Background to the Welsh Georgian Trust

Foley House

Foley House is the most important residential building in Haverfordwest.

It was designed and built by John Nash, architect of Buckingham Palace and Regent Street, for the Foley family in 1790. Lord Nelson stayed there with Emma Hamilton in 1802 when he made a public address to the town’s inhabitants from its balcony.

It was acquired by the local council shortly after the war and was latterly used as offices for a magistrates’ court. It had been unoccupied for over ten years when the Trust was invited to see the building in early 2017.

Listed Grade II*, it has suffered from many unauthorised alterations and failed to sell after being on the open market for several years. The current owners, Pembrokeshire County Council, identified the Trust as a potential partner to take forward a scheme to save the building.

The trustees visited in early 2017 and agreed to take the project forward to a developmental stage. A grant application was made to the Architectural Heritage Fund for a Project Viability Assessment (VAR).

The report, undertaken by Donald Insall Associates, concluded that conversion back to a single residence would be the most sympathetic use for the building and would provide a sustainable long term use. However, the report projected a Conservation Deficit, i.e. the cost of repairs would exceed the market value of the building when repaired. To close this funding gap, the Trust proposed extending the boundary of Haverfordwest’s Townscape Heritage Initiative Scheme II to include the building.

The project was to restore the external appearance of the building to Nash’s original design, as it was after the war when it came into Council ownership. This would correct the subsequent unauthorised alterations which contravened listed building regulations. The building would then be sold on the open market in order to pay the restoration costs.

This proposal was agreed by Pembrokeshire County Council, the Haverfordwest Townscape Heritage Initiative and the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Townscape Heritage Initiative stipulated that their funding must be accessed by the end of March 2019 as the scheme was due to close then.

During 2018 the Trust and its professional team worked hard to develop detailed plans for the restoration and rectification of the building with the objective of completing the works by March 2019. Applications for relevant planning permission and listed building consent were submitted. Solicitors were engaged for the transfer of the property from the council and working capital finance was provisionally arranged.

As part of the planning permission process, a survey for bat activity was commissioned. This discovered that the attic housed the only known roost of lesser horseshoe bats in Pembrokeshire. Strenuous efforts were made to find a solution to allow for the bats to be undisturbed both during and after building work. This meant that the building works specification, the planning permission and the listed building consent could not be finalised until an accommodation for the bats had been agreed. Once the specification had been agreed, a minimum of three months would be required to clear the planning and consent process and go out to tender. The building works would then take a minimum of six months to complete.

During the autumn of 2018 it became clear that the delays caused by the discovery of the bats would not allow sufficient time for the project to be completed by March 2019, and consequently the source of Conservation Deficit funding would no longer be available. Accordingly the trustees came reluctantly to the conclusion that the project was no longer viable for the Trust.