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Potting Sheds Restoration

The Potting Sheds

If you have been to Bank Hall, the Potting Sheds are located to the left of the main entrance.  They are a range of single storey rooms which as their name suggest were Potting Sheds used by the Gardeners at Bank Hall. They are on the outside of the North End of the Walled Garden and are currently in very bad state. The buildings that you see appear to have been constructed in the 1920’s but there could have been earlier buildings on the site. They are attached to the older North wall of the Walled garden and there is an entrance into the walled garden from them.  The room on the right hand side of the buildings still had in it the limestone slab which was used for potting up plants. This massive slab was stolen by thieves in 2009.  The room on the far left was the boiler room for heating the greenhouses. 

Potting Sheds - Edited Picture.jpg
Project History & The Proposed Entranceway

In 2012-2013 we prepared plans for the restoration of these buildings; obtained the required planning consents and also obtained funding. However, we could not proceed until ownership of the area was transferred to Heritage Trust for the North West. There was then a long delay and we lost the funding.  It is still our intention and that of HTNW to have these buildings restored but obtaining funding is now more difficult.  The main project – the restoration of the Hall is now nearly completed and we have turned our attention to initially providing a public access through these buildings to enable the public to both visit the Hall and continue to visit the Grounds when open. The future internal layout of the Potting Sheds may change from that originally envisaged but we now urgently need to start this initial work in the entrance.

We have now included on this page a photograph of the Sheds taken in March 2020 and also a small sketch plan of what we aim to achieve in this initial stage of the restoration of this building. The area shaded yellow is the minimum restoration work with roof and a gate across the front. Electricity and water supply also to be installed. The pedestrian route is shown by the red arrows.

Entranceway Sketch[Edited].jpg
Funding & Costs

As mentioned funding is required for this project.  The Friends of Bank Hall are committed to this project but it is difficult at this time to obtain funding. Two avenues of funding have already been explored but did not succeed. Currently two other avenues of funding are underway but these will not provide sufficient funds. The Friends group are, therefore, providing £10k towards this project which has already been raised specifically for the Potting Sheds. The overall cost is likely to be a minimum of £30k but if we can raise more than this then more or additional work can be done at this time. If you would like to donate towards this project please click go to our Just Giving Page, all donation would be a great help not matter how small.  Completing this initial work will then act as a springboard for the remainder of the building and in the future the greenhouses and walled garden which are such an important feature of this site.

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