National Trust announces 12 month closure of entrance at Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal near Ripon
The National Trust has announced the appointment of The HACS Group to deliver a "once-in-a-generation project" at a UNESCO World Heritage Site at Fountains Abbey.
The £5.8 million Studley Revealed scheme is one of the most significant projects to ever be undertaken at the Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal estate and represents a major investment in the future of this internationally important landscape.
Recent decades have seen the historic site’s original Georgian garden design, known for its carefully-orchestrated vistas, glimpses and dramatic reveals, become obscured by later additions, including an assortment of temporary buildings, fencing and overgrown planting.
The current visitor facilities are increasingly unable to meet accessibility standards or accommodate visitor demand, particularly during peak periods.
Studley Revealed will remove a number of these intrusive elements, reopen lost views across the landscape and provide improved facilities, including accessible toilets, an enhanced café and interpretation spaces to help visitors discover the story of the water garden and its global significance.
Justin Scully, General Manager of National Trust Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal said: “Studley Revealed represents a once-in-a-generation investment in the future of this remarkable World Heritage Site.
"The project will help us better care for the landscape and create visitor facilities that are worthy of a World Heritage Site for the millions of people who will continue to enjoy this special place in years to come.
"As a conservation charity, we're committed to protecting the heritage of Studley Royal while helping visitors understand and enjoy what makes it so special.”
The appointment of Ripley-based The HACS Group marks a return to a landscape the company has helped shape before.
In 1984, HACS played a key role in a major project to dredge and restore Studley Lake.
The major redevelopment will see the creation of new visitor facilities at the Studley Royal entrance and will necessitate a 12-month closure of the entrance and tea-room from Monday, September 7.
The project team also includes award-winning heritage architects Feilden Fowles, whose previous work includes projects at Natural History Museum, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and the National Railway Museum, alongside landscape architects RankinFraser, specialists in delivering award-winning schemes within historic landscapes.
Together, the design team has developed proposals that carefully balance conservation, accessibility and visitor experience, while responding sensitively to one of the most important designed landscapes in Europe.
Maelys Garreau, Senior Architect, Feilden Fowles said: “Studley Revealed reconnects an 18th-century masterpiece with its original landscape, reuniting the deer park and garden, reinstating the Georgian sequence at its true entrance, while enhancing accessibility and climate resilience across the site."
Main visitor routes through the estate and entry through the Visitor Centre and West Gate will be unaffected during the redevelopment and the car park at Studley Royal will also remain open for visitors to the deer park.
Lilla Bathurst, Manager at Ripon BID, said the multi-million pound project could boost visitor numbers not only to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal but to the city of Ripon itself.
"Once completed, the Studley Revealed project will attract more visitors to the beautiful splendour of the water garden and the spectacular abbey ruins.
“We hope that those who come to enjoy this unique site, will also find time to come to Ripon and the cathedral where in 1132 a group of 13 Benedictine monks set off on a walk along the banks of the River Skell and eventually found the perfect place to build their abbey.”