Plumpton Rocks to reopen next weekend after Turner inspired restoration

Last updated Aug 26, 2022

Plumpton Rocks will reopen to the public next weekend after several years of restoration works — which were aided by 200-year-old sketches by the famous landscape painter J M W Turner.

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 spent 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, but covid further delayed the works.

The owner of the site, Robert de Plumpton Hunter, said it will be “lovely to get it back open again”.

He said:

“It’s a great relief to see it done. It needed a bit of a refurb.

“The lake, which was silting up, would have been lost within 10 or 15 years.”

Mr Hunter was keen to restore the site, and the lake, to how they looked in the 1750s. But with no photos available, he was fortunate to draw on art created by one of the most famous ever English painters.

Turner painted a watercolour of Plumpton Rocks in 1797 and more sketches of the site are stored at the Tate in London, which were used to inspire the refurbishment.

Mr Hunter added:

“You really got a feel of what the landscape looked like 200 years ago, and we were able to use those sketches to aid the restoration. If Turner turned up now he would absolutely recognise the landscape, that is special.”

Plumpton Rocks will be open every Saturday and Sunday from September 3 from 11am to 6pm. There are plans to open it on more days in 2023. Dates will be announced on its website.