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Bloodhounds may fail to save manor under threat
Moves by a leisure company to demolish the ruins of a Yorkshire Victorian kennels where bloodhounds were bred to catch Jack the Ripper have raised hackles.
Whitbread, which took over Scalby Manor in Burniston Road, Scarborough, more than a decade ago now wants to bulldoze the outbuildings to make way for a 37-bedroom hotel.
Planners are recommended to approve the scheme when they meet on Thursday but there are national and local objections from those keen to preserve the seaside town's connection to Jack the Ripper.
Only a false wall separates the existing pub restaurant from what remains of Scalby Manor, formerly a stately home called Wyndyate built in 1885 for Edwin Brough, who bred bloodhounds before the days when police had any of their own.
Sir Charles Warren, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at the time of the Whitechapel Murders in 1888, was facing mounting criticism and heard of Mr Brough's reputation.
He requested two trained bloodhounds, Barnaby and Burgho, be taken to London for trials in Regents Park. The results were encouraging but the Ripper's next victim, Mary Jane Kelly, was found the day after her murder when the trail was cold.
The story, credited by many as having helped lay the foundations of the police dog section, has led to objections against the kennels and stable becoming casualties of the hotel scheme.
Sussex-based Elen Richards, of The Blood Hound Club, said: "The property has great importance to the club since it was the home of Edwin Brough, the foremost breeder of bloodhounds of his time.
"It is a good example of a gentleman's house in the late 19th century especially due to the survival of the outbuildings, which include the kennels where the dogs were kept."
David Crease, of Scampston, near Malton, of the Association of Bloodhound Breeders, added: "The outbuildings are important historically as well as architecturally as the property
was built by Edwin Brough, the foremost bloodhound breeder of the time and prominent local figure.
"Such a complete survival of domestic livestock buildings is rare and these are an interesting set of what were model buildings for the time. No others survive as far as is known."
He is calling for Whitbread to develop an alternative site parallel to the Scalby Manor's western boundary which would spare the outbuildings from demolition.
Scarborough Civic Society said it considered "the whole ensemble worthy of retention as an uncommon local survival of a modest 19th century gentleman's estate".
Scarborough Council planning officers say the proposed hotel would be a valuable new tourist facility and while the outbuildings are of local historical significance it has not been sufficient for them to be listed.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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