Experts have been assessing the damage at Parnham House, a Grade I (GI) 16th Century listed stately home near Beaminster which was gutted in a suspicious fire on Easter Sunday, with the Dorset Echo reporting locally on progress.
The Dorset Echo writes:
The multi-millionaire owner of Parnham House, hedge fund manager Michael Treichl, was arrested in connection with the incident and has since been released pending further enquiries… He has denied being involved and says he wants to rebuild and restore Parnham.
Simon Hickman, the principal inspector of Historic Buildings for Dorset, Devon and Cornwall said (Parnham was) ‘too important’ not to restore. He said: ‘We very much hope it does have a future. Parnham is very capable of re-use and we hope it will continue to serve as someone’s family home for the next 500 years.’
Jenny Chesher, buildings inspector for Dorset, was on site this week and Mr Hickman said she was very familiar with the building having been involved in its restoration ten years ago. Mr Hickman said: ‘We are putting all our experts onto the case. Unfortunately, we have got quite a lot of experience of this sort of thing happening. We are able to supply the experts and determine the best course of action and minimise further loss. Discussions about rebuilding will be a long way down the line. They will take place once we know the extent of loss. We will be looking essentially at an exercise in damage limitation….’
Mr Hickman said the advice at this stage is given free. He added: ‘Buildings do rise from the ashes – but it is not up to us to make the call about whether it is rebuilt, but it has been rebuilt several times in its life…’
