic restrictions begin
- October 2020 – Dam improvements restart
- January 2021 – Dam improvements completed
- Spring 2022 – Plumpton Rocks due to reopen after several years of works
