192 BR. J. ENT. NAT. HIST., 6: 1993 



Then there was controversy over the route for rainwater drainage, because the 

 volume was thought to be too great for the existing system to cope with. This had 

 to be across the neighbouring property 'High Chimneys' to a garden pond; the local 

 authority met the additional costs incurred. 



It was revealed in May that a mistake had been made about the water authority 

 for the area — it was Thames, not Mid Southern (they had previously estimated costs 

 without realizing that they were not responsible); costs would be higher and we then 

 found that they expected our builder to lay the connecting run to the country park 

 boundary. This took some time to sort out and the delay in providing a water supply 

 to the building held up the commissioning of the air conditioning sytem. 



Problems with the design of the roof trusses were overcome; then on 3rd June we 

 learned that the subcontractor supplying the windows and doors had gone into 

 liquidation (just after delivery of parts) and some accessories took a long time to 

 arrive from Belgium. 



It was also found that the air conditioning plant was larger than envisaged and it was 

 found to fill most of the roof space requiring the relocation of the access hatch from the 

 lobby to the collections room. Any hope of storage space in the loft disappeared. 



Another minor diversion arose when the VAT inspector visited the builder and 

 insisted that we were liable to pay VAT on the building. Fortunately, they were soon 

 persuaded that our charitable status removed this obligation. 



During this building period five monthly site meetings were attended by myself 

 and usually by Stephen Miles and/or John Muggleton, so we kept in touch with 

 progress as the problems outlined above came and went. In May we learned that 

 Diane Menzies was leaving and Richard Stevens arrived to become the third country 

 park manager since the inception of the project. 



The building was finally handed over to us on 28th August 1992, with the air 

 conditioning only just operational and the burglar alarm not yet connected. Several 

 visits were made by both subcontractors before these systems were pronounced to 

 be running satisfactorily. Because of prior arrangements with Pickfords, the library 

 and some other effects had to be installed during that period but delivery of the 

 collection was held back so that the collections room could be used for the storage 

 of the tea chests containing the books. 



Then on 14th October, only a few days after the burglar alarm had been connected 

 to the company's office and less than two weeks before delivery of the collections 

 was due, I was told at 9.30 p.m. that the alarm had been activated. On arrival at 

 the building, I found a flood entering the collections room via the loft hatch, from 

 a leak in the air conditioning plant. Water had entered the controls of the alarm. 

 Morris & Young and the manufacturers of their plant sent representatives on the next 

 day; the latter was astonished to find that a water tank had been installed vertically 

 instead of horizontally (not the cause of the leak). Several other installation faults 

 were discovered on previous and later visits, but it is getting better all the time! 



The burglar alarm also went off on 22nd December, this time when the telephone lines 

 were brought down by a lorry delivering materials to the golf course. The green keeper 

 told me that they had been delivering for years and this had never happened before. 

 Evidently they had not noticed the building; it will hopefully be less inconspicuous 

 when Andrew Halstead's landscaping of the surroundings comes to fruition. 



It has been a long drawn out process, far more involved than I had anticipated three 

 years ago, and no doubt further problems remain to be solved. It is to be hoped that these 

 efforts will be rewarded by the building becoming an asset to the Society for years to come. 



Peter Chandler 



