Members will be pleased to know that, at long last, planning permission has been given by DNPA to South West Lakes Trust to repair and modify the Iron Store close to Burrator Lodge (application 0653/11), in order to make it available for school and other groups.
The Iron Store was constructed in 1901 and was used as the works base for management of the reservoir for nearly 100 years. It was South West Water’s and DNPA’s proposed destruction of this historic building and the development of its site as a car park, with associated commercialisation of Burrator Lodge, which was one of the key factors leading to the creation of the Dartmoor Society in 1998.
In late 1998 DNPA declared the building to be of no interest ‘locally or nationally’. A member of Dartmoor National Park Authority even suggested it should be blown up with Semtex! A photograph of the Store appeared on the cover of Newsletter No.4 (February 1999), and it featured in an item in The Times newspaper of 9 December 1998. It was also discussed in an article in Dartmoor Magazine 54, Spring 1999, 20–21.
So we’ve come a long way since then, and our consistent approach would appear to have been vindicated.