These wonderful relics of medieval deer husbandry are on their way to becoming a Scheduled Ancient Monument we hope!

Alton Town Council voted unanimously last night to use funds contributed by The Alton Society, The Alton Building Preservation Trust, and Beech and Chawton Parish Councils, plus money of their own, to apply to Historic England for a 'pre-listing screening'.  Our information is that if Historic England give the go ahead, the money spent will serve as an investment into the process anyway.

A fascinating and valuable historic asset to Alton may, we hope, get the attention and preservation it deserves.

Apart from the historic value of these pales, they may form some sort of constraint to the 1200 houses planned for Chawton Park Farm. 

The Barrister’s opinion obtained in September 2021 by Alton Town Council stated: “Scheduling would of course have a significant impact on the potential to allocate the land, depending upon its extent and the setting.”

The original 2019 Sites Assessment said Chawton Park Farm is “beyond 500m from the nearest Scheduled Ancient Monument (Medstead Camp, 2.7km)”.  If it was within 100m of a Scheduled Ancient Monument this would give it another red flag to add to the 4 it already has, thereby making it equal 6th place in suitability with Whitehill & Bordon, rather than where it currently is – 5th place. 

Here is an example of a listed Deer Park Pales in Hampshire: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1019124?section=official-listing

It's near to Hursley Park, south west of Winchester.  You can see it annotated on the Ordnance Survey map. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ke8Mqdg4aZoMHvWFoJTO6CljaW8fryw-/view?usp=sharing

Thanks for all the new support for the Petition!  We are nearly at 4,200 signatures now!  

With best wishes to you all,

The Say NO Campaign