Restoration Intern Reconstruction, Reconstruction, Reconstruction

17 August 2015

When the National Trust got its hands on New Inn in 2005, it was the most-at-risk Grade II listed building in Buckinghamshire. Roofs and floors had collapsed, beams were exposed and weeds choked the brickwork. Since business had declined in the 1850s, New Inn and its outbuildings had been turned to farm buildings, but 150 years of neglect had not been kind to it.

Restoring New Inn actually involved reconstructing many of the buildings. Rather than ‘relocation, relocation, relocation’, the National Trust wanted to maintain historical accuracy and authenticity. Foundations were located and the structures reconstructed on the existing imprint of the dilapidated and disappearing buildings. Today we very literally follow in the footsteps of the eighteenth-century visitor.