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They Pulled Our House Down |
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The Salt Family
The Philips Family
Baswich House School
Demolition
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Read the opening and the end of this new history book |
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""On Tuesday 7th January 1800, a young girl, not quite twenty, was to marry her cousin John Stevenson Salt Esq., of Lombard Street, London at Baswich Church. The groom was five years older than his bride, Sarah Stevenson, who, as she was not yet twenty-one, required the permission of her father, William Stevenson of Baswich, to marry. William may have been reluctant to see his youngest daughter married, but John was a good catch by any standards and the couple had known each other all their lives as they had a common grandfather in John Stevenson. William and his nephew John Stevenson Salt were also in business together as bankers in London. Sarah’s life was to change completely. Her mother had died when she was only two so she had little idea of what happy married life would be like and she would also be leaving behind her dear elder sister, Ann. Her journey to church along Baswich Lane, with open fields stretching into the distance in all directions reminded her that this would soon be lost and replaced by the bustle and noise of London. " This new book goes on to tell how the Salt family bought "The Weeping Cross Inn", converted it into a home known as the "White House" and how after the death of John Stevenson Salt, his son Thomas built a new house know to us as "Baswich House". The book continues with stories of the Salt family until the death of Sir Thomas Salt in 1904. Baswich House then becomes the home of the Philips family and eventually it is sold and becomes a boys Prep School. In 1952 the Police buy the property and it remains in their hands until the house is demolished in March 2009. "Michael Poulter was reported as saying the building was dangerous, that the Health & Safety Executive had insisted that the site be vacated, and that it would take £1M to make it safe. The Health & Safety Executive had had enough. They were tired of reading incorrect reports. They contacted Gail Atkinson, a reporter on the “Stafford Newsletter”, keen to put the record straight. A spokesman said “Following an investigation in 2001 we agreed with the course of action to relocate staff from Baswich House by the end of 2001. We went in as a result of an accident and the authority was already in the process of moving people out. A risk assessment showed there were some aspects of the working environment which made the environment unsafe but it doesn’t make the building unsafe”. However, this revelation had come too late. Final plans for the demolition had been completed. Work was to start on Monday 9th March. One last attempt had been made to prevent the demolition going ahead. A Stafford resident wrote an urgent letter to the Chief Constable, Chris Simms, asking him to halt the start of the destruction scheduled for the following day. He tried to deliver it by hand on Sunday evening, so that it would be on the Chief’s desk first thing on Monday morning. There was no letter-box at headquarters! The letter had to be posted. An email copy was sent, but to no avail. The following morning a telephone call to his office revealed that the Chief Constable was on leave, preparing for his forthcoming interview for the post of Chief Constable of the West Midlands[1] and that there were no executive officers at Headquarters that day [or the following day] & no senior officers were available to speak to him.
What about the Chairman of the Police Authority? Was he available? No, he was on his way to London to receive his M.B.E. for services to the community! Perhaps the Chief Executive of the Police Authority was available? No, he was on leave in France! The contractors moved in, no-one was prepared to stop work going ahead, and gradually the building was stripped of its panelling, carved fireplaces and beautiful doors. Although on police property and surrounded by security fencing, Baswich House, over the following three weeks, was visited on a regular basis by several Staffordshire residents. Within days of the start of demolition, photographs appeared on the internet showing that although the house had been neglected and misused by the police authority, it was not in a dangerous state. The president of the national conservation charity, “Save Britain’s Heritage”, Marcus Binney said of the demolition, “it is a disgraceful example of the needless destruction of public property by a public authority.” The Finale tells how the Chairman of the Police Authority lost his County Council seat and records the decision of the Planning Authority when dealing with an application to build houses on the land.
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