Arundells
Sir Edward Heath
Conservative prime minister in the early 1970s, Sir Edward Heath (1916-2005) was an avid sailor, accomplished musician and austere bachelor. Worth more than £5m at his death, he left £20,000 to the widow of his brother, £2,500 to his housekeeper, and the remainder - a hefty £5m - to the house she helped keep.
Actually, his gift was to a charitable foundation to conserve the house - the eighteenth-century Arundells in Salisbury Cathedral Close where he spent the last 20 years of his life.
As he had intended, Arundells was converted into a museum but visitor numbers - 15,000 during 2009 and 2010 - and the endowment were not sufficient to offset maintenance and other expenses.
The Arundells website announced that the Trustees "decided not to seek an extension of the planning and listed building consents for the opening of the house, which are due to expire at the end of 2010. They intend to apply to the Charity Commission for a Scheme which would allow them to discontinue opening the house and garden to visitors at the end of the 2010 season, thereafter to sell the property so that it may revert to residential use."
The proceeds of the sale will then go "to other charitable purposes provided for in Sir Edward Heath's Will. This would enable Sir Edward's legacy to be used to provide lasting benefits for musical and other educational charities in which he had a strong interest."
Arundells is scheduled to close to the public at the end of 2010.
UPDATE SEPTEMBER 2011 Reversing its earlier decision, the Charity Commission has withdrawn permission to sell the house. The Commission wants the Trustees to explore all income-raising possibilities, and a group of volunteers has offered to run the house unpaid to maintain it as a tourist attraction.
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" . . . "
"No sooner had she returned to her home in Blackfriars than
she was made aware by a succession of Bow Street runners and other grave
emissaries from the Law Courts that she was a party to three major suits
which had been preferred against her during her absence, as well as
innumerable minor litigations, some arising out of, others depending on
them.
The chief charges against her were (1) that she was dead, and
therefore could not hold any property whatsoever; (2) that she was a
woman, which amounts to much the same thing; (3) that she was an English
Duke who had married one Rosina Pepita, a dancer; and had had by her
three sons, which sons now declaring that their father was deceased,
claimed that all his property descended to them."
Virginia Woolf , Orlando (1928)
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