Stanmer Well and Donkey Wheel

zoom

Early in 2023, the Stanmer Preservation Society was approached by David Edwards, a Historic Environment Consultant, for permission to survey the Stanmer Well and Donkey Wheel as part of his masters degree in Historic Conservation.

As we were in the process of negotiations with Land Registry and Ordnance Survey at the time, we were only too pleased to give David Edwards all the assistance he needed. By the time of his final visit, we had secured the Title Deeds, thus ensuring public access to Stanmer’s ancient village well into the future.

David Edwards had studied Ancient History and Archaeology (BA) at the University of Manchester for his undergraduate degree but was now studying for an Msc in Historic Conservation at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University. He wrote:

We have been tasked with undertaking a historic building survey, requiring internal and external access to measure and document a building in order to produce a report with drawings of elevations and floor plans.

We felt sure that this was exactly what the ancient building needed but what convinced us that David was the right man for the job was when he added:

I have known about the donkey wheel for some time as I grew up in Brighton and often visited Stanmer Park. However, on a recent trip I saw your display detailing this history of the building and followed that up with an online search.